Saturday, December 13, 2008
Performance during soccer today wasn't too good and I think the lack of match fitness is getting to me. One can complain that the late morning or afternoon sun affected my play but I'm certainly not one who likes to give excuses. Chances were aplenty and I could have scored a couple more if only I've kept my composure. Well, more match practices to come and I've got to make the most of it.
I found Keith's friend today at the court very very familiar. When I found out that he's from acs(I) as well, I started to mentally think of where have I seen him before. My first thought that he was some squash senior back in JJC and but he told me he left NJC after his o levels so I guessed I made a mistake back there. However, I'm certainly not one to give up and the familarity hinged on my mind for quite some time before I finally made the connections. Zhi Wei was 2 years older than me and he was my band senior back in acs(I). By the way, he plays the french horn as well. The moment I mentioned that instrument, it didn't take long for him to remember who I was.
We started talking about old times and well, it was really a trip down memory lane. Both of us agreed that the only thing to look forward to for band practices or camps was the soccer. I'm an active person and come to think of it, how did I ever survived sitting down with my instrument for up to 4 hours at one stretch. The seniors' proficiency in soccer was really way above my batch and the subsequent ones and well, I told him that after his batch graduated, the level just got lower and lower, sad truth. I didn't really get a chance to talk to him much except during the rest time when our team wasn't playing but I discovered that after his a levels in NJc, he probably didn't pursue tertiary education in university but went on to work (currently managing his own business). For reasons why, I didn't really ask because it wasn't nice to do so at only our first meeting.
When the other opponents left the court, we decided to end it off with a acs(I) 1986 versus acs(I) 1984. Mind you, it was a good game but the older guys eventually ran out of steam since they seldom work out. Come to think of it, the acsian network really spreads worldwide and no matter where you go in the world, there's bound to be a Singaporean who used to be an acs boy. Most of my friends are now concentrated in Australia, London or the States. Be it for university or for the foreigners who didn't have to serve their national service, they've already started working. I still remember the other time I went with Daniel to seek help for his appeal to take music as his AS2. The moment the NIE professor learnt that we were acs(I) boys, the conversation got alot more casual and the atmosphere was not that tense. The professor even started to talk about his secondary school days and promised to try everything within his means to get Daniel his place in the music course.
I guess there's this invisible bond that gels past and present acsians together in this society of ours. My only wish is that the juniors of mine will continue to not just keep alive this bond but also strengthen it.
