Went back to kluang for lee yen's wedding last weekend. i don't know why i love this town so much. is it because that's where i grew up? is everyone like that about their childhood home?
me and lynn went back to convent. i don't really know why. probably because we all miss school so much. probably everyone sniggers when i mention kluang - but almost everyone i know, from all the convent girls, the uncles and aunties, folks from stk, always say what a lovely place kluang was to stay in and how they all want to grow old there.
i remember the simple life. there wasn't even a mcdonald's in town until i was in high school. so i never figured out all that jazz about fast food. the town was full of cheap ah lian cloths and pirated dvds and yumcha places. i didn't even know what gucci was until boarding school, to this day, i could care less about brands. people had breakfast at the railway station and everyone knew you or your parents or your sister. nowadays people has gotten so zealous about religion and politics and money, old values and old relationships mean less than pride.
i remember the innocence. how totally multi racial everyone was. i could sing indian songs when i was 3. almost all my friends were chinese in high school. and i never noticed this. wouldn't know the difference.this is the tree which i sat under, reading while waiting for my mom every day.
convent's changed. you can never get back your childhood. the principal isn't a nun anymore. no sister mary to drill "i want, i can, i will, with god's help anything is possible." i suppose today's society would take offence because that slogan uses the word God. sometimes i wonder if we're going backwards with how much everyone is trying too hard to be pious.
me and lynn went back to convent. i don't really know why. probably because we all miss school so much. probably everyone sniggers when i mention kluang - but almost everyone i know, from all the convent girls, the uncles and aunties, folks from stk, always say what a lovely place kluang was to stay in and how they all want to grow old there.
everyone has the same look of nostalgia and love when talking about this place. it's such an ordinary little town but it has inspired so much. i wonder what that's about.
i remember the simple life. there wasn't even a mcdonald's in town until i was in high school. so i never figured out all that jazz about fast food. the town was full of cheap ah lian cloths and pirated dvds and yumcha places. i didn't even know what gucci was until boarding school, to this day, i could care less about brands. people had breakfast at the railway station and everyone knew you or your parents or your sister. nowadays people has gotten so zealous about religion and politics and money, old values and old relationships mean less than pride.
i remember the innocence. how totally multi racial everyone was. i could sing indian songs when i was 3. almost all my friends were chinese in high school. and i never noticed this. wouldn't know the difference.this is the tree which i sat under, reading while waiting for my mom every day.then everyone gets out of kluang and they see how ugly the outside world is, how people judge and segregate and label. and they learn the hard way that life isn't always so innocent.
i wonder if that's because i was a child or because of the environment i grew up in.
convent's changed. you can never get back your childhood. the principal isn't a nun anymore. no sister mary to drill "i want, i can, i will, with god's help anything is possible." i suppose today's society would take offence because that slogan uses the word God. sometimes i wonder if we're going backwards with how much everyone is trying too hard to be pious.oh well. i sat on the astaka and lay down on the cold simen and closed my eyes. the breeze felt the same, and the chirping. and i really feel 16 again. full of hope and laughter and freedom.
the world is my oyster.
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