ACS

you see, ac is a bloody hax school right from the very start. the only way to get into the primary school is to either stay 5m away from the actual school, or to have a parent who had graduated from an acs related institution before. so in good ol' 94, my father enrolled me in what he thought would be the best education for his son, since he himself had received it.

so in primary 1 i walked into my classroom in the first level of the clocktower block in the barker road campus with some sort of apprehension, unsure of what the school held ahead for me. it was pretty thrilling though, being such young kids, and the campus so old and huge, we would spend recesses trying to explore the school, play catching but never finish the game because of the sheer size of the compound, or dare each other to run up the spooky clocktower staircase. haha, it was a pretty fun childhood. acps also shared the campus with the secondary section, acs (barker). even when i was 7, when i looked at the way those guys behaved, i kinda made up my mind not to continue in that school. little did i know that 6 years later, it would be the very school i had entered. maybe instead of playing catching, i should have studied a little harder.

but barker wasnt as bad as i thought it would be. if anything, it transformed me. it taught me faith, it thought me to dream, and to hope. although i cant testify much about the "value added"-ness of the school, because academically, i decreased in value, i can say i learnt much more than math and english in that school. acs barker was also the place where my relationshop with god grew. in primary school, i would attend chapel and listen to devotions, but not really appreciate what was being shared. perhaps it was how god gave me so many chances in those four years, and so much hope. barker was also the placed i met my best friends, the ones i could really trust, the ones whom i know wouldnt desert me for all the money in the world( but probably for a dota game they would). i met 4a3, the best class i could ever wish for (until 2se1?), 4a3 was a bloody good experience, ill remember those boys forever.

acjc was a different experience altogether. i mean like suddenly, CO-ED. damn scary, i suppose we were all suddenly very self conscious, but in time we all got used to it. of course, being from barker, we all had to get used to paying attention and cutting our hair. but it was all good for us. if barker created me, acjc refined me. meeting the acsi guys were a shock. i mean, we were primary school friends after all. how could 2 schools stand for the same values, but yet be so far apart? academically? in terms of student behaviour? public opinion? i seemed to be blessed with being put in great classes. i met 2se1, 2se1 are a great bunch of people, if you take away one of us, you wont have a complete class. these folks made my acjc experience complete, they make my want to go to class daily, cause its so damn fun. im sure we'll all do well for our A levels :)

when good ol oldham made acs in 18 something (its too long ago i forgot), i daresay he never expected it to expand into an entire family of 6 schools. but acs is not just an institution, thats too empty a word. acs is an identity, every person who passes through its gates will learn something from that experience. every boy who's life its changed will forever have the values the school stands for deeply imbued within him.

i know it sounds damn corny, this school has changed my life, its made me who i am. because its the only school i know. i also know there'll always be people like zhihuan who hate the school as much as we love it, but at least we know why. you can also find these breed of people in acjc, unhappy, disgruntled, full of hate, these are the people who dont want to be here. oh yes, you'd be suprised, so many kids appeal every year trying to get in, yet there are people within the school who hate it. they'll never find their place in our culture, because they didnt want to.

im damn freaking proud of this heritage. and im gonna preserve it as long as i can, even after i leave the school.

:) cheers and happy baccalaureate

next post on pictures taken tmr!