This whole week on the Red FM Breakfast Show, we've been reliving our youth by talking about exams and studying, favourite snack foods and so on... and for the Skool Daze party, we had to dig out our old pics from school and I came across these two. They were taken back in the 80s when I was still in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia attending what was then called the Continental School. It's now called the British International School of Jeddah. Can you spot me?
Mrs Law's class - J2
Mrs Hayes' class - J3
Back then, I didn't know about "tension" when exams came around and 20 students in a class were already considered a lot. So you can imagine the culture shock I experienced when I came back to Malaysia on my own to start anew in JB in Form 1 in a public school where that figure doubled in my class! I had to switch from speaking English to Malay, a language that at times still feels very foreign to me. I’ve adapted quite well though since then, of course. I can sound very "makcik" if I want to.
Form 2 - hint : I'm one of the girls wearing a tudung!
But would I want to relive my childhood years and go back to the days of my youth? Actually, no. I don’t miss waking up in the mornings to get to school (although now I have to wake up even earlier to get to work!), I don’t miss the lessons or the exams or the tuition classes, I don’t miss standing in line outside for assembly… I remember back then that I just couldn’t wait to be done with school and just grow up. So I’m quite content with things as they are now.
Still, looking at these old pics of my school days does bring a smile to my face…
