The First Day

HL811 Imagining Singapore

Semester 2 2006/2007

Assignment A

Title - The First Day

The sight of students, each wearing uniforms from their various former schools, streaming into the school compound greeted me the moment I stepped off the bus. The date was 2nd January 2000 and it was my first day in junior college.

Having done rather well for my preliminary examinations in my former school, I was given a choice of enrolling for the 1st 3 months in a junior college or enjoy the long hiatus from school till the �O’ level results were released. I chose the former. Being from a single sex school in my primary and secondary school life, life in junior college was starting to appeal to me. The main reason – companions of the fairer sex.

Joining the endless flow of students in making their way to the main auditorium, the sight of a familiar face was a rather pleasant one. Grinning from ear to ear, I made my way over to the tall lanky figure. Daniel was a friend I had known since my days in secondary school. We lived a good 5 minutes walk from one another and seeing him only meant one thing. Bus rides to school were never going to be lonely affairs again.

By the time we reached the main auditorium, Daniel and I were joined by several more secondary school mates. Instinctively, we formed a clique and joined the many already formed cliques waiting in the auditorium. The first thing we had to do was to register ourselves. Filling in the countless forms which the school had prepared for us was a chore I was desperate to get over and done with. With the completion of the arduous task, we were each assigned an orientation group number. My new clique was disassembled as quickly as it was formed and each of us was led away to our various orientation groups.

My orientation group was sitting by the corner of the auditorium in a neatly formed circle. With a shy smile, I positioned myself in the largest empty space I could find within the boundaries of the circle. Not knowing anyone, I quickly glanced at the faces of my fellow group members. It was a fair mix of males to females and judging from the school uniforms, I concluded that everyone was just as alone as I was. As I drowned in the silent surroundings of my group, I was rescued by the extending of a hand from the person sitting next to me. With crystal clear eyes and a smile that could melt any heart, she muffled to me her name - Nat. I had made my first female friend in junior college.

The last person to join the group was a senior by the name of Mark. He was to be our facilitator throughout the entire orientation week. He spoke with confidence and the group instantly warmed up to him. Mark initiated several ice-breaker games, which served to further the interaction amongst the group. By the time the third game was played, most of us were having a ball of a time, laughing