Class Spirit: It's More Important Than You Think. (A05, THANK YA)
DISCLAIMER: This is not an entry you might feel comfortable with because it may seem entirely too sentimental and intimate to you. To those of you that feel this way, DEAL. It's something I need to say.
We had a relay race today, 12 by 100. The boys were our usual jokey selves, swearing up and down that we would walk to the finish line, roll over it, and come dead, absolute last a la B. Wong during the road run.
But then we got to thinking. Yeah we could fart around and have fun. Or we could run our asses off, and deal out severe smackdown to the rest of the classes unfortunate enough to be having P.E on a Monday and secure bragging rights for...well...as long as we choose to hype it.
Guess what we did.
Yeah, we ran like fury! KP, Russ and Paul were the real stars, but everyone ran their own damn bit and we won, we won, we won we won we won. Who cares if it was just a test relay, we won and there's all there is to it.
Then we turned around and cheered on the girls, who fully deserved their four member victory. Score two for A05.
(Cheer: Ao5! Cherie! A05! Talisa! A05! Minah! A05! Shallot!)
After the whole buzz wore off, I realised something was very very different about me. No, I wasn't on drugs nor had I forgotten to wear pants. It was the realisation that me, Sulaiman D, was actually participating in a class event...and enjoying it!
It shocked me to the core (Well, not right to the core, but it sounds better that way). Rewind back a few months ago, and that Solomon would never even contemplate such a thing. Nope, that boy would definitely be overcome with bowel-clenching aversion whenever the need to do something as a class came up.
Skipped Dragon Boat, Sports Day (ah, the Black Day), skipped this, that and the other. Totally detached myself from all things 05S34, in other words.
Well actually, ever since the Road Run (alluded to above, the one where Bryan came in dead last), I've come to realise that this class is just a little bit different. I actually got up at 5 to meet Radi, Khairi and Talisa at Bedok MRT one hour later so I could participate in physical activity with an academic class. And I did that because I actually wanted to.
It's the effect A05 has on me.
They're an amazing bunch. No, seriously. I give you my honest word that I have never felt so much like part of a real, living 'enthu' group of like-minded teens. Not even in my days of Dunman was I having as much fun. (Sorry guys)
Well maybe 4B was better. I really can't tell. But perhaps, just perhaps the horror of 05S34 has made the reality of A05 stand out in sharp, vivid contrast. Decency. Honesty, a great sense of fun, passion for speaking, reading, actually working like a team. Something S34 lacked. The same things A05 has in magical abundance.
So in effect, I will like to commend my new Band of Brothers (and Sisters) for making Round 2 of TPJC worth it. Now I know what lies ahead of me, I no longer fear it. My purpose is to achieve a great A Level score in the path of so many others before me, the path well-trodden by historians, scholars, thinkers, philosophers and poets. You can keep your physicists and doctors and scientists. They study life. We study the art of living.
And I'll do all this in the best traditions of my Liverpool creed- Never Walking Alone, cos A05 is right there with me.
Say thankya, Johann, Radi, Jian, Soh, Minah, Khairi, Bwong, Emily, Poo bear, Der Fuhrer, Chocolate, Garinkz, Sam, Hui Qi.
Finn Solomon 9:11 PM
PROFILE
Sulaiman Daud a.k.a. Finn Solomon a.k.a. Dark Solomon, emo boy.
Liverpool FC die-hard. Rafael Benitez is my master.
Arts Student of Tampines College
Fortunate member of the best academic class in Singapore- 06A05
Reporter for the TODAY Newspaper
Fairly liberal Muslim
Technophobe
Quite possibly the biggest Stephen King/Terry Pratchett fanatic in the world
Lover of classic rock- The Beatles, Guns N' Roses, The Who, Led Zeppelin and AC/DCtag
Gemini- This might explain the days when I am insufferably moody. And also the days when I am wildly optimistic.
Dragon- The Chinese Zodiac is intriguingly accurate in its assessment of my character.
Shares a special bond with a special girl from Texas, an amazing woman in Madrid, the erudite psycho of Tampines, an amusing Egyptian and the classy rock lady in Canada, a great friend from the Phillipines, a lovely lass from Venezuela, another one in Sheffield, and the coolest of dudes from Miami, Minnesota and London.
If for some reason any of you are reading this, you know who you are. Thanks.
The information you are about to view is classified. Unauthorised viewers will be identified and shot on sight. To continue, click on the four bullets lined up on the left to navigate. You have been warned.
1. Transcripted records.
2. Agent's profile & Vital statistics.
3. Contacts. Trust no one. Except these people.
4. Leave a message in the file. We'll get back to you.
"It's just you and me and my forty-five against the world, darlin'"- Clint Eastwood
