[[ ___ + LOVE MAKES THE WORLD TURN ROUND& ROUND + __

Saturday 5 November 2011

Grad ceremony was cheerful
because 408 was high-ing over
classmates' achievements and the 408 model class award
and when teachers went up to speak!
(with the popping of the toilet roll looking like thingy xD)
I love it when our whole class stood up and applauded for Mrs Lai
and later the moment when the whole cohort
stood up and applauded for Mrs Wong too ;D

I was assured that even though I've graduated
Nanyang will still be my home
and I'm always welcomed back to visit the school and the chers
Coupled with the fact that most of us are SAP scholars
we might end up in the same class and may not be separated!
As a result when the whole world was crying
I assured people that we'll still be together

I actually cried at the weirdest of times
The screening of the school corporate video

But today morning as I read the statuses on facebook
I realised that graduation also meant that
we won't be able to hear Mdm Heng speak during assemblies
and see Mrs Phua give us her deathly glare to quieten us down
408 won't have the chance to sit together in our
ulu but cosy classroom anymore
having fun lessons whereby some of our classmates
would talk back to teachers in hilarious conversations
and when all of us would laugh like mad at Mr Khoo's jokes
Mrs Lai's funny stories and Mr Tay's wrong pronunciation of words
I will miss all of our teachers who love and care for us so much
Then I began crying like mad
I just depleted my sister's loony tunes tissue box

408 has been my source of love and strength
Yesterday when I was feeling nervous over the speech
all I had to do was to look at the smiles of 408-ers
and I felt so empowered and confident
I felt proud that I was representing an
awesome and wonderful class
and that even if I failed terribly
408-ers being super duper supportive and loving friends
would smile and hug me telling me that it's okay

And teachers too
Ms Chee's super bright smile
and Mr Khoo's look on his face which was full of pride
I think Mr Kaw attempted to make us feel less nervous
by telling Gennie
"This is the whitest pair of shoes I think I've ever seen!"

Nanyang teachers are the best I've ever known
in the 13 years of my schooling life
and I think they will still be after I finish
my next 2 years of education

They are like friends
always ready to go beyond their scope of duties and help us
always taking care of our emotional needs
and can somehow detect our sadness and emo-ness
without us telling them

Okie now that I'm feeling more sane
I shall start thanking teachers one by one
which Gennie and I intended to do during the ceremony
but couldn't due to time constraint
(排名is according to the EOY subjects exams de dates :P)

Yang Laoshi is a teacher whom I had mixed feelings for
but recently I've come to realise that contrary to popular beliefs
she gives us space to do what we want and listens
if we actually dare to tell her
Like for the grad speech initially she edited it until
we couldn't recognise it anymore
It was really nice but Gennie and I hoped that
the speech we would be saying could express
what we really wanted to say and was written from us and us only
we told her and she accepted it
and she wasn't unhappy about it too :)

And she really put in a lot of effort teaching us
spending countless sleepless nights marking our assignments
and emphasising relentlessly the 技巧s needed
Even though there were times when the things she did or said
we didn't really like
I must say that I have learnt a lot from her these 2 years
especially 待人处事的道理
I won't forget the smiles and encouragements she had given us
谢谢老师 :D

Even though Mr Kaw only taught us for a year
he's like a friend whom we had known for a long time
Towards the end of the year we could feel that
Mr Kaw likes our class a lot and I'm really proud of this fact
He may seem bo chup at times
but he actually helps and cares for us in his own ways
like when he made us go up to the whiteboard and write stuffs
we were like "nooooo dunwan"
but actually he was helping us to pull up our class participation marks
As a result all of us got at least an 8 I think :)
And he gave us chocolates before our EOYs exams!

One thing I'll never forget is that time when he helped us for YDF
He was the one who suggested us to look for Mdm Heng :D!
If not for his encouragement and guidance
I think we would not have the courage to go look for her
and in the end making our YDF event a successful and happy one
I'll never forget how bright his smile was in the GO
Last but not least I've never written this in my blog before I think
During IM2 EOYs I was stuck at 2 questions worth 10 marks
then Mr Kaw was walking past and I asked for a piece of paper
but he gave me a few pieces of paper which amazed me
Then a miracle happened!! Right after he left
I suddenly became ultra-enlightened
and knew how to do those questions!
I'm still very amazed
I have no idea why the “财神到~" song is playing in my head now
Thank you Mr Kaw!!

Mr Tay is one of the most dedicated teachers I've ever known
always willing to sacrifice his breaks to give us remedial and lessons
I remember last year he met us manymany times
to help us with our IH SIA and topical presentations
both of which were things he wasn't required to do
The other day I was reading through the requirements for
"The Caring Teacher Award" then I realised
he actually fulfills all of them:

-Shown care and concern for you and your class
(Remember the day when he asked us to stay back after school
asking us to be independent in JC and jiayou? :D)
-Asked you to submit your assignments so that he can give you feedback so you may improve
(he always gave us so many comments
our graded as well as ungraded work become 满江红)
-Stayed back after school with you to give you "tuition"
-Sacrificed his recess to listen to you/for remedial
-Sacrificed his weekend to mark your late assignments
-Gone beyond his call of duty
Other than the qualities mentioned above
he entertained and kept us awake with jokes too! xD
Thank you Mr Tay for being such a wonderful cher!

Ms Chee is the cutest cher! :P
I'll never forget how hard she laughed at pre-ejaculation
and how amused she was at my
inability to spot camouflaging animals xD
I hope she will accept all of our friends requests soon
then I can play Maplestory Adventures with her!!! ^^
And she's one very awesome teacher
who makes it a point to make her lessons
interesting and engaging so that we would
make the best out of her lessons and love bio

We can see it from the small little jokes in her bio notes
to those funfun hands-on lessons whereby
we cut and pasted strips of paper
walked around the bio lab looking for and practising questions
rushed up to the whiteboard to chope and answer questions
and when all of us took questions cards
answering and asking questions like games show hosts ;D
While all of us were having loads of fun
Ms Chee was standing at the side taking photos of all of us
We didn't understand why she did that then
but we think she wanted to help us keep those happy memories
and at the same time keep those photos for herself
in case she misses us AHAHAHAHA xDD -zilians-
Thank you Ms Chee!! Thank you for your marshmallows too :):)

Mr Khoo is a teacher who inspires me the most
someone whom I really respect a lot
because frankly speaking I didn't like him at first :X
But as time passed and we got to know him better
I realised that everything he did was actually for our own good
Even though he kept deducting marks for our presentation
we find ourselves taking effort to make sure we
present our ideas clearly and in the end we really improved a lot
And even though his speed of teaching wasn't as fast
we realised that was because he wanted to make sure that
all of us understood clearly what was being taught

As a result when we solve math questions
we know what we are doing and why we are doing it that way
Quotes like "Math is not about memorising; it's about understanding"
"if you want to be good at something, you have to be passionate about it"
and "when you do things, you have to do it right"
will stay with me for life and push me on to put in my best
in whatever I do
I'll never forget the encouragement he gave me
when I did poorly for Block Test 2
spurring me to work harder for math
and teaching me the importance of not being complacent
Some people told me that Mr Khoo smiled brightly
when I went up to receive the Nanyang Star Award! :DD
Even though I didn't see it
thank you so much Mr Khoo :DD

Mrs Lai our most caring teacher! :DD
She always puts the needs of other people above her own
Like how she 无怨无悔地 checked our NYAA booklets carefully
and setting extra quizzes so as to pull up our chemistry marks
She had been a very supportive form teacher
always lending us her helping hand during school events
like the YDF and Chinese New Year decoration :)
She's like our mother
always ensuring that we are healthy and that
we study in a clean environment by
asking us to drink more water and clean up our classroom xD
And recently she gave each of us a bottle of chicken essence
for our HCL Os

She's a teacher who touched us with her 细心的照顾
I'll never forget the funny life stories she shared with us
while going through with us stuffs in our PCCG booklet
and her very encouraging smile
be it in bad or good times
When giving us the bottles of chicken essence
she told Gennie and me that when she woke up at 4am
to write the citations for model class
she cried towards the end because she felt that
408 is a class which she felt really bonded with ;D
Thank you Mrs Lai!! We will miss you a lot

Mr Tan Boon Hian my Physics teacher for 3 years! :O
Throughout these 3 years I've seen his
teaching skills improve tremendously
I can't remember whether it's in Sec 2 or Sec 3
he started his first lesson with the class
proclaiming his love for Physics
which made me look forward to what's being taught in Physics! :P

Mr Tan loves our class too! :DD
He had been walking past our 408 classroom after school randomly
throughout the year
sometimes he just came into the classroom without any purpose
and walked around just to walk out a few seconds later
We hypothesise that 408 is Mr Tan's source of strength
so when he felt tired he would just come into our classroom
and absorb a bit of our KI then he would feel rejuvenated!
Hahaha!! And Mr Tan is always happy to take photos with us :DD
Yesterday we offered to give him a packet of prawn crackers
but he rejected our love and said,
"cannot eat too much. later become a prawn!"
Thank you Mr Tan for brightening our lives with your lamelame jokes xD

Last but not least
we must thank our year heads Mrs Phua and Mrs Wong
both of whom I can feel love our batch a lot :):)
I think they have worked really hard for our batch
trying their best to make our lives in Nanyang interesting and fulfilling
and they succeeded! ^^
Mrs Phua and Mrs Wong, 辛苦你们了!

I'll miss 408 the siaozabor class and our 三八精神
I'm glad I'm part of this class in which
as long as we have each other
there's nothing we can't do
like doing funny poses and singing loudly during our TDC performance
We are each others' spiritual supports
always jiayou-ing each other in times of need
and never failing to
celebrate our classmates' achievements with loud cheers and applause
Most importantly
we take pride in being a 三八 and a 408-er :)

I don't think I'll ever be in such an awesome class again
408-ers are never stingy with their hugs whenever I need them
and they make me look forward to school everyday
408-ers' smiles are enough to calm me down when I feel nervous

Yesterday night when making the speech
there was a moment when I felt so nervous I felt my legs shaking
Just then Woonyee walked past
and flashed me her super wide smile while mouthing to me
"jiayou!"
I felt confident and my legs stopped shaking again :)

We are like a bigbig family
always there for each other when we need each other most

有时再累 the thought that the day would be a happy one with 408-ers
was enough to pull me out of bed
Thank you for the precious memories when
all of us played SHINee's Lucifer MV when Mr Tay walked in
cheered like mad when Mr Khoo and Mrs Lai won the TD awards
singing 朋友 loudly while holding each others' hands
thinking that the lyrics really describe what we feel
because in 408
“朋友一生一起走，那些日子不再有
一句话，一辈子
一生情，一杯酒
朋友不曾孤单过，一声朋友你会懂
还有伤，还有痛，还要走
还有我"

I will miss having class lunch with all of you
I will miss your smiles
and the countless afternoons after EOYs
when we stayed back after school
just so that we could stay with each other in our cosy classroom longer

In our first day of school as the nooby batch
we sat down as a cohort when the counsellor said
"please settle down"
It was the beginning of an epic journey in Nanyang

I didn't understand what Mrs Wong meant back then
when she said
"Once a Nanyang girl, forever a Nanyang girl"
But today as I hold on to manymany beautiful memories
I'm really proud to say that I'm a Nanyang girl
My decision to come into Nanyang is one that I'll never regret

It's sad that I had to edit this post time and time again
to ensure that everything is in past tense
But I have with me memories that last for a lifetime
I'm glad that I heed the advice of a senior a few years ago
and can now leave Nanyang without regrets
I decided to pass on this message to my unknown byebye pal
along with "thank you!" and "jiayou for everything!"
but I think she was rushing off cos she was too shy :)
So I just told her the message my senior gave me
when I was just a noobie Sec 2

"Cherish your days in Nanyang!!!"

Before I end I shall quote Shumin:

"Anything's fine as long as we are together"

Jermia hopped off at 12:20