when i got my 'a’ level results, there was a female teacher who asked to see them. we weren’t really close. she taught us math, but it was a team of teachers and i would often approach tkl for consults instead.
she took the piece of paper (not even sure if she asked for permission, but it wasn’t like she snatched it or anything), checked out the results and shook her head, and probably uttered something.
i really don’t recall what happened exactly but i wouldn’t be surprised if it was something along the lines of 'i seriously don’t need this right now lmao’. i didn’t really respond because we really weren’t close and it was just rather awkward. i’m not sure if the male math teacher looked at my results.
all i remember of the day was running lots of errands in the morning at marine parade. i opened a fixed deposit account (24 months, maybank, 1% p.a. lmao) and was just very busy. i took a quick shower at home before going to the school hall. i felt very out of place standing among everyone.
then i remember the memory from above, and then trying to comfort gloria and huang because they were crying. the few of us walked around the canteen/netball court area for a bit and then we all went home. i remember walking past the vertical garden with xuan for a bit. i was due to enlist the next day.
i got my degree a few days ago via email. it’s a file, eighty-two kilobytes large, and it only works if you drag it into your web browser when it’s navigated to a specific website. i recalled this encounter with the not-very-close math teacher and felt very proud of myself.
five of us newbies sat down for a roundtable with the principal. a simple get-to-know-you session in the afternoon. he asked us to share a hobby of ours.
i said, i recently realised i really liked writing letters. the night before i was writing birthday cards to my mum and aunty jenny – the cousins were born four days apart in July (i’m not sure if they were born in the same year). i liked putting my words down on paper, i liked using my cute stickers and roll-on washi tape, and printing out the mailing labels in my favourite font.
he asked: so how did you start having this hobby?
i replied: when i was in junior college, i was the only guy in the class. during occasions like friendship day and graduation, we would write notes to each other no matter how not-close we were. that was how i started writing letters.
he remarked: all of the girls must have fallen in love with you.
