Friends

SECTION B: AESHTETIC STRAND

(20 marks)

From the picture given write a response of approximately 250 words on pages 18 to 20. Your response must be one of the following:

• A narrative
• A description
• A personal reflective piece
• A letter

Hmmm, college life, how can i express it? Seems scary at the beginning, stressed out with work in the middle and insanely fun during the final part of the year while I was studying SAM in Taylor's college. One thing i really enjoy about being in college, besides the fact that you can come late, or you can eat in class, or bring anything you want without getting punished (like handphones etc.), or run out of class half-way to buy a bottle of coke, is that I was able to not care about homework unlike secondary school, where homeworks pile up till you kind of like die because you suffocated in it, or while doing it. But students who are still studying, don't try this, at college.

Okay, so how was the first day of college for me? Well, honestly i can't remember what happened during the first day of college as my mind was rather hazy, most probably because of the new environment. But i do remember that on the first few days of college, i made a lot of assumptions on the people in my class, something i always do before i actually know them.

I remembered there was one time during English lesson that we had to categorize certain things to certain groups. When it was time to tell out our answers, i remember most of the students, when knowing their answers are wrong, will immediately just keep quiet and sit down after teacher have like correct them, but there was this one student, Wen Khyn, who kind of like fight back with all the others saying his answer was right or something like that. So that time i thought he was like err a little snobbish. And sitting beside him was Qi Guang, that time my impression of him only was "perfect in English" as the way he speaks justifies it.

Then i remembered there was these 2 fellas who always got scolding from the English teacher even at the first few weeks for coming in late (i remembered their excuse was: cannot find parking that's why late). One of them was wearing a earring, and i was like: "goodness, there's a pair of gangster in my class!" That's my first assumption of them.

And then there were the Singaporeans and Johoreans who were always sitting at the front row from the beginning of the year till like the end. I was afraid of Wei Qi in particular because he talks too much, Wilson seems unstable in the beginning, and Ernest seems like another gangster type because of his dyed hair, which kind of make me want to stay away from him.

Then there are the Sarawakians, rather quiet, and still quiet till the end of the year. Regretted knowing them better, especially Adrian, really want to see how he's like when he becomes all talkative and cheerful. And there's Kai Shien, thought i saw him somewhere before, later i realised that he was studying in Catholic High with me till form 3 when he transferred out.

Finally the girls, well, from the beginning Amy and E-Ling seems to be the hardworking type as they copy almost every single note, even those erm, not so important ones i should say, ha-ha. Karen, hmmm, i had the assumption that she loves to mingle around with people and talk a lot, as from the first day she was already sitting with a guy, while the rest is like, sitting with the same gender. And she kind of like started to boss around even during the first few weeks when each of us barely knows each other! Then there's Yean May, remembered she transferred a little late, but she had the smart look, that's what i think, and it was what she is.

Oh yeah, last but not least, there's this fellow who was sitting alone, like me, during the first week, everyone else kinda like had someone as a partner beside them, except me and that dude. So, it was (again?) during English lesson that we had to sit together as we need to pair up for some oral presentation. I remembered we got everything planned up, we know our parts, but i let him presented it alone as i had a headache and went back home early on the presentation day, cruel eh? (eh sorry ah jia harng ha ha) And i remembered one of the days i went to Serdang with my mom to eat a bowl of mee for lunch, and i saw this friend of mine, riding his bike (illegally) and buying mee from the same stall i was at. I was like, no kidding man, this guy goes all the way from Serdang to Taylor's college? Well, at least that gave me a topic to start talking to him, and thank God he was one of my first friends.

You see, if it wasn't for him, first i would be sitting alone in class, then i would be sitting alone in the library during lunch break and like do homework and eat bread that cost RM1.20 to fill my stomach in class, and i wouldn't be able to mingle around with the other classmates because of him.

Hmm, okay so he was my first friend in college. My second friends were the "gangsters". From my perspective, we know each other better during chemistry lab period, as all four of us (the 2 gangsters, me and jia harng) were sitting at the same table. And what happened was the weirdest way to know each other. Alright, so i was getting bored with chemistry lesson and started playing with the water taps that could rotate till i targeted one of the "gangsters", and jokingly told jia harng about how we could use it to splash him. To my horror, that's what he actually did (well, that's because both of us thought that the water pressure wasn't strong enough), and Kin Eu was stunned like 5-8 seconds before realising that the water was splashing at him. Trying to off the tap, the tap cap came off instead and it took even longer to close it. I thought Kin Eu would go all furious but we just laugh our heads off instead, together with me, jia harng and wai soon. And that's when we started to go out for lunch, four's a crowd (well, actually 3).

The Singaporeans? Making friends with them was another weird way. Well, i know they play DoTA as they speak of it publicly in class allowing the whole world to know. I wanted to play DoTA with them too as i was a DoTA fanatic then, and i also wanted to see how good the cyber cafes near the colleges were. So on one of the Fridays (which ultimately ended up as our DoTA day till like mid-year), i somehow manage to ask them for a game of DoTA, and there we went playing. Sacrificed my dance class session for that though, but friends are more important right (or perhaps DoTA was more important)?

Hmmm, so that's how the class started to know each other more and we would sit together as a big group eating lunch together, talking crap for an hour then going back to classes to sleep. During the process i realise that Wen Khyn, who was a snobbish dude in my mind, turn out to be some cool guitar rocker who wasn't snobbish at all. And there's Kwe Chyuan, quiet dude at first, but full of crap later and if you don't see him talking during a conversation, beware as he's gonna say something so sharp (or so crappy) that you would remember forever ha-ha. And there's uncle, or Ernest, who wasn't the gangster type as i would have thought, but one of the few who has the most wisdom when he talks, and really an encourager to the class i could say, maybe that's why we call him uncle (besides his age which is one year older than most of us).

Well, if i was to write every single moment i have with my friends this would take forever. All in all, i really thank God for all these friends of mine, really make my college life much more interesting than just staying in the library studying and eating cheap bread in class later. One thing i really enjoy being with them is that, when we come to college we would definitely have the same conversation:

Ju Liang: DUDE! Have you done ure maths, English and chemistry assignment given yesterday?

Most of the guys except those hardworking ones (Like Yuen Han and Ernest): No dude, we are like totally dead!

Ha-ha, i think we shouldn't be that lazy, but it does lay off the stress that we carry during our SAM programme ha ha. And thank God that none of us smoke or are like gangsters, but kinda all goody goody type, so i did not need to come back everyday with the smell of smoke killing me.

All in all, really nice knowing you guys man, and may God bless you guys wherever you are and all the best in all you do!