batch of '10

Dear reader,

Due to queries about the new headings on his blog's sidebar, here's a brief explanation:

• the Unfinished Symphony - blog title - was the name given to Schubert's Eighth Symphony. it is used here as a metaphor for the constantly developing lives of theokwek and those around him
• Beethoven's Tempest and Dvorak's New World refer to a piano sonata and a symphony respectively, and are used to describe the scenes in the picture, of stormy waves and of the New World, or the United States, as the not-so-new-world is now called.
• Solo - this is by no means a list of works that theokwek has played - it's a list of his favourite works
• Tutti - means 'everybody' in italian - these are the groups that theokwek belongs to!
• Preludes and Fugues are used as a metaphor for family because they're the same three people that theokwek sees everyday, but the intricate relationships between family members never ceases to astound him
• Hymns of Praise - his church friends :)
• Theme and Variations are used as a metaphor for fellow musicians because we SHARE A COMMON PASSION for music but have DIFFERING PERSONALITIES
• Scherzo-Tarentella is the name of a famous violin piece by H. Wieniawski. It's cheeky and fast-paced, not unlike our school life
• Ashes of Memory is a contemporary piece by an american composer that premeired at the Sarah Chang concert earlier this year. the connection between the title and the archives of the blog can't be too far :P
• Phew that's it

Now on to the essay, where theokwek continues on his previous theme of batch bonding and writes about the growing maturity of his batch. the batch of '10.

Ten.

The Straight Times Editor

Growing as a batch

Endless mornings of singing the school song, greeting teachers, rushing for CCAs, and whoosh! Before we know it, five-fourths of a year has passed since we trespassed that fateful threshold of Secondary school life.

For many of us, that was a huge leap – across that gorge of uncertainty, leaving behind all the unwarranted childishness, the playful bickering, the I-don’t-friend-you mentality of our crystalline childhood where good always triumphs over evil, where guys can’t sit on the same side of the classroom as girls, where we get ice-cream rewards for running our 1.6km. It’s over the fence into a new dark world, full of murky silence for a whole cohort of batchmates to expand into.

So we grew into this space, filling it with sad laughter and joyful tears. We studied together, went out together, had lunch around that nondescript canteen table. Together we made plans, opened our hearts, speculated about school events and built castles in the clouds. We’ve bullied each other, and accepted other’s bullyings with no less a smile than before, we’ve praised each other, and accepted the praises with a heart no less humble. We’ve joined and left cliques. We’ve planted and uprooted rumours. We’ve started and ended trends.

Our conversation brushes on many topics – on life, on love, on loss, on leadership. Guys talk about cars, movies, girls, sports, homework. Girls talk about hair, movies, guys, clothes, homework. Among other things. Yet as we grow, in physical and mental stature, topics move from the instantaneous, to the temporal, to the sustainable, to the eternal. We began, a year and a half ago, comparing blogs and comparing movies watched. Half a year on we spoke of the toils of school, the joys of games. We spoke of trends of fashion, of groups of friends, of ‘getting a life’, of ‘going out more’.

But there is evolution, there is change occurring in this. We start to realize what others say don’t really matter anymore. My hair’s ugly? Oh it was meant to be. My shirt’s always tucked in? It’s presentable that way. I don’t go out to watch movies? I watch them on the plane. I spend time studying? Studying’s fun.

We can’t help but realize, maybe the friendship in our batch has risen to a new level. It’s no longer manifested in what we wear, what we do, what we say. It doesn’t matter who we know because sooner or later everyone knows everyone anyway. And it doesn’t matter what others say about us because we know we’ve made our own decisions and we’ve found something fulfilling.

There is a bond among us. The rugger with over-long hair, orange socks, branded watch and battle scars from his numerous games can click with the fair, frail, heavily bespectacled guy half his weight in the next class. This bond has erased the boundaries of ‘no-lifers’, ‘muggers’, ‘nerds’, and other isolated species. Of these there are none, because we as a batch are one. We know and love each other. Individuality is a stamp in this batch – we dress how we want, we go out with whoever’s willing – but the friendship is common to all.

It stems from a common life.

And it will not be broken.

symphony or cacophony - which is my life?