This is a note by my friend, Wei Sheng, on facebook. This is the link to the post: https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=141660789193066&comments&ref=notif¬if_t=note_reply
So, I was fb-hopping when I stumbled upon this link:
http://www.ri.edu.sg/main/schoolinfo/general/rafflesexperience
I had expected it to be of a certain slant, and I think I was definitely proven right.
Okay, so I watched the entire video without even turning on my speakers to listen to the audio. But I doubt it makes a difference to my opinion either way.
Still, what would my raffles experience be?
1. the multiple attempts where we descended down the mysterious flight of stairs from room A67 at 1230 hrs, in search for the ever-elusive LT1, only to find that that flight of stairs somehow always leads to the back of the queue at the yong tau foo stall (or the wanton mee or mixed rice store, depending on your inclinations at that particular moment in time).
2. being at the back of the queue, only to find out that the person (or persons) in front of you are similarly infelicitous voyagers who were in search of that very same LT but were permanently detoured by a mysterious force (acting from a region within the abdomen) to the stalls (or so they claim).
3. the multiple occasions in the labs when the products of our rigorous scientific investigative endeavours somehow borne results which had an uncanny resemblance to our prescient insights, and our innate inclinations for (all too perfectly) linear curves.
4. or when our own Inner Eye was curbed by the unpredictability of the experiment, we sought the powers of corroboration which only required minuscule physical exertions, such as a all-so-minute shift of the hand, shift of a piece of paper, bat of an eyelid or glance of one’s right and/or left eyes before all was well and all was good (or bad, depending on how much time had elapsed in the particular situation).
5. or if all failed, we relied on the “preparatory” recipes that were dispensed to us, rattling off its instructions, procedures and limitations word-for-word to one another, always making that foolhardy (but surprisingly (?) judicious) decision that just because it was “preparatory”, the real thing would be 99.99999% similar.
6. the times we spent at that far-flung corner of school, surrounded by books that we hardly ever touched. Multiple pieces of paper with endless lists of questions printed, surrounded with annotation and scrawls, some of which, being smiley faces, crude language and explicit images, were supposedly part of an elaborate symbology for us to attain enlightenment in the conundrums which were presented to us.
7. when we brought in work from multiple subjects, envisioning a 3-hour horizon to knock-off time where we could accomplish much and complete much, yet culminating in a mere half-page worth of text or the untidy scribbles of solutions to a grand total of 2 or 3 part-questions, the result of intermittent bursts of laughter, gossip and exclamations.
8. harvard university foolscap. with an unlimited supply of base paper originating from the school printers.
9.endless soliloquies bout our futures, launching our persona so far through the stream of time, being fully paranoid that every step that we were going to make in the months to come were the butterflies that could result in our prosperity or our bust.
10. but now, having forgotten what exactly was said, was proposed, was rebutted, was expounded upon, was rebuffed, was poked fun at, was slammed, was criticised, was gossiped about, was swore upon, was envisioned, was hoped, especially when most of us, instead of riding on our projected trajectory straight to the shore of prosperity, achievement and self-satisfaction, now find ourselves wading through the murky marshland of NS which looks similarly homogenous, gloomy and expansive on all sides.
i hardly recall the vivid, dynamic images in glossy technicolor that the video so triumphantly present, adorned with punchy platitudes, awe-inspiring action and blanket bylines.
but sometimes, the best things are the ordinary.
