I was sitting in the car with Fatty when I got to thinking. Fatty always said that he didn’t miss his schooling days because he thinks he has it much better now – true in a way. Making your own money so you don’t have to get it from parents, no curfews, buying whatever you like without fear of getting scolded…
I get what he was saying. I started thinking about my own childhood. My high school years were actually pretty smooth sailing, but my first years of primary school were tough! Got a lot of school politics ok wtf.
Here’s a picture of me (left) at age 7 to illustrate (and get you in the right frame of mind wtf).
(person on the right is me, not my maid wtf. I was 11 there. What a difference 4 years make.)
So! Imagine the scene. The first day of Standard 1 (what Americans call first grade) in a public school.
Dozens of seven year olds milling around in brand new school uniforms with their anxious parents.
Mummy Ooi gets a shock because she realizes that EVERYONE is speaking Malay, a language which I have no experience in. For some reason, my kindergarten told her that us kids had twelve years of learning Malay ahead of us, and the teachers saw no reason to start teaching us Malay in kindergarten.
So while I was sitting there with no clue as to what was going on, Mummy Ooi had to go up to my teacher and ask if I could be seated up front next to the teacher’s desk and whether another kid could sit next to me and translate for me. FML. Damn loser la ok now when I think about it hahahahah.
But seven year old me was oblivious to all this.
I sat next to a little girl called Nabila, who turned to me and said, “Apa nama kamu?” (What is your name?)
I knew this phrase! I think my mom taught it to me the night before school wtf. I answered, “Nama saya Audrey.” (My name is Audrey)
And then kept quiet for the rest of the day because I didn’t understand anything else wtf.
But because Nabila could speak English and Malay, I became fast friends with her and another girl Rachel. I knew Rachel from kindergarten and I think her mom was nyonya so they spoke Malay at home. So both Rachel and Nabila were fluent in both languages and were bright and bubbly so they quickly became the most popular girls in class.
I was shy and quiet, and uncomprehending of everything around me wtf, so I idolized the both of them, especially Rachel. Nothing could have separated me from them.
Then one day I went to school and… neither Rachel or Nabila would talk to me.
They turned away when I spoke to them, and when recess came they grabbed their lunch boxes and ran off before I could follow them.
Up to this point I don’t think I had even talked to more than five people in class besides the both of them. But I couldn’t eat alone! So I screwed up my courage, picked up my lunch box, and went to sit with another group of girls. This group of girls looked at me seriously and said, “Rachel said not to friend you.” Then they moved away.
What was I to do? There were boys around, but eating with boys is worse than eating alone wtf. So I opened my packed food and ate by myself, all the while hoping nobody would notice I didn’t have friends.
Then I went home and cried in bed in the room I shared with Ooib.
Ooib who was lying on the other side of the room in darkness was a bit scared I think hahahah. He asked, “che che, do you want me to tell Mummy?”
And I sniffled and said, “okay.”
So Mummy Ooi came in and found out the extent of her daughter’s loserism. Then the next morning, she marched into school and met with the teacher.
After my mom left, the teacher clapped her hands and said, “OK from now on, everyone has to be friends with Audrey.”
Seriously. Hahahhahaahhaha.
And that was how I got my friends back wtf. Everyone started talking to me again, including Rachel and Nabila and I didn’t even mind that they were the ones who started this whole thing.
Many years later, Mummy Ooi told me the reason this happened was because I had apparently gotten first place in class and they were jealous.
And the irony was, I didn’t even know myself that I had gotten first place WTF. The teacher had announced it in class, and my Malay was too poor for me to even understand what she was saying. Seriously I don’t even know how I placed first when my Malay is so shitty and every class except English is taught in Malay.
Think Mummy Ooi only found out about my results when the teacher asked if she would be coming for prize presentation day hahahah.
So that was my Standard 1. I don’t remember much except this episode because it affected me so much.
Nabila transferred to another school two years later. I remained best friends with Rachel, but on a whim sometimes she’d still give me the silent treatment or tell people not to be friends with me. But I don’t think I took it as badly as the first time. The older I got, the more friends I managed to make besides her, and it didn’t matter so much what she did. Funnily, I never resented her for it. I think it was because she was so smart and funny and popular and everyone wanted to be her friend that I absolutely idolized her and never blamed her for anything.
As for her, she grew up too and outgrew her behavior. We stayed close friends up till high school actually before she moved to the US with her dad.
So yay happy ending!
Comments (37)
errmahgerd you were so cute when you were little! I can’t even remember that far back into my childhood.. I just remember random bits and pieces like some girl in my class convinced me I was a werewolf wtf
WEREWOLF HAHAHAHAH how did she convince you!?
Aw u so cute at 7 and 11 aww.
7 yrs old.. i remember this boy from my class.. he sharpened his pencil and then stabbed me on my back(literally).. lol! it poked through my uniform and my back was bleeding.. D=
it’ll be funny if rachel or nabila apologised now wtf btw i was the kid back then who told people not to friend people so i apologise on behalf of them ok sorry was young and stupid wtf
but seriously mummy ooi hahaahahaha damn funny la ok! imagine if it happened in high school instead of primary school??? nnand when do you want your student id back
I think, every moment that we make when we were child more memorized than the moment that we make when we are adult.nI still remembered when i was 7 year old, an aunty told to me that ‘i am not daughter from my mom and dad’ and i believed that and try to commit suicide because of that. Lol. Please becarefull what u are told to any child, they will remembered it clearly
I think, every moment that we make when we were child more memorized than the moment that we make when we are adult. I still remembered when i was 7 year old, an aunty told to me that ‘i am not daughter from my mom and dad’ and i believed that and try to commit suicide because of that. Lol. Please becarefull what u are told to any child, they will remembered it clearly
ah sorry. .. i double posted it 🙁
awww…audrey u looked so cute and adorable!!! 😀 in std 1, a girl convinced the boy sitting next to me to not be my friend because i was short. wth good thing on the 3rd day of school, the girl transferred to another school. phew!
” but on a whim sometimes she’d still give me the silent treatment or tell people not to be friends with me” @_@ WUT.nActually, I can appreciate the drama of grade school politics… and as someone who was a catty friend, I thank patient friends like you who endured and forgave our bitchiness >.< n7 year old you is sooo adorable!
i hope these two friends are reading this blog post now and continue to cherish the friendship 🙂
when i was 11, I was outcast by my lunch buddies cause they grew closer in the same class. When I wrote letter to my bestie that time, she said she was just using me for the past 3 years. I came home, call my dad and cry on the phone like heart broken liddat 🙁
i took someone elses seat cause apparently i was late for school a few days @@”. then i got lots of glare from people around. the rest i dont remember rofl.
Oh the days of “not friend-ing someone” (and I’m not talking about Facebook!) haha I remember how the older kids used to tell us the girls toilet was haunted and tried to sell us little bottles of “magic potions” to protect us if we needed to pee. Can’t rmb if I actually bought those potions but I do rmb not going to the bathroom all day til I got home wtf hahaha
when I was in Std1, there was a girl like Rachel as well. It was quite horrible cause she was like the “head” of the class and she decides whom the class shall not befriend every other day & somehow everyone listens to her O_O and ahahaha my photos also got big transformation like yours! & once people really thought I’m a maid -_-!
hahaha nice story! its amazing you remember things from so far back… 🙂 (i.e. traumatised for life)nnManonnhttp://fromtokyotoparis.wordpress.com/
hi..nice childhood story.i just wonder .do u still get in touch with rachel
OMG this post is one of my favs. Damn funny hahahah and your brother was so sweet!nYa kids are mean. Learn to pick on each other damn fast. Good on your teacher to make everyone ‘friend’ you again hahahah
I didn’t know how to speak Malay when I was standard 1 too (I only speak Cantonese fluently then) >_< I remember two of my friends argued and I forced them to shake hand but a small accident took place, the kid that got injured knew how to speak in malay so he went to a malay teacher and accused me on injuring him purposely and I remember struggling to explain myself with my limited vocabulary.
I had the exact same experience as you! Got placed first in class in Standard 1 but had no clue because I was oblivious to everything and didn’t even know this sort of ‘first place’ thing existed
i think in the past i didnt really grow up until after sec school so i was this chatty and loud person who didnt really know what was going on around me…. until one fine day AFTER graduation from sec sch then i heard from my so called best gf then, that the entire class was kinda avoiding me and like your situation, “not to friend me”.. wow.. think i cried in my bed for a few days still didnt know what was going on. fmlnnthinking back now just makes everything so… childish haha
potion???!!!! this is damn funny..
i literally laughed out at this hahahaha werewolf?? maybe she was a vampire
aww! 😀 didn’t know you and rachel had such a history. she was my pet sis back in form1. those were the days when everyone petsiblinged every other nice person around haha. or the girls who wanted some hot guys but couldn’t get them, pet bro and pet sis would have to do! and Nabila, I remembered her to be the most voluptuous girl in your year!
wah you’re like the first person to use the nuffnangx conversation threads correctly i very impressed hahahaha
ya cos she’s always been super popular and everyone loves her one hahaha. and yes nabila hahaha. they’re both based overseas now
Are you serious? I just had to find a way to reply to that n I realised it’s possible.. Werewolf!
Can’t believe things could go so dramatic! 😛 And this post had me laughing so hard!! I was a coward too in standard one: I shitted in my pantie and spoke nothing when teacher went to check everyone’s shoes! HAHA.
i don’t get it? so you shit and it fell on your shoes ah WTF. Hahahahahhaha
I experienced what you experienced during std 1 too except it happened during std 6. Didn’t go to school for 1 day then came back & my two bff (that time la) stopped talking to me. I confronted one of them and she said “xx said you changed” & I was like wtf -_- Nemai la they don’t want to talk to me, so I talked with other girls in my class. Then both of them started talking to me again maybe because I was friends w/ popular girls now wtfx2
This post reminds me of my childhood too… Haha.. All of us went through it and overcome it.. Thanks for sharing Audrey.. Always like your post..
I also can, I hope? *trying* 😀
Yay you!
I was in the same shoe when I was 6. Barely have any friends and I had to stick to girls who don’t even like me. There was one time, I scored 10/10 for a test and she had 9/10. She forced me to change our test papers, erased our names, replaced with own names and bring back home for parent’s signature. And I really listened to her. #truestory
I had the same treatment.. But it went through fer a year becos I didn’t want to tell my family. I had to play with the boys.
lol Audrey!! this is why we love you. you are so real – and funny 🙂