I seriously cannot believe it... is this some kind of a disturbing unfunny joke of sorts? NYJC school management fighting for Nanyang JC to be redubbed as Chung Cheng JC? Okaaay... Now I know how the hwachongians felt when their management wanted a name change. It's a painful painful thing.
So what happened to Mrs Ho's "Once an NYJCian, always an NYJCian?", if the school is never to exist anymore? Our school building is already mowed flat, and when we return we see nothing of the old school, save for our beloved tutors who are transferring out one by one, and the red running track that has been the source of much PE misery. So we did study in a humongous construction site, with an unflattering shack for a canteen, and leaking classroom roofs and walls on stormy days, and container classes that wobble when we walk, and mudslides from the main building to the canteen, and a dark, cold library... But there have been happy moments in times of exasperation, friendships forged, memories woven, and most of us survived the old building with delightful horror tales to tell with a little dash of nostalgia. That the building has to be (finally!) demolished and a new one built is naturally what ought to been done, even as it diminishes, a little, the attachment to the creaky old grounds... but need you change the bleeding name of the school as well? How is one to speak of school spirit when what defines the school is transient, ever-changing, when there isn't even a representative name to hold past and present together, despite all the humongous changes within? Schools move, administration changes, but it's the name that makes you an alumni, the carries with it a wealth of memories that one associates with it. Even if my primary school have moved to an entirely new location and three-quarts my teachers have retired and things have changed, I can still safely --and proudly!-- say that I am an 'old girl' of Rosyth.
CCJC, indeed. There is no way I will call myself a CCJCian. Hello? Did someone check what the initials spell? What they sound like when pronounced? "Hi all, I'm a si-ssy JCian." *shudders* What happened to, you know, all the 'years of reputation' they've been trying so hard to build, the 'Nanyang heritage and history', and all the random things they loved to talk about during school assembly? Pride, and spirit, and things like that.
We need to feel like we belong, first. You spend only two years in college; you cannot expect the constantly fresh intakes and the school management to establish a name for the school itself. You need to depend on the alumni, too, all the ex-students that feel a little tug in their hearts to return to their former school, to help out, to donate, to give talks, to let the freshies know that this is some place to belong.
*sigh* NY admin always gets me so worked up. I can't believe it. Even after I graduated. Pfft. But the issue of sense of belonging always irked me. Maybe it comes from being too pampered back in St Nicks. The sense of belonging was so overwhelmingly strong, the feeling for the school and all that's associated with SN so tangible, that plomping into NY was, initially, sheer misery, because there was no school spirit to get us all pumped up and enthusiastic. Not even if the councillors yelled themselves hoarse and bounced around for all they're worth. It's a consistancy that you need to keep the school going, something that defines it as we go along, something that you feel the moment you step in as a fresh member of the school. St Nicks was built on love and an incredible belief in our girls, and the sheer power of the belief is enough to teach us to have faith in ourselves, that all of us have the ability to excel, that we all have our unique talents one way or another. And even though it was a convent school, even though we had prayers and hymns and masses, people of different religions were never made to feel left out. We were never dubbed "non-believers" "non-Christians" like a negative minority, but were embraced still as a daughter of St Nicks, as our 校长's 宝贝s.
It's as simple as that. Consistancy, and love. St Nicks felt like home, and 校长 and teachers and students our family. Not the silly cliched "family" stuff they impose in other place in an attempt to elicit some sense of belonging, but something more genuine, something with more warmth, and support, and passion. The random hot day in class when 校长's voice comes unexpectedly over the PA system demanding the teachers let us off for a couple of minutes to drink water... or the boxes of apples distributed to each class, "filled with Vitamin L [for Love]", as 校长 would say. And early morning assemblies when she goes "宝贝!!!!!" into the mike and the entire school of girls respond in an affectionate chorus of "Oiiiiiiiiiiiiii"... Mrs Hwang is a key driving force, of cos, but the teachers and us girls do play a part, too... there is nothing quite as delightful as discovering that some stranger is an SN girl, there's always so much to talk about thereafter.
But sadly enough St Nicks is changing, now that 校长 has retired after 30 years of moulding the school to what it is now, but still I hope that the spirit that has been so carefully cultivated over the years will linger still. As for NY... *sigh* is there anyone who will stay long enough to make a lasting difference? Or will it be passed from generation to generation, principal to principal, old teachers to new teachers, with not even an echo of a name for one to recall what it used to be...?
Don't change your name, NYJC. Don't be ridiculous. It's too much to lose.
(Damn, I dropped so many school names already. And I hear that certain organisations in Singapore have taken to suing people for defamation in their blogs, because it is considered "published material"? Another painful reflection of a careful repression of freedom of speech in a certain conservative country, eh? If they sue everyone who has a bad word to say about Bush in America in their blogs, they'll be able to build the Great Wall with paper notes. But whatever. I meant every word that I said in this entry. In fact I'm in an all time writing high now, you seldom see such freely written content in my blog. So sue me ^_^)
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