Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Little Tykes' Day Out!
Was dragging myself to work when something caught my eye. Or rather... a sea of orange caught my eye. Straining my eyes a bit more (hey.. it's the morning... I'm usually not fully awake.. god knows how I manage to reach the office with my eyes half shut...), that sea of orange became little people. Ok, ok, it was this group of kindergarten students out on an excursion.
My office area has played host to quite a few school excursions already. Usually consisting of secondary or primary school students, and sometimes the odd bunch of NS men, they usually go around the UOB Plaza area to admire the two main statues there. But this bunch of little tykes caught my eye. They were so excited.. but yet obedient at the same time: they were in twos, either holding their friend's hand, or a teacher's. Most of them had that look of awe in their eyes (like they have never been to raffles place before). Perhaps they were awe struck by the sheer height of the skyscrapers? And looking at them climbing up the stairs, I could imagine that in their little minds, they thought they were climbing a mountain.
Ah, the life! I never had an excursion during my kindergarten days. The only times when I ventured out of the classrooms, was to the McDonalds downstairs, to celebrate some rich kid's birthday (yeah, their parents held parties at Macs... I was pretty envious about it then). That hardly constituted as an excursion. But still, the thought of having burgers, iced cake and balloons made me very happy and excited (I was 5, easily satiated. Now at 25.. it takes a lot more.. ;p)
Can't remember much about my kindergarten days. I know I learnt my first words of Chinese there. I learnt to play the organ. I remember nap times. I also remember having different kinds of food as snacks on different days (Wednesdays was porridge and I loved it! Other days had red bean soup etc.. bleh). There were art and craft lessons... and I remember our class making a caterpillar out of toilet roll cardboard. stringing it together and painting it. And i remembered being bullied.
Yeah.. bullied. By a bunch of females. There were 3 of them and they were all pint sized. I remember one of them being called Michelle, but she wasn't the ring leader (some how, this has led me to psychologically not like other Michelles whom have come into my life). So how was I bullied? Well, everyday, once we reach the kindergarten, we were required to sit in the assembly area in rows, according to our classes. For some reason, I was always the first to reach, so I sat in front. Then, these 3 girls would come, shove me aside and take my place. On other occasions, they would take whatever they can find on me and destroy it. I remember one particular incident where I brought some pieces of drawing block to school. The drawing block sheets were given to me by my aunt the day before and she rolled them up with a rubber band. These three girls took it and tore it all up. They then threw the rubber band to the class next door (ironically where black adder was as well.. same kindergarten). They were mean, no doubt, but I remembered not crying at all. Tears were in my eyes, but they never fell. And when teachers asked if there was anything wrong, I just said everything was fine.
Looking back now, I wonder why I never retaliated, smack them back or something. But I just took it. And technically, I am still being bullied, but in a different context: Work. There are people who are backstabbing me when I haven't done anything to them. Sigh.... try to lie low, arrows still fly... basket...
# posted by Xallista @ 8:18 PM 
