Friday, January 12, 2007

Green Eyes

A wise old lady once said that she'd take the time to pick more daisies if she could live her life again.

Samurai
Pick more flowers!

Not that I'm already battling my twilight years at the moment but I do feel much the same ( especially right now when I have a set of chronically ill children who might not even have the chance to start their journeys ). By some odd unforeseen coincidence, I seem to have fallen into a group of like-minded individuals who are all at the least a handful of years younger - just imagine them all still in primary blues while I'm already finishing my secondary years and there you have the alarmingly significant age gap.

Even now trying to imagine Strapping Shane in blue shorts running about with chocolate ice-cream on his face boggles the mind. I'd probably have spanked him then for dirtying the carpet. I still would but for reasons entirely different now :P

Perhaps that age gap does make a difference. Sometimes I look at them struggling through their studies and find myself telling them to take it easy. Not to sweat the small stuff. That everything will somehow work out fine in the end.

Believe me when I think back to my schooldays ( seems so far away now! ), I recall the occasional fun times ( where I spent my time punkin my classmates ) but I also remember the tense nail-biting hours before the all-important exams, when missing a day of school work seemed so alarmingly calamitous. Getting a detention seemed almost akin to being imprisoned in Guantanamo to face merciless torturers. Not that my parents ever pressured me but I somehow had this unusual notion ( possibly coded in subliminal messages from my cunning parents ) that the entire universe would possibly come to a halting stop if I didn't clear my exams with a minimum CGPA.

How foolish, I know :)

If I could live those days all over again, I'd probably play truant more often. Skip more classes. Wouldn't worry all that much about homework. Even gotten drunk on cheap alcohol behind the storerooms and tossed up my lunch.

Life is short, kiddos.

8 comments:

hrugaar said...

Sounds like a cliché, but ... it's easy to say that from the position you're in. Whereas had you played truant and skipped homework and not made your grades, and thus not ended up with the career success you have now, you might be encouraging the younger ones to stick at their studies. :oD

But yeah, we need to balance work and play. Life is too precious to squander one way or the other.

Anonymous said...

those were the days...

Anonymous said...

Slap me for the wrong reasons, and I will pinch you kor.

Anonymous said...

Heh. I was a hardworking student, but also played truant a lot. The teachers were lazy so I preferred to just study at home. Regret that now though - I didn't appreciate the friends at school enough.

Anonymous said...

Life is short

Anonymous said...

I'll leave those fitting comments to the others. But that photo caption just cracked me up!

Anonymous said...

I can only say that the only regrets I have are for the risks I didn't take. All the ones I did take and ended up with egg on my face I never regretted. That's gaining experience.

You always wonder what would have happened if you'd just said "Fuck it" and took the risk. That's what I regret.

But I"m 40 now with a 4 month old baby girl and my advice to her will always be "take the chance". If she falls down, she'll learn how to get back up. And if she needs a helping hand, Daddy's here to help.

As for the school truancy, skipping homework, etc. etc., I think I already mentioned I was a freak who actually ENJOYED taking tests. What can I say? I'm an odd duck.

Anonymous said...

bravo`` bravo``
truancy and running along the fine lines between the rights and the wrongs are always fun.

i perform in my studies and venture into law breaking.

life is short, and come on, u only live once, why not enjoy it? do wat u like. :) and if ppl are to say tat u cld enjoy later once u finish studying, screw them. cuz it's a whole different environment already.

enjoy every single moment of ur life. but do not neglect responsibilities too.

he who enjoys a lot
robb