Earlier today my Primary 6 class had a gathering. It started with four of us eating at one of our classmates’ restaurant last month, and realising that it has been ages since we had met up. We remember our last “big” gathering, and that was in 2004 – just one year after graduating from Bukit Timah Primary School.
Fast-forward 13 years from that gathering, we had another meet-up. 19 of us made it, which is, I think, an incredible achievement given that we had given up contact with most people in the class. To get more than half of our classmates who are in Singapore is really quite something.
What struck me was how we recognised everyone almost immediately – the names just rolled off tongues as though we had just met each other recently. I think given that most of us are classmates for at least 3 years (in the same class), we still retain that sense of familiarity, even though it may have been years since we had any kind of interaction.
As the conversation flowed it was quite obvious that as times change so do our topics. No longer are the topics about school, or exams (which was quite likely what we talked about back in 2004). Things like work, marriage, BTOs become our conversation topics. They are topics for ‘old’ people, but it’s clear that we are at that stage in life. And maybe in 13 years time, if we do meet, our topics would invariably evolve again.
It reminded me of how simple our life was in 2003 (and prior). Sure, it was our PSLE year, and sure, there was SARS that disrupted our study schedules, but we didn’t have that much to think about, to be concerned about. To think that at that point, I thought about how it would feel like to “grow up” (not just in the literal sense). It was probably a thought during the preparation for the PSLE. Today, I realise that I am we are already living the answer to that question 14 years ago.
Swee Life 