When I was 12

I seldom looked back to my history-self, cause I always have enough on my plate in the present time. Until recently, an old friend had dug this old photo out and posted it in FB. 

When I looked at this photo of me being 12 at that time, it had reminded me of several things....

1. I used to be an "Excellent" student in my primary school, best of the best type. Naturally, I lived more in other people's expectation than mine. I remember I had some very stressful time practicing & preparing for the competitions that I hated, like singing, story-telling etc, yet I was too small to reject the adults. Anyway, sport games were the exception. I like sport games, and I was pretty good in playing badminton and volleyball. I was even called for the selection of junior state-player, but my mom had strongly objected it, so I have to give up all sports soon when I entered secondary school. I was quite sad with this. 

2. When I was small, hair cut time was one of the nightmare time. For some reasons, my mom like to cut my hair very short, some more in coconut-shell style. That had made me avoid looking at the mirror for quite some time after the hair cut. 

3. The man on the right hand side, Mr Chen, was my favorite teacher. I like him simply because he was the only teacher who would tell us a story by the end of his every lesson. He gave me some moments of laughter which was rare in the classroom. It's sad to know from my friend that he had died young of cancer. RIP Mr Chen.

4. The man on the second right hand side, Mr Ho, was the couch for volleyball and basketball. He was a cool guy, nothing much I can recall about him. I heard he had died on last year. 

5. The man on the second left hand side, Mr. Liew, was the headmaster. The only personal encounter I had had with him was when he gave away those rewards & cups to me, as the winner in the competitions. Besides, I also remember he used to give very long speech to the pupils in morning assembly. The young me at that time, standing on the field, wondered why the headmaster could speak for that long? He is 80 something now, still healthy. 

6. The man standing on the left hand side was Mr Lim, my English teacher. I didn't have much memories about him, but I remember he and his wife, a teacher too, were used to be our neighbor. 

7. Thanks to FB, I have found many of my primary school's friends, including  the team mates in this photo, but not the 2 on the left (1st row).