i took the earphones out of my ears, sian of the damn normal of the vector that is so impossible to get correct. and just sat there listening to the senseless chatter abound in the air, the endless activity - people carrying food, laughing, screaming, running. and for once, i realised how important the canteen is, the very heart of RJC.

and tomorrow is the last day of school.

well yah people will certainly be in school long after tomorrow, mugging for the a levels. yes, we have to come back for the prelims and the beloved As, so technically we wont be physically detached from the school after tomorrow. and of course our emotional and mental attachment to the school should last long after.

but tomorrow is the last day where me and you, my friends in RJC, will don our school u prim and proper (some may beg to differ on this point) and have lessons in class. tomorrow's the last day i'll hang around in the canteen before flag raising, hoping the dark clouds will save us from the torture of the parade square. and more often than not, drag ourselves up to sing the marikita. tomorrow's the last day you'll spend 5 hours or more with your classmates enduring the drudgery of lessons. and then adjourn to the canteen to take part in a mad food rush. tomorrow's the last day you remind yourself that the cycle repeats itself the next day, or not.

i believe people are generally happy that lessons stop (what with the syllabus covered and all that) and everyone is given time to mug on their own terms. hence, the lack of mention of what a milestone tomorrow is. or perhaps people just don't care. but im pretty more optimistic, perhaps its because RJ has become such a familiar place to everyone, so much so that it takes a while for people to realise the difference last day of school makes. a second home perhaps? i think much more than that, RJ has become (for me at least) a most natural of habitats. a place where there's a communal spirit in the air and yet a personal spot for everyone. and when i think how familiar RJ has become to me, how comfortable i feel in this compound or greenwhite buildings, i realise that i've been here a long time. two years here has been a really long journey so much so that the pre-RJ me and the memories of RI are just that - memories.

and yet a long journey that has also sadly, run out of time. i still vividly remember the first day of J1 - the disorientation admist orientation, the vibrancy and expectations in the air. the OG that seemed would last forever. the PW that everyone hates but yet learn much from. and when i look back at the two years (almost) past, i'm filled with regrets of opportunities let up, hopes that came and went, interests that i could have pursued. but i'm also thankful for a lot that this place has given me, most of which i take for granted.

and perhaps one of the greatest things i'll miss about "going to school" are the teachers and yes, the lessons. sure, the teachers will still be teaching in RJ and sure we could organise class dinners to meet them. but come tomorrow, we'll never sit in class listening to them nag at us, scold us and drag us through lessons. Dr Wong's last chem lesson was yesterday and she ended it with a simple, "study hard". of course she's not a very overtly sentimental person and i wasn't expecting emotional outbursts from her. but it was indeed the last tutorial we'll be having with her, and the significance of that is no less diminished by the passivity with which it was met. perhaps its fate that the last lesson tomorrow is GP, where Ms Nair (who has had a huge impact, second only to Dr Wong perhaps) will no doubt nag at us (and then laugh with us), try her best to make us read her notes and seek a response for her compre questions. but maybe, just maybe she will, like a good conclusion on a GP essay or a nice wrap up on an AQ, end our "going to school" journey on a meaningful note.

a journey that has taken two years (around there lah) in RJC and 12 years since primary school. come next year, everyone goes separate ways. to school no doubt, but no more in the way we're used to. no more school uniforms, structured timetables, and certainly no more same people to go through all of it with you.

i'll admit i'm not as close to my class as i hoped to be. the dynamics in my class is certainly far from ideal. heck, i even dislike a good proportion of my classmates. but at the end of the day, i'm still humbly grateful for a class like 3f and hugely thankful simply for being the people who they are - my classmates. a bit late to say this at the closing of school, but hey, better late than never.

why am i penning all this? a sudden surge in love for the school or emotions that the night bring? well, since i have neither the power to make a change nor the guts to shoutout to everyone how significant tomorrow is, this is my own small way to pay tribute to my school. passion is perhaps not one of the first words that rafflesians will link to how they feel about RJ. while we may not paint the school red with passion or display our love for school as overtly as say AC, while RJ may not be as happening as polytechnics, i believe deep down everyone has that bit of school spirit in them. that little portion of their heart where a passion for everything the school stands for resides. so deep down they may not even know it exists.

perhaps, just perhaps, this is that elusive rafflesian spirit.

And so we talked all night about the rest of our lives
Where we're gonna be when we turn 25
I keep thinking times will never change
Keep on thinking things will always be the same
But when we leave this year we won't be coming back
No more hanging out cause we're on a different track
And if you got something that you need to say
You better say it right now cause you don't have another day

Chorus:
As we go on, we remember
All the times we had together
And as our lives change, from whatever
We will still be, friends forever

- "Graduation Song" by Vitamin C