Nothing but the best

It was a hurried affair getting ready for Darwisyah's first day of school at Tanjong Katong Primary - what used to be the old Fowlie school, now nicknamed the International Public school; students at TKP comprise of more than 31 nationalities from all over the world.

Unfortunately my sister who is known to be rather disorganised dragged us to Popular the evening before to get my niece's pencil box, water bottle and lunchbox. The first signs of Darwisyah's apprehension at starting school were evident as she took an incredibly long time to choose her pencil case and insisted that her mom choose it for her which was very unlike her.

My sister then hurried off to an appointment and I was left with the task of getting her hair accessories at 8.30pm the night before her school was going to start! I had to settle for simple black rubber bands and clips from a grocery store that happened to be opened on New Year. I think my niece was more relieved than me - my second sister had somehow managed to scare with her school rules such as only wearing black or green hair accessories and my niece was taking these rules very seriously.

The next morning Darwisyah climbed up my bed to wake me. I opened one eye and saw her peering at me, her face was apprehensive. She was already dressed in her new green uniform. It was 6.30 am. It was clear that she was feeling anxious and I started to be nervous for her. Oh no what if her first day of school turns out to be horrible or she makes no friends???!!

I sat up from the bed and she immediately sat on my lap. She sat there quietly looking down at her hands and did not say anything. After a while, she then whispered to me in a very pitiful voice, "Halala, I miss Lutfi." The poor girl had just realised that she could no longer hang out with her little brother anymore and had to brave the new world. I wanted to hug her and assure her that everything will be allright but I refrained; afraid that I would tear for yes, I am quite the emotional aunty.

"It's ok sayang, you can make new friends at school too." She appeared to think about this for a while and then said, "Oh like when you went to Australia?" I nodded and said, "Yes, Halala also had to make new friends you know."

She suddenly turned to look up at me and asked "Why do you go to a school that is not Malay Halala?" Of course her school would be a far cry from a Malay school but I understood her meaning behind those words. She was trying to understand why I wanted to leave the comfort of my home - she after all was about to do the very same.

"It's ok Darwisyah, everyone there does not know anyone too. Everyone will have to make friends. It's ok to go to a school that is not Malay. You can make friends with anyone anywhere. You just have to be a nice and good girl ok." Though in my heart, I said to myself but boys. So I am old-fashioned, after all my sisters and I had all gone to Haig Girls and then me to TKGS and my sisters to Cedar. While we were all a bit jakun with guys, I think being in a single-sex school did prevent me from veering off into minah land. Then again, my dad would have packed my bags and sent me off to madrasah the moment he saw a hint of that.

She refused to eat breakfast - no doubt it was the butterflies in her stomach. She vomited a bit of her milk. Oh dear classic stress response. She kept on looking at her new watch. It was 7 am and she insisted we were going to be late - "Mama, going to be 8 o'clock already!"

The school was impressive, and true to its nickname, there was quite an impressive number of Caucasian kids amongst Indonesians, Thais, mainland Chinese, Eurasians, mainland Indians children. Oh dear I hoped there woudn't be too much competition in brains and wealth. My sister was glad that she bought my niece a branded bag - as superficial as it seemed - my sister's reasoning was that when she was in primary school she felt very low about herself because all her friends carried expensive bags while her bag was just from the pasar geylang. As I looked at my niece lining up with her class (she had to hold hands with another boy and she was looking very shy), I really wanted her to feel confident about herself and was glad she looked like every other kid.

Deep down I knew it was very superficial, but the reality is that children today live in a harsh society. While I would not want my own kids to be obsessed about these frivolous things, sometimes just having a nice-looking bag may be the one thing that helps the child fit in with the rest. Especially in this school where the children seemed to come from well-off families. But there are worse situations I suppose.

Such as this poor boy who sat by himself at the table and did not want to join the other boys who were playing soccer and just running around at the parade square. You see, the kids had not said anything mean or teased him. But my guess is that he could now see that he was quite different from his peers and wasn't feeling so confident. He was quite obese or maybe shy. It is sad, but the child's mind which can be so simple can be very harsh. Which makes me a bit annoyed when parents feed their children so much junk. The poor kid has to defend himself against a society that idolises external beauty and the poor kid never even had a chance to prove himself right from Day 1. Ok I know I'm getting dramatic over this boy who I don't even know but I'm thinking I can't be too far off the mark.

Finally I have to say that I love her uniform especially her skirt which is actually a pair of shorts (I think they call it cullotes) and her black shoes and socks. Very smart. I wish I was back in P1 - it all seems so simple and exciting now. Oh and the title of my post is the school's motto - a bit tacky compared to my Ars Potens Est and Moribus Modestus. But oh well.