On the 15 th of October, my life as a Victorian ended as the class of 2004 graduated in true Victorian style.

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Things started going screwy when we realized that Mason and Jeremy, our beloved monitors, had returned the classroom key to Ms Ng. So we sang the national anthem at the corridor. Perhaps sang isn't the right word. Hollered is a more suitable description. Lungs defalted, diaphrams shook and mouths moved as we roared the anthem and pledge. Den later Mr Maran came and asked why got so much noise. So we told him we sang at the corridor. He nodded his head, slapped me on the shoulder and said, "must be you la!" I grinned. Well, it was quite true.

<

> An interesting incident happened in Sec1 when Mr Maran came into class as our english teacher for the first time. As I hit his foot while I was moving his chair back, this conversation ensued:

M: Did you just hit my foot?
W: (sensing malice) Um, no sir.
M: Are you sure?
W: Er, yes sir.
M: But I felt something.
W: That's your problem, sir.

Since then I've been one of his favourite students. Really enjoyed his presence in this four years. Don't think I'll ever get another teacher like him.<>

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With the classroom still locked, Daniel, Samuel and myself took the liberty of extracting the window panes of the classroom to go in. The look on Mason's face when he came with the key was priceless.

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Then we recieved our progress reports. I hear they have to reprint them, because the 'ol' from 'school' was slashed out. Perhaps this is another way for the school to economize.

Once again, the school P.E dept has shown its incompetence by messing up the height and weights of students. For example, brian got his height and weight reversed, giving him a 3-digit BMI. That's not all. The index numbers got fiddled around with, so Tiger and myself were of acceptable weights, and isaac was overweight. Tee Hee.

Then we received our class shirts. Whoopee. It's black, with VS4H2004 in the front, and the name of every 4H guy on the back in white. Cool. It's pretty comfortable to boot. Some of us wore it that very day. I'm still waiting for the right moment.

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Off to auditorium for grad ceremony. First we saw a pictorial presentation of us consisting of photos taken from 2001 to 2004. Was really funny, watching us back then. Oh, and at the start presentation, there was a picture consisting of tiles made up of sec1 pictures of 72 victorians. Memorable faces were Marcus, Sean, Nicholas, Chee Kian, Daryl Gan, John Ang, Daryl Yeo and of course....


...Myself.

There were quite a few pictures of me during the presentation- about four(someone who paid attention please enlighten me). I think two of them were from red cross, and definitely one completely obvious one on Be yourself day(as a "finalist") and Racial Harmony day(as an emcee). Either way, I looked goofy. Throughout the presentation, there was quite a lot of noise going on- cheers, laughs, name calling, father's-name calling(a 2C tradition), reminiscing. And at the end, the picture of tiles was replaced by pictures of the same people in sec4. I seemed to be the one with the least changes, with John having the most noticeable transformation and Nicholas the most noticeable mutilation, as Dimitra puts it.

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Followed by a reflection of teachers and students.while I couldn't really take in what the Victorians are saying, I more or less got the message they put in. touched. Teachers also gave their final words in the form of text boxes beside class photos. It's all good. Maggie Ng's message, while not as touching, still moved me.

<

> In Sec3, we opted to make a "chan-chime"(chandelier+ wind chime). Since fibred glass seemed unobtainable, we used coloured transparent plastic. I remember butchering my oval of plastic with a horrid dent at its side. The desired effect was as follows.

"When the sun shines, a spectrum of colours shall from on the eco pond, in addition the the words nil sine labore. When the wind blows, the sound of the chime will remind us of our contribution to the school."

Now, the sun can't even shine through the plastic due to large amounts of blackage, much less display any words, and the chime is too heavy to make any sound when the wind blows. Still, it serves as a memory of how things can fall flat on their face and also of the Victorian Challenge, a highlight of a Victorian's career.<>

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Next was a speech by a member of the parents support group, who should have gotten an award for finding a cure for insomnia. bleh.

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After that was done, award ceremony blah blah prize giving blah speech blah blah.

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Concert band performed the Rocky song at the end. Dunno for what oso. But still quite nice. Props to them. Sang my heart out doing the Victorian anthem, which was followed by the customary VS cheering session, in which Victorians willingly damage their throats. Zul was real funny tho. Jumping in for no reason, crowd-surfing out, and jumping in again.

After saying my final goodbyes to classmates, I left VS as a student for the last time before the reception started. At this time, I was on the verge of breaking down. So anyone who thinks I left because I was not a "True Blue Victorian" and all that, that's not the reason. It's just too damn hard to leave, so I wanted to get it over with.

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It's just too damn hard to leave.

But life goes on.

And time waits for no one.

Now I start showing the world what a Victorian is truly capable of and giving my best in what I do, be it pumping petrol at Shell, shelving books at Borders, Photocopying stuff at Citibank, or singing on Singapore Idol. The last one does seem like a stretch though.

To everyone who graduated with me, I hope you do the same and I wish you good luck for the Os.

-Wilfred. Once a Victorian, always a Victorian.