Oct
15
2014

Reunited and it feels so good.. or not?

Late last year, thanks to technology, I was reunited with my former school mates. We had a great time catching up online. I was nervous initially as it has been a couple of decades since I last saw or heard of most of these people. The thing about reuniting with your old friends is facing the living ghosts of your past. These friends remember you for what you are back in school.

classmate

Now, talking about my past, I have done nothing to be proud of yet I’ve done nothing to be ashamed off neither. So what is the issue here? Nothing. Really. Until you remember that you’ve actually caused a boy to loose his tooth because you went and shake his table that he was standing on causing him to fall flat on his face and broke a tooth (or maybe two)? You were also reminded how your cooking partner in Home Science class burnt her eyebrows because the stove kind of exploded (thanx to yours truly). A gift that I wrapped for a friend also found it’s way back to the future when they discussed how bad I was to wrap a dried dead frog and presented it to that girl…

Ok stop. Please stop. I regretted doing what I did, really. No, actually I don’t! LoL! Seriously I don’t have a tinge of regret in me. Am I that bad? I shook that boy’s table because he was teasing me when I was very angry. The stove exploded. It wasn’t MY fault. Blame it on that old stove. The dried frog… urm.. let’s just say I saw it laying on the road and thought that it will make a pretty good gift so I picked it up, brought it home, wrapped it beautifully and gave it to a classmate. What? I was being kind! I was taught that it’s better to be giving than receiving so … Hahahahaha!

Back in the past, I was a nobody. I wasn’t the popular girl in school. I was the shortest. It’s a wonder my former school mates even remember who I am. Ok maybe because I was the shortest around that helps in jolting memories. Fast forward to present, I am glad that I am reconnected with these people.

After two decades, it doesn’t matter if you were the most popular girl or boy in school. It makes no difference if you were the teacher’s pet, football captain, head prefect, a loser or just plain reject. After 20 years, the tables have turned for some. The school rascal is now a successful businessman. As we embrace our late thirties, beauty is no longer seen on the surface but deep within us.

The best of us measured success not on how cash rich we are but how healthy, happy and how we live our life that matters. I am reconnected to celebrate who we were and who we are now. While most of my friends are highly successful in their career, I am proud to say that I am just a stay at home mom/wife because to me, my family is my everything. They say we only have ONE chance to make a first impression but now, we are given a second chance to make that first impression again. Unfortunately there will always be one or two sad case who only wish to reconnect to flaunt their wealth. When asked to share a recent photo of themselves, they will without fail post up a pic of them in front of their huge castle and shiny sports cars. To me, these are the jerk alert. These are the humpty dumpty I stay away from because I am not sticking around their gigantic heads to be their ego booster. 

It doesn’t matter what you are now. To me, you are still that boy or girl I know 20 years ago. What matters most is how you make others feel now. 

About the Author: Merryn Tan

36 Comments + Add Comment

  • //

    alamak… you are so naughty in the past!! LOL …. Give dead frog as a gift ??? aiyo… !!

    Yeah, you are so right. Past is past … you know, some so called heart throbs guys during my time now mostly gone botak and the tummy is super big due to lack of exercise. And, I dare to say I look so much younger (and better…ahem!) than them now, though they got all the girls in the past while I was a pimply thin guy wearing a thick spec.then hahha…

    Anyway, just be happy with who you are and your new friends like me.. heeheh

    • //

      So you are saying you are very macho with six packs and getting all the girls now lah? I print screen this and send to Janice…

      • //

        oi … don’t leh else I may have to go back to JB daily and cannot have fun during the weekdays in SG. :P

  • //

    hahhaa…so easy to recognise you in the picture. I was looking forward to that ‘afro hair style’… :P

    • //

      >_< Soon you'll be like my 'humpty dumpty' old friends that I kicked out of my life :P

  • //

    Well written, M!
    Btw, we are highly successful stay at home mum! =)

    • //

      Yes we are, G! :D

  • //

    “The best of us measured success not on how cash rich we are but how healthy, happy and how we live our life that matters. I am reconnected to celebrate who we were and who we are now.”
    I would agree with you 100% on this.

    Many of my classmates are now very rich, some are Datuks even – I’m just a nobody. Good for them and good for me too – at least, I’m happy and contented, hope they are too…and of course, on the other hand, some of us are already dead! Count our blessings! Celebrate life! Celebrate love…and give thanks for every little blessing in our lives.

    • //

      What nobody… you are Sibu’s food directory!

      Well, it would be nice to be rich and comfortable at this age but what’s more important is having a great company and a fulfilled life, just like you. You are surrounded by family and great friends all the time and that’s because you are such a nice friend yourself. When I am your age, I want to be just like you… haha!

      • //

        Thank you, thank you… *blush…blush* :D

  • //

    Aiyo, so bad lah you, give people dead frog as gift. I am not so bad, I give dead cicak only XD
    You are right, nowadays when I see my schoolmates, I only remember them for their atrocities in school. Like there was one dude (not me) who is a successful doctor overseas now, but when I see his face, all I remember was how his hobby in school was to go around squeezing the balls of other guys. I am not exaggerating, he got hauled up to the headmistress’s office multiple times for being such a psycho..

    • //

      Thank goodness your doctor friend is overseas.. I cant imagine him being here squeezing his patient’s balls! LoL!

  • //

    Thanks to Whatsapp’s admin. I realized the consoling value of reconnecting with others who, by virtue of having passed through the same yesteryear with me and having been shaped by similar forces, share a good deal of our social-historical DNA. You are the people who understand better than anyone how I might have expected life to unfold.

    • //

      Heh… why your english so deep wan? I had to use my dictionary to comprehend what you are saying :P

  • //

    sweet, I like the way you wrote this post, as it echoes my sentiments exactly. As we age, gracefully or not, family, health become important. Although physical wealth is still of paramount importance to me, at the moment :P

    Hey, you’re the cheeky one when young eh? The photo also look so cheeky already.

    • //

      Truthfully physical wealth is important to anybody but it’s not what you flaunt in front of others esp during a reunion. Your wealth is your own. If all you have to flaunt is your wealth, then I think that that person is very poor as all he has is money.. and nothing else.

      Haha, you are definitely aging gracefully lah, with a beautiful wife and two heroes at the moment :)

      Yes I am cheeky then, still cheeky now :P

  • //

    wah, cannot imagine u was such an “active” girl!

    • //

      :D Now I’m very good hor? Such a demure lady I am … Hahahahhahaha!

  • //

    waaaait, are you from IJC?

    • //

      IJC?

      • //

        Instistute jiwa crazy…ngam u merryn

        • //

          LK… Let’s meet up. This weekend. I wanna tumbuk u ^_^

    • //

      You meant Infant Jesus Convent? No lah. I’m from ACS :D

  • //

    Sweet post. Friends Forever !
    Now i missed my schoolmates too…. =)

    • //

      You are still too young to feel sentimental over your school days :P Wait until you are my age then start missing them again. Haha :D

  • //

    Xj words always very deep n deep n deeper

    • //

      XJ actually wanna cari submerryn tu. That’s why always dive deeper and deeper :D

  • //

    Oh. So you are the naughtiest one in the class! Tsk tsk. A very nice shot of you and your classmates. I were also an average and quiet girl in school. A miss nobody.

    But I am proud of my past and present. I am happily married to a man who loves me and have 3 adorable kids who call me mummy. It is a great accomplishment for me. :)

  • //

    Wei merryn long time no see le….remember me?? Me?? Me??? Can remember or not??? Me ..me ..me.. same same school…same same yr

    • //

      Who? LK who? Tell me more, tell me more besides being in the same school, same year lah. Itu everybody oso tau… :P

  • //

    Well said Merryn

  • //

    I almost cry reading all that

    • //

      Come, it’s my turn to give you tissue (returning the tissue you gave me in class last time). Haha!

  • //

    Ethan looks like you in the photo! You are so daring when young, dare to pick up a dried dead frog and wrap it up nicely too. You must dislike the other person very much to give them a dead frog as a gift.

    • //

      No no no.. I did not dislike the other person. In fact we are very close. It was just me.. being worse than rascal :(

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I am a mother to two boys; Ethan and Ayden and a wife to Darling William. I'm a stay at home mum who blogs to break the monotony of life and to avoid feeling jaded. Would love to get to know all the Super Mommies and Daddies and Babies or Singles out there with the hope that we can learn more from each other. Most of all, I am a happy person, and I hope YOU are too.

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