Disclaimer: In Real Life is a platform for everyday people to share their experiences and voices. All articles are personal stories and do not necessarily echo In Real Life’s sentiments.
School days… Remember those?
High school is a place of fond memories, and occasionally bad memories. Practical jokes, bullies, teachers with (and without) a conscience. With schools reopening, and things returning to normal, we reached out to Malaysians, wondering what they remember from their own high school days – be it government or private or international school.
Here are a few stories from Malaysians that mix the terrible, the awesome, and a tale of revenge. But all remind us of the uniqueness of the school experience.
Practical jokes were the highlight of our days in school
If you were lucky, you had a jokester or class clown right in your class to alleviate the boredom of studying.
However, sometimes pranks can backfire…
I was in Form 3 when someone brought some stink bombs to school. Each was a marble-sized object that produced a stench so foul and vile that they were effectively a terror weapon.
One of these was set off near the chemistry lab. The wind blew just right, and it caused teachers to think that there was a gas leak and evacuate the entire school.
The owner of these vicious weapons decided that causing one evacuation was not enough. They cracked many more in different staircases and corridors. You can imagine the result of having hundreds of students suddenly turn into a savage stampede to escape the stench.
The school administration took many steps to attempt to combat the issue. They gave out face masks to students and teachers as a stop-gap, while they had air purifiers installed. Unfortunately, nothing worked. In fact, the air purifiers only spread the smell more effectively.
We were at the mercy of wind and weather that could send the odor wafting in and out of classrooms, canteen, and toilets. None, not even the bilik guru, was spared.
For an entire semester, there were no co-curricular activities. Board games, the computer club, even chess would be abandoned mid-match. If you were doing anything physical like badminton… a lungful of the odor in the dewan was enough to discourage your training.
Fortunately for us, the rainy season began, and that helped decontaminate the school grounds and ultimately exorcised the tainted odor.
That stench is forever burned into my senses and the fragrance is a recurring device in my nightmares.
Regardless, it’s still a memory I think of fondly when I remember my school days, especially since practical jokes of this scale aren’t acceptable at work.
There are teachers who are unmotivated, but it’s the cool teachers that keep us going
It is the passionate teachers that can somehow motivate, fascinate and enthrall students with their subject.
Mr. Bala was my high school history teacher who brought the events of the past to life every class. His classes were interactive and interesting, and he definitely went above and beyond to make the subject somewhat enjoyable for his students
He always had time after school to tutor, and give feedback. He was well-liked and respected by almost everyone, except for Ken.
Ken was the class samseng or “budak nakal.” There’s always one. Ken would answer back to teachers, disrupt the class, bully other students, complain about teachers being biased, smoke in the washroom. You get the idea.
One day, Ken decided he would square up and throw down on Mr. Bala. He walked up, hurling insults and slurs, and then proceeded to shove him back a step. Or at least, Ken tried.
Mr. Bala didn’t move, he actually smirked at Ken, an expression of “are you serious?” on his face as he looked up at Ken, who was at least 3 inches taller than Mr. Bala.
Ken smirked back, put his hands on Mr. Bala’s shoulders, and asked, “What are you going to do about it?” Without a change in his expression, Mr. Bala’s hands snapped up and smashed down on Ken’s elbows. Suddenly forced to let go, Ken was unprepared for the vicious Zidane-style headbutt to the chest that sent Ken sprawling.
Ken promptly burst into tears, and Mr. Bala calmly continued his lesson.
When Ken made a report and filed a complaint, nothing happened because everyone already knew his reputation and when asked, every student in the class shrugged.
Ken stopped misbehaving in Mr. Bala’s class for the rest of the year.
Students often forget that teachers are overworked and underpaid. Mr. Bala didn’t deserve that kind of treatment, but my classmates and I were happy to see that Mr. Bala showed Ken that good teachers needed to be respected – in a language that Ken understood.
I do however wish I could do this to the know-it-all guy in the office.
School had its epic moments as well
For some of us, our school days are when we experienced moments of awesomeness that we look back on fondly. For those of us who were more athletic when we were younger, sports competitions were one of the ways in which we got to experience some of our best memories.
I was an international school student and bullied a lot in primary school, and since the primary school fed into secondary school, there was no escape from Nicholas. My bully made it his purpose in life to make mine a nightmare.
Then suddenly, he was gone! His parents had been forced to move, and naturally, he moved schools. I was free! I remember hearing the chorus in my head screaming “MERDEKA! MERDEKA!”
I spent my high school years like any teenager would, and joined the school Tae Kwon Do team where I did well, competing, winning, and losing in many different tournaments. Then came my final tournament.
My opponent was 165 cm, about 54 kg, meaning that we would be fairly evenly matched. Then I saw the face of my opponent: Nicholas.
The coach had always told me to play it safe, attack when you are certain you can score. That match? I went on the attack from the opening bell. Foot and fist. Hard and fast strikes to the stomach and chest. I kept him seeing stars, winded and off-balance.
I think everyone watching knew this wasn’t just a sparring match. That this was my nine minutes to pay Nicholas back – with interest – for years of verbal bullying and physical harassment on the playground, on the bus, in the canteen, and the taman.
The first round ended and Joshua was down by 20 points, bruised with tears in his eyes.
By the end of Round 2, Nicholas was trailing by 30 points, and there were tears on his cheeks.
Should I have stopped there? Should I have been the better man? I don’t know. I would never get the chance to find out. I think Nicholas’ coach realized that I had a vendetta, and threw in the towel for Nicholas.
Nicholas had to be carried off by two of his teammates. I walked off, feeling contentment and pride that I was able to finally see justice.
Nowadays, at my age, sports competitions are mostly for the very athletic, which I no longer am. But I still look back at the memory of Nicholas crying with some satisfaction.
Looking back at our school days through the eyes of an adult
Being at school is a chaotic experience, caused by having so many adolescents in one place. Many of us learnt what is expected of us socially through interactions in school.
Now that we are all adults, it’s easier to see how our school experience shaped us – whether we became more of the person we were as a schoolchild, or we wish to avoid the person we were back then.
Of course, there’s always a sense of nostalgia involved when we look back at what we went through during our zaman sekolah. Perhaps we’re just wistful for an era in which times really were simpler for us. Like collecting different flags on erasers and eraser fights during our free time in class.
In any case, we all have memories of our school days. Many fade, some are forgotten until something brings them back to mind. Some we never forget, and are with us throughout our lives, be they good, bad, or ugly.
For more stories like this, read: 3 Culture Shocks I Felt After Going From An SRJK(C) To An SMK School, What It’s Like Going To A Chinese School In Malaysia As A Malay and Malaysians Tell Us the Stupidest Things They’ve Done in High School.
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