High School Graduation

Kuan Lee
Jennifer Borgerding Kulwicki
ENGL 1010
4 August 2011
High School Graduation
If life is full of journeys, high school is one of the journeys that experienced and completed by all of us. High school life is a memorable time for most people, for me as well. Different from America’s education system, Malaysia is more similar to British’s educational system as Malaysia was colonized by the United Kingdom during late 20th century. Malaysia has primary school for which student study from six until twelve years old while secondary school is for thirteen until eighteen years old. As we do not have four seasons, our school starts from January and ends at November. My high school, Pay Fong High School, is one of the secondary school that consists of three years junior classes and three years senior classes.
High school graduation was one of the important days in my life. My high school graduation was on October 17, 2008. There was a graduation ceremony held in the morning and a graduation party held that night. After the six years of high school, the graduation ceremony and party can be seen as a celebration of accomplishments of students for their study and the start of new journey.
The previous night of the graduation, I was so excited that I had completed my high school and I was going to have a new life. At the same time, I felt sad that all of us were separated as we would advance our studies at different places. I had decided to take America Degree Transfer Program before the graduation while others had decided to go to different countries such as Australia, United Kingdom, Taiwan, China, and others. Some of us decided to study at local university. We had made several discussions before the graduation. We had a lot of questions such as “Where are you going to study?”, “What major are you going to take?”, and “Are you going to study abroad?” Three years before the graduation, we were struggled to make a decision that to enter a Science class or a Commercial class; Three years later, we were struggled to make a decision that was more complicated.
My class teacher, Miss Yew, had helped me a lot to make this decision. She was a kind old lady and she had been teaching for over 30 years in my school. As an English teacher, she did not know Chinese language as she was English educated. However, she learned Chinese while she was teaching so that she could communicate well with us. One day after her class, she asked me to go to her office.
“Do you know what your interest, your favorite subject is?” she asked.
“I like Mathematics.” I answered.
“Do you have an image of what are you going to study in your university?” she asked me again.
“Not really, there are so many majors related to mathematics and I don’t know how to choose. My parents want me to study engineering but I’m not interested in that.” I told her the situation I faced.
“Why don’t you make a list and compare those majors that you are interested? That will be helpful. Study what you are interested, but not what you are required. If you think that you are doing well in Mathematics, just go for it.” She said. This was the first time we discussed about the advanced of my study. Also, what she said really encouraged me and I decided to study Actuarial Science but not Engineering that my parents wanted. Sometimes, there will be a person that gives you confidence to make an important decision. Miss Yew was that person. I woke up earlier in that morning. It was 6 a.m. when I looked at the alarm clock. Graduation ceremony would start at 9 a.m. and we should reach the hall at 7:30 a.m. to have a final rehearsal. After I took a shower and took my breakfast, I asked my mother to drive me to school earlier. I did not forget to bring the dress and accessories that I would wear in the party. As my friend Khai Ling’s house was near to school, I would go her house to prepare for the party after graduation ceremony. When I reached my classroom, almost half of my classmates had been there. All of us were so excited about the ceremony and the party at night.
I looked around the classroom and I realized that this was the last time that I could sit inside the classroom. Our classroom was quite big as it needed to fit in 48 people. There were two air conditioners in our classroom. A blackboard was in front of the classroom while there were two notice boards on the back. One of the notice boards was full of schedule which we used to prepare our exams, assignments, and homework. While the other notice board was decorated by the quotes and notes that were written by us and some photos of our class. “Don’t put off till tomorrow what should be done today.” This was the quote that I copied from a website. I looked at that quote with a photo of me with a lot of Mathematics homework. That was the time before the UEC exam, which was an O-level exam in Malaysia; I was working hard with those practice exercises.
“Kuan Lei, it’s time to go for the last rehearsal.” Shem, who was the monitor of our class, was talking to me.
There were eight classes and about three hundred and fifty students that would graduate that year. We queued up according to class in front on the hall. Our uniform was in green color with white shirts. Boys were wearing green color long pants while girls were wearing green color long above knee skirts. The rule in our school was quite strict that girls could not have fringe that below eyebrow or else you had to pin it up. If you had a long hair over your shoulder then you were needed to tie your hair using black color rubber band. While boys must cut their hair short enough. There were three teachers, who were in charge of discipline department of our school, were walking around and checked if all of us reached the standard.
Then, the teacher who was in charge of this graduation ceremony, Miss Lim, told us what we should do later, how we walked into the hall, and where we would be seated. I can see the excitement in everyone’s eyes. The hall was decorated by balloons and ribbons. Two thousands of chairs were arranged into several lines. In the rehearsal, we practice the graduate song that we would sing it later. The symphonic band of our school would be the accompaniment for this song. Everyone in my class was so happy except Jensen, the emotional guy. He was fighting back tears when I looked at him. “This is just a rehearsal, Jen.” I tried to comfort him. “We can still see each other and keep in touch. The network is so convenient that we can still Skype no matter where you are.” “But I can’t control my tears.” He said. Human beings are feeling and emotional creatures. I could see this from Jensen. Half an hour after the rehearsal, the ceremony started. We were lining up outside the hall while other students, teachers, and parents were sitting inside. My mother came for this ceremony while my father could not make it as he was working outstate. When Miss Lim gave us the signal, we knew that it was the time for us to enter the hall. There was a red carpet all the way from the door until the stage. I felt weird at the time I stepped the red carpet. Those who sat in the hall were staring at us. Once all the graduates were sitting down, the emcee announced that the ceremony started. I was looking for my mother but I could not find her as there were around two thousand people in the hall. All the people were required to stand up to sing our national song, “Negaraku,” which means my country in Malay language. All the graduates sang as loud as we could.
After that, the principal gave us a speech. Our principal was a middle age man who taught us to thank. Thanks and forgiveness was the two things that he emphasized the most. Education was important, but education of mind and thought was more important. Teacher could teach you the knowledges; they could also teach you the way to be a human being with good mind and thought. I learned to be thankful and forgiveness from the principal. Now, I could still remember and practice it in my life.
The graduate representative Wan Ting, who was a girl that had done well in both the academic and curriculum activity, gave us a graduation speech. “The hardest thing is just saying goodbye.” This was one of the sentences in her speech. That was true that saying goodbye was the hardest thing for us after being together for six years. Then, all the graduates were lining up and got the certificates from the principal one by one. That was the moment that we had been waiting for long time. We spent six years in the school, learning and studying. At the time we got the certificate, it was the time for us to start our new journey. Some of us chose to advance studies; some of us chose to start working after this; No matter what we chose, that was a new journey. While I was waiting to get the certificate, I felt so nervous that my hand started sweating. The accomplishment of six years of my high school life was finally here. I got my graduate certificate from the principal. I saw my mother waiting for me under the stage with a bouquet of sunflowers. I got the flower and hugged her. “Congratulations.” She said, with a smiling face. I went back to my seat as we still had one thing to do which was to sing the graduate song. When the conductor of the symphonic band gave the signal to us, we stood up and prepared to sing. I looked at other and I knew that I would not cry. Maybe I knew that I would meet them soon; maybe I knew that this was not the end of our friendship. However, most of the graduates were crying when they sang the song. No matter how long we had been staying together, it was the time to say goodbye. I knew it was hurt to know that you were leaving those people that had tied together in a class. After finished the song, most of the graduates’ eyes were reddish and full with tears. After the ceremony, we started to take picture in any corner of our school. The sports field that boys used to play basketball while girls were chatting during the physical education class; the canteen that we took our breakfast and lunch during break time; the wall beside the art room that was full of painting; the court which was surrounded by four blocks of building that used to be our assembly place; the classroom that we had used for one year. These places were full of our memory. We went to the office of all of our teachers and said goodbye to them. After taking the photos, it was almost afternoon. I went to Khai Ling’s house to prepare for the party which started at 6 p.m. I had been same class with Khai Ling since primary school. Hence, we got to know each other well. We had a fun time to dress up and makeup ourselves. I chose a simple pattern black dress while Khai Ling chose a pink color dress. As we were not really good in makeup, Khai Ling’s sister, who was two years elder than us, helped us to makeup. Makeup was really amazing that your eyes could be bigger, your skin could be smoother, and even your face could look smaller. During the time, we talked about our future, our dreams, our lives, and other that we could talk. Both of us were excited about the party. We reached our school again at 5:45 p.m. The party was held in the hall by the student council. The chairs which were arranged in the hall in the morning had been replaced by a few tables of food. A few chairs were left and arranged with the round table. Some pop songs were playing through the speaker. We saw some of our classmates and all of them had dressed nicely. Not only graduates would attend this party, the teachers were invited to attend the party too. Hence, I could see some teachers especially women teacher dressed up and makeup. There were three notice boards at the back of the hall; some photos of each of the graduate class were posted on the board. There were a few performances that prepared by the graduates such as dancing and singing. Different from the graduation ceremony, the graduation party was more relax and everyone was enjoying the music and food. As we had spent so much time on dressing up, we took photos to catch down the memory. The party ended at 9:30 p.m. I waved my hand to my friends, my new journey to university started.
Now, sitting in the classroom, the people sit beside me will change every day. It is hard to get to know new friends as the people changed from class to class. I miss my high school friends and I will never forget my high school graduation.