St Gabriel's Secondary School Speech Day ~ 2011

Attended the 58th Speech Day of St Gabriel's Secondary School last Saturday. It's a pity not every student gets invited. You only get invited if you're receiving an award, or if you're a performer, helper or family member of an award recipient. This sort of means that few of your friends are there to cheer you on. Cheh, no fun. Understandably, after a few rounds of incessant clapping, few of the other parents were very interested in clapping for anyone apart from the one/s they were there to support. I couldn't clap for my own son because I was snapping pictures of that moment. Sheesh! Pity. Would have been much more fun to have your buddies cheering you on. It happened with the primary school too and I guess it is due to space constraints.

Sat through a couple of performances and I thought the school band and guitar ensemble rocked (loved the Jurassic Park theme song they played)!

St Gabriel's Secondary School Band

Okay, also impressive was the choir and all the guys in military attire (always had a thing for guys in military garb!).

Guest of Honour was our precious Gabrielite Brother; Brother Emmanuel. His humourous self as usual, he joked that despite his age, he was in no hurry to get to Heaven yet and I pray too that we still have many more good years with this loveable man! Had a chance to chat with him up close and personal when our Charismatic Prayer Group had a praying over session of the Confirmation youths last year at their camp. It's hard not to wrinkle up and grin crazily when talking to him!

So, why was I there? Conversation with the boy in the past month goes like this:

Son: Mum, somewhere in April, you have to come to my school's speech day.
Mum: Okay. Why?
Son: Got some prize, lah.
Mum: For what?
Son: Dunno, I tell you later okay?

Then a few days after, I poke him again for answers.

Mum: You won for what?
Son: 2 subjects lah.
Mum: Oh. You mean you topped your class?
Son: I also don't know! Muuuuuum! I don't know the details!

Received the letter from school. But only mentions he's receiving awards for 2 subjects.

Then again, 2 nights before the event:
Dad: His prizes ~ is for topping the level last year you know. Not class.
Mum: What?! Really?! I thought he only topped his class?
Dad: I had a feeling it was level. YOU said class. See, I believe in him.
Mum: Hmm....I really had no idea. This dark horse.

Rushes to son's room.
Mum: You mean you topped your level?
Son: Hah? What?
Mum: Your prizes. You topped your level or class.
Son: Hmm, yah. Level.
Mum: Wah. Not bad what.
Son: Actually, you don't go also can you know.
Mum: Why?
Son: Aiyah! I'll be very busy that day. I won't even have time to talk to you. I can't sit with you. I'll be on stage like 3 seconds only what! No need to go lah.
Mum: Really?
Son: Yah, really.
Mum: So you don't want us to go?
Son: No lah. I'm also okay with you going or not going.
Mum: Okay, then I'll go. Dad can't make it but I'm going.

(We speak Singlish. So you may find the above conversation abit grammatically incorrect).

Found out he had topped the level last year in English and Art (Art? Art? Noooooooo!!!!! I'm not going through GCE 'O' Level Art with another kid!!! Noooooo!!!!! What a joke! Sigh)
Seriously, we NEVER knew his English was THAT good. Smack me for underestimating him. I deserve it. I mean, I recall at the beginning of the Primary 6, I was trying to explain to him how to embellish an English sentence so that the markers would be impressed with his command of the language. Heh, guess that short talk worked!

Well....it's a sweet bonus for us as parents because we do not push our kids to excel academically. Really thankful to God that despite us being so 'relaxed' with them (except for the occasional outburst / angry nagging sessions at them once in a while when they get really lazy!) they can still do quite well sometimes. Not all the time but at least some times. Sweet.

We were curious and did ask him why he didn't top the level in Science since he's pretty good in that but he said there were others who were really, really good. Okay, can't win 'em all. 2 subjects ain't bad. We looked at the list of recipients from his year and he said none of them were from St Gabriel's Primary School except for him. Hey, we thought John did the primary school proud by being best in English! Beat the other boys from more 'tokong' schools! (tokong as in better grade)

Here's a pic of him that day, in his Infocomm outfit (boy on left in black T and black jeans at the bottom of the stage). He's an avid photographer and loves his role in his Infocomm CCA under the photography department.

and that's the back of Brother Emmanuel seated on the chair in white. I wasn't supposed to be anywhere near that VIP guest area but I just had to sneak near there to get a shot of my boy at work!

Have to mention that I was pretty happy to see the graduating year's Valedictorian. A high achiever, he received other awards that day too. Mike and I first knew him when we went to buy books for John before the beginning of sec 1 last year. We were impressed with his eloquence and maturity. He really made a huge impression on us and I was thinking, You know, sometimes in life, you just meet a person and think he or she's very charismatic or has the X-factor. It's like POW! I was thinking, 'Wow! how nice if my daughter were to know a guy like this?'  Then, uncannily, in that short conversation we had over school text books, he asked and found out who our daughter was and revealed that he erm, in fact knew our daughter. He became an older buddy of John's and a good friend of Tessa's. We met him a couple of times. Nice chap. Did really well for his Os. Felt so proud of him. With Mike and John being Gabrielites, can't help but feel proud of other Gabrielites too. I was snapping pics of him too on that day like he was MY son! It was not to be, the 'son' part. Sigh, ok, ok read between the lines. I can't tell you what exactly happened. Now here, I risk my head being snapped off but according to her, it very nearly 'could have been'. I had sensed it too. Guess God has other plans for the both of them. Well, who knows.