Before I started my journey in St. Stephen’s, I stayed for 2 years in Merry Angel’s School. I spent my first 2 years of school there, gathered my basics for studying, wearing that one piece red polka dot dress with a handkerchief pinned on my right chest. I had a lunch box where my teachers placed notes and pictures. Merry Angels loved taking pictures of their students, they took a lot. There I met my first “best friend’..... I already forgot her name..... last thing I heard was that she’s studying in St. Jude. She’s the reason why I wanted to go to SSHS. She said that she’ll study there. In Merry Angels I met Albert, Chloe, Bien, Kennard G., Jeddrick, Sharmelle and many more. I can hardly remember anything though, except probably for Bien and Albert since I can remember meeting them without looking at those pictures.

Then came SSHS. The true reason why I was dumped in SSHS was because we were already late for the interviews. By that time, only SSHS accepted new applicants, if we started earlier, I would have been in St. Jude. I can still kinda remember my interview, or at least sitting and waiting.

Kinder one Jade

First day of classes felt terribly weird. Since I’ve been schooling for the past 2 years, it felt weird to see kids crying and mothers outside the door. It was really really weird. I can’t remember my English Adviser, but I can remember having a pregnant Chinese teacher. Here I met my future good friends, Jamie, Dianne and Jan Miles. Jade was kind of a “high section”....... I can remember these people getting pulled out for Pocahontas presentation practices. I envied them, since I was almost left alone there. If I can remember it right, I too had my share of exemptions, dancing. It was that dancing with those upside down U thingy. I believe I sucked academically this year.

Kinder two Parrot

I studied cursive writing in summer; my mother threatened me about having to write cursive all the time. But nop, we just started to study writing it. Parrot was not a “high section”. I believed Canary and Crane was. Jade people were in those two sections. This was probably the effect of slacking in K1. Here I met a brand new set of friends, Neddie, Daphne and Pauline. I can remember that Jullianne??, the one that cried a lot was my classmate. Pauline’s lola and my mom was close. We too were close. Then there was my adoration for Daphne’s beauty. This was the first time I fell and bruised myself. Ice Water was the game I guess, up till this moment; you can see a little scar. Mrs. Miaga was my English teacher and I forgot the name of my Chinese teacher. I can also remember costume contest and a Story Telling contest. I was a ram in the story telling thing haha. Then there was a Declamation contest I sucked in, this was probably the reason of my stage fright. I can remember Lea being the best in declamation, I mean being a winner in the MAPRESA thing. We also had an open house, we had pretend parlor, I can remember really doing parlor stuff even during practices haha. Oh another, this was the 80^th year anniversary, and the turn over of Dr. Tiu to Mrs. Joy Dy, back then we had 2 assistant principals, Mrs. Dy and Mrs. Tan. I can remember how joyous the turnover was, I can even remember balloons being released in the elementary quadrangle. As you can see, I was sent to be the representative of the class in several contests, being in a group of average kids, gave me space to shine i guess. I was third in Chinese and second in English, medals then were a collector’s item. It was awfully big, in commemoration of the 80^th year.

Grade One Dahlia, 小一乙

Finally, I entered elementary. I can remember moments when we, as kindergarteners, sneaked in. I was placed in the first section with Ms. De Guzman as adviser. We won almost every cleanliness contest, since we were brainwashed that we were supposed to be “models” for other sections. I was close with Jamie, Sean Lim, Marc and Jan Miles. We played games then hahaha. Jamie and Terence ruled the honor roll then. I had a lot of firsts. First sportsfest. Sportsfest back then was more restricted, as a first grader, we can only stay on 2^nd floor. I had my first Saturday MTAP session. I was advanced, with the 2^nd graders. There I met Princess, the legendary new girl who was placed in the last section but is rocking the honor roll. I persuaded her to join us in the first section, I told her that being in the top section is not really that bad, masaya kaya, but I think she was afraid, the next year, she only went to the second section. Oh, I can also remember memorizing the Our Father, man memorizing a prayer is hard.

Chinese class was more reminiscent of my kindergarten class, since I wasn’t placed in the “unofficial top section” where 蘇老師 was the adviser. My teacher was 許老師. The popularity of kisses was at its top. Kisses supposedly would get impregnated and eventually give birth to little kisses. I mean there were small and big kisses, probably the reason why kids believed it. Also the eraser dusts, we would intentionally erase in papers just to get the “clean” eraser dusts. Oh, we also sharpened our pencils by “shading” it sideways under our desks. Then cleaning our desks, we really had desks then, was very important, I can’t remember why. We actually used basahans or our handkerchiefs to clean them, even wetting the cloth to do so. I had my first Mooncake Festival Celebration. I can remember the lowest prize being a can of soft drinks or an apple. Bernadee rocked our class honor roll then. Back then, honors were given to each class, so each class had a first, second and third placer, regardless of what their grades are. I can remember that for one time, third or second quarter I think, I ranked first in our class. I felt that Bernadee, for a while, held grudge on me*revelation?*. haha. I also met, I believe, Maribelle then, since then, I’ve been trying to distinguish the two. Academically, I was a mediocre in class, third or hanging down there in the second honor.