It must be the post 50 Years Celebration / OBW 2007 blues. You know, after the 2000 Sydney Olympics it was reported that Australians nationwide felt depressed. It's got something to do with the fact that there was a massive euphoria experienced by the nation due to the success of the Olympics which was followed by, well, nothing. The fact that I'm feeling a bit down must be a sign that last weekend's celebration and the preceding events were a roaring success.
So what do I do to deal with this? I write. I don't have much of a platform for writing about STAR issues these days. The School Ties magazine is on hiatus (a discussion of this will entail later). The OBW2006 blog is discontinued. There are no more Kata-Kata Aluan of Ministers, HMs and STAROBA Presidents for me to draft.
Hence this blog.
There is so much to be said still about life as a Starian. You don't just walk out of those school gates after SPM and declare that you are not a Starian anymore. To me there are really 2 aspects of Starian life.
The first is the life you experienced during your 5 years in STAR (or in the case of some people up to 8 years - from Removes till Upper Sixth). 5 years is a short time indeed. A sign of this is when you meet up with old friends during teh tarik sessions you tend to hear the same old stories being told. The simple reason being, although many things did happen during our schooldays, the anecdotes come from a finite repository. Once in a while a fresh story turns up though. (It was fun to watch Wak John's jaw drop last weekend when he, after being absent from gatherings for many years, was told the actual reason for Cikgu Sharifuddin's hasty departure from STAR).
The second is the life you experience in real life after leaving STAR. You can take the boy out of STAR but you can't really take STAR out of the boy. Maybe I'm a sad character but not a single day goes by for me that I don't do anything which connects me to my Starian identity. I still have lunch with classmates every other day. I check out blogs of Starians first thing in the morning. When I meet up with my dad, we never part without at least mentioning a STAROBA event or any mutual old boy we know. Even working with my partner at the firm reminds me of prep!
So there you go, there are still so many stories to tell about life before, during and after STAR.
Just so you know, this blog is about me. It's not a STAR blog although it provides a constant context. It's not a STAROBA blog though I will often talk about related issues and events. It's not so much about Starians as it is about friends who went to STAR.
I hope you will stick around.
