let lemons be angry

I have ascertained that 3 pm is my official sleepy-time. Lunchtime is my prime, and i get my energy back around 6 pm or so. That said, yesterday was a day (and night) of high energy. NJC looks like it's going to be one of the best things to happen to me in my jc life. Mr Liew leaving was a blessing in disguise. After the tour of the 3-storey art centre, in particular the project room with the graduates' installations, we found ourselves sitting in a large air-conditioned room allocated specifically for drawing and painting, asked to tell Miss Yeo and Mr Lee our feelings about..the situation. We were so quiet. Partly awed, a little scared, still just visiting, very alien. Then theresa said, "Actually, we're very happy to come to nj," and we all laughed. I am. I am very happy. Ms Yeo's standards are sky-high, and that is what i want too. We won't be able to pop into the project rooms any time of the week like the nj students, but we'll be looking at art from their aep perspective now. And the students made it so easy to be part of them. There's something about nj that i felt even at open house in sec four. There's an openness, a warmness, a simplicity of culture that envelopes you immediately. They didn't act superior because they were aep students, and they didn't feel inferior because we were wearing the rj uniform either. They were just-- nice. And at the end the art club president came to ask us if we wanted to buy their art club t-shirt. It's like i'm a jaded traveller, and i've stepped into a land of people that makes me want to settle down.

Then i walked into mgs-land again at acjc's Midsummer Night's Dream production. They're too young to dress like that, i'd tell myself, then remember that they're not all that young, they've left secondary school already. Funny how those younger than you will always seem younger than you. I wonder if i'll see them the same way when i'm thirty-one and they're thirty, when we've all run out of rites of passage to go through. And i wonder if they'll still swish their skirts and tease their hair and walk with their heads tilted to the side; if they'll scream each other's names from miles away and hug so everyone can see. I wonder if they'll still choose bad-looking boys for their piercings and age. I wonder if they'll still go in groups to meet random guys and speak in loud, chosen accents. Most of all, i wonder if they'll still be able to annoy me, at that age when i'm supposed to be out of the frequency of annoyance.

I'm glad i'm out of that land. I don't know how to describe rj people. But i'm looking forward to going to the art museum with njc in two weeks' time.