Time flies when you least want it to, especially during the holidays. At the end of the year, you think back and feel like the year has all gone in a flash, and how you wish you could somehow replay it all over again. Before you know it in a snap of your fingers the holidays are over, and it's a new year again, a new beginning, with new resolutions to set, new things to look forward to and of course, not to forget, school. You sigh at the very mention of that word, as it is soon time to recap all our work and once again put our noses to the grindstone. Your mind slowly and unwillingly drifts from holiday mode back to working mode. School this year for us ex-Std. sixes was going to be a whole new experience as secondary school would be rather different compared to primary with a new batch of teachers, more rules to abide, new sets of uniforms and new things to get used to. In primary school we were considered as seniors, now in secondary we would considered as juniors and it would be a long, long time until we would be seniors again. Goodbye, primary - hello, secondary.

The last day before school is usually rather hectic. I packed and unpacked my school bag while my sister scanned the list in front of her again and again. The next day, when I got ready, it felt weird to wear the new stiff-collared shirt with the long grey skirt instead of the bright yellow uniform. I stared dreamily outside the window with my eyes half-closed as we drove to school, the destination we had traveled to probably more than a thousand times. We arrived at school quite early. As my sister rushed off to talk to one of her friends, I stood there in front of the office dressed in a fresh uniform holding my new macbook in one hand, looking quite lost as I was quite unsure of where my class was. I walked around a bit and eventually spotted one of my classmates who was in a class next to the office. The class seemed cold and unfamiliar to me, like every other new class is.

One by one, all of my classmates arrived, some looking rather odd in the new uniform, some looking uncomfortable in the ties which we were not used to wearing, all of them glad to see each other and excited to see how secondary would suit them. Me and a group of friends wandered outside after dumping our bags in the classroom. Outside, the school was buzzing with the sound of students chatting to each other as students hugged their parents goodbye and teachers greeted parents. Some new students were looking lost but were soon pointed the way to their classrooms by the prefects stationed near the staircases. The doors of the office were constantly swinging back and forth as numerous people entered and exited. I noticed many unfamiliar faces, some of them teachers and most of them students. Once again, I thought to myself, the school is filled with life, and I grinned as already a student was getting told off by a teacher for running around.

The first day of school was basically an introduction to Secondary, in which our new teachers and tutors introduced themselves to us. In addition to the subjects we learned in primary, we had new subjects to learn like geography, Sejarah and KH. The first day in school was rather long and dreary, all us us sat in the class and fiddled on our macbooks while some of us chit-chatted about our holidays. There was also a tutor-ward meeting and we were all assigned to our tutors. Besides a little bit of mix up and some difficulty to find the separate classes, we were each introduced to our tutors who encouraged us to come to them if we had any difficulties.

What happened next was a whole new experience: break. During break, the whole canteen was full to the brim - full to the brim as in packed, jammed, and being squished like sardines into a tin.There were students and teachers everywhere trying to find a place to sit, jostling and colliding into each other while their food slid precariously on their plates. We were overwhelmed by the crowds of students , who were of course much taller than us and tried to find a place to sit down and grab a bite to eat. After much "excuse me's", "sorry's", and pushing, we finally found a table and quickly made our way to the food stalls to buy some food. This year, the canteen operators had changed. In a way, I would miss the previous canteen operators. No more of the aunty's ever so famous hot "fishsticks", her tasty fried chicken or the fried wedges, and of course not forgetting the ever-so-popular but definitely unhealthy homemade burgers. Even the snack aunty and uncle were gone, thus ending my weekly supply of Cheezles, jellies, chips and basically junk food. There were only four food stalls this year, selling a variety of foods such as western, chinese , mamak and asian - not that we could even see the stalls as we were faced with an immensely long crooked line which formed from one end of the canteen all the way to the other side.

After I saw the line, I gave up, went to buy a drink from the drink-aunty, and hoped it would be enough to last me until lunch Even so, buying a drink was complete chaos as the drink-aunty had "upgraded" from keeping money in plastic containers to a cashier which made buying a drink slow and hectic. After I finally bought my drink and sat down, it was about 2 minutes before the bell rang. I sighed. The bell was one of the other things to get used to in Secondary, and I didn’t even have time to finish my Milo. I could see some people hurriedly shoving their food down while some students had not even payed for their food yet. At the sound of the bell, all the secondaries at once headed to the stairway which was next to the newly painted and renovated kindergarten classrooms. As we had to go up the stairs in single file, it took about 5 minutes for the whole canteen to be cleared of students. After break, we went back to class and did, unsurprisingly, nothing. Nothing but chitchat, laugh at one another’ s appearance in the uniforms, and play with our macbooks. It felt good to be back with my friends, to talk with them about how much we look like watermelons in our green blazers, to complain about the over-priced canteen food, and to talk about how much we all miss primary.

Soon, it was lunch, and we all hurried to get down to the canteen so as to get a table and to line up to buy food. Lunch was break all over again, now even more crowded as some parents had come to see how their children were faring. The line was as as long as ever, but eventually I managed to buy a plate of chicken rice which was quite tasty and generous in the helpings. In all, I suppose the new canteen food is quite good and of course much more healthier compared to the previous canteen food. The only thing which didn’t please most of us were the high prices of the food which we thought was quite inappropriate for a secondary student. Anyways, when it was ‘time up’ we walked back to our class and it was the same thing all over again.

The last period was assembly so all of us shut our macbooks, donned our blazers and ties, lined up and trudged to the hall. The hall was overflowing with students as the school had recently opened more international streams. I think we would have looked like a moving mass of cucumbers. As there were no more seats in front, we had to sit at the back where we had to crane our necks and strain our eyes over the sea of heads to catch a glimpse of what was happening. The prefects stood at the back at the hall as they had gallantly given their seats to most of the teachers. When we stood up to sing the school song, it was like singing to a wall made of green watermelons for all the people in front of us were a head or more taller than us. During the assembly, Dr. Rizal, our newly appointed chairman, was invited up onstage to give a speech which was mostly about welcoming the new students to Cempaka. The new students then had to go onstage and introduce themselves one by one. Once the last student walked down the stairs and the applause died away, Dr. Rizal went up onstage again and gave a few words on how he hoped the new students would enjoy studying in Cempaka.

After the assembly, we stacked up our chairs and trooped back to our classes where we packed our bags and headed to the front gate and the link bridge. On the first day, as always, everybody is on time to go home. The first week was just the beginning to secondary school. We had to get used to the floating classes - which everybody moaned and groaned about, the new timetables, the new canteen food (and not to mention the long, long line), our new teachers, the prefects, the new rules and in all, we had to fit into secondary. The first three weeks weren't so easy. Most people got fined and we stayed up later than usual to finish tons of homework. We were late most of the time for classes and some of us forgot to check the VLE, and so on, so forth. Sooner or later, we will hopefully get used to secondary, fit into the crowd, and make this year, like always, an unforgettable one.