Elitism

I've got a confession to make. I'm an elitist.

I went back to school for the Students' Council campfire on Saturday. To feel like a student again. To see the new faces that will make up the next batch of Students' Council. To see my old friends again and catch up with them.

Meeting fellow Hwachongnians has never felt so invigorating before. I felt at ease and liberated -- feelings which, I suddenly realise, were missing in my life for the past year or so.

And it just dawned onto me that I am not exactly clicking with my platoon mates. I don't speak Naruto, Playstation, Left 4 Dead, or DOTA. Neither do I sing BTT, FTT, clutch and first/second/third gear.

I speak scholarships (overseas, local, and bond-free), scholarship interviews, university applications (local and overseas) and JC-life.

I belong to a different league from them. The atas league? In my opinion, yes, I belong to the atas league.

You can call this culture shock, even though it took one year for this to come as a shock to me. I spent two years in an elite JC, surrounded by people who aspires to enter globally-renouned universities, dreams about obtaining the most prestigious scholarships, and strives to get that string of As and Distinctions on their result slip. The next two years that follow have me ejected from the social circle that I am so attuned to and thrown into the opposite end of the spectrum, where people aspires to enter a local university, dreams to do acourse which they would like to do in that local university and strives to pass their 'A'-Levels.

Never in my life did I imagine myself befriending this group of people. I mean, having obtaining awesome grades and spending 6 years of my youth mixing with other equally academically-inclined students of my calibre have misled me into thinking that at least entering a local university was natural. I didn't think that people would have to struggle for a place in these institutions.

So for the past year or so, I didn't really know what to say to them. I can't engage a discussion with them on the various scholarships available, introduce them to BrightSparks, or advice them on which foregin university to go to.

So I gave a shot at playing Naruto on Playstation 2, attempted to play DOTA using Windrunner, and tried to remember that there's a Witch and a Tanker in Left 4 Dead. It was difficult trying to assimilate into their league.

Aren't there others of the same league as you in your platoon? You'll be surprise. The only Rafflesian in my platoon scored the same number of Bs as the number of As I've gotten for 'A'-Levels. The VJC-ian, whose results (of 7 'A'-Level distinctions) was second to mine in the platoon, didn't even consider applying for any scholarship, or overseas university. After all, what can you expect from someone who wore a cheap-looking, corporate polo tee emblazoned with various company logos (obviously it was a freebie retrieved from some corporate goodie bag) for SMU's Business interview? The least he could wear was a Goldlion formal shirt, right?

I don't look down on them. I never did. But given a choice, I probably won't choose to befriend them. We are just... totally different. Like how a 183-cm tall, blonde supermodel would never fall for a 165-cm tall (or short) Zimbabwian farmer who can only speak Afrikaan and knows no calculus. Heidi Klum was an exception, and I am no Heidi Klum.

It felt good seeing all my council mates again, talking about Liu Lu's entrance to this French university whose name proves to be more challenging than "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper", discussing about boring university modules and the constant drive amongst current university students to be on Dean's List, gossiping about his/her break-up and envying/frowning upon how fast she could get herself a protective boyfriend.

It felt good.