The F Word

Family

I'm an only child. Lucky me (I don't have to share my stuff). My parents come from relatively small families. My mom has one older brother and my dad has two younger siblings. In total I have 6 first cousins. Of all my cousins I'm the oldest of the lot. So my role in the family is more of a babysitter than anything else. It can be hard to entertain a bunch of kids ranging from ages 6 to 14 but its fun. BTW my parents aren't paying me say this. My family is quite closely knit both in my mom's and dad's side of the family. Both my parents were raised in Ipoh for a significant part of their lives and I grew up there till the age of 6 when my family moved to KL. Education has always been an important part of my family. My maternal grandmother and both my paternal grandparents were teachers. My grandfather was even a principle in various prominent schools in Ipoh and around Perak.

My dad having a degree in Applied Mathematics, wanted to become a physicist but instead took law as well and became a lawyer. Although it would have been cool to have a particle accelerator in my basement. My dad is kind of guy who will tell random facts at the dinner table. For example one day while having dinner my dad asked 'If the universe is ever expanding and so full of stars why is it that its dark at night and white full of stars?'. This is the only guy I know who talk about Einstein's Theory of Relativity while walking down the road to buy char kuey teow. Whether or not it's blessing or a curse that is something that seems to have rubbed of on me.

My mom on the other is somewhat the opposite. For one she always knew she had absolutely positively no interest in Science. She also is the more prudent and isn't very impulsive. Whereas my dad is admittedly the more impulsive and spAontaneous guy. About three years ago, my dad and I decided to shave our heads bald. My dad still goes to the barber to get a shave every two weeks.

As for me people say I have my mom's looks and my dad's intelligence. I never really warmed to way people say I look like my mom. To me it sounds like they're saying I look like a girl. Both my parents love to travel. Mainly to beaches like Bali, Phuket and Australia. My mom and I are both very interested in photography so there is always a lot of photos to bring home. However that doesn't necessarily mean there are many family photographs.

Friends

For some odd reason, I always seem to find it easier to mingle with people older than me rather than people my age. Maybe its because of my interest in topics like politics, economics, foreign affairs and those kind of things. The friends I do have are mainly from different groups. First of there are my friends from my class, then my friends through my Leo club and Editorial Board, then there are my friends from outside school walls. These are friends through acting and creative workshops. These are the fun-er bunch. Mainly cause we share the same interests. Normally I'm labelled the nerd in school because I don't necessarily like the same things as everyone else in my class but I don't mind. Most of friends in school are fun to be around mainly because they're so dumb in a good way. One example is my Indian friend who insists on speaking with the heaviest Chinese accent you've ever heard. Or my NON-GAY friend who is the biggest Adam Lambert fan I know and insists on wearing heavy eyeliner.

When meeting new people I tend to think of omegle. For those of you who don't know what omegle is, click here and follow the instructions. Personally I've always had trouble meeting new people. I tend to warm up to people but I've really been able to go up and talk to some one. But if I were to sum myself up it would be something like 'Daniel, 16. Love politics, school and The Beatles. You?'

I've never really had a strong urge to fit in. I'm not like one of those people who need a sense of belonging. Maybe it's the fact that I'm an only child 'cause I'm quite happy to be myself.  Most of my friends have a very strong sense of individuality and are very proud of our own quirks.

Both my parents come from very open families but are equally steeped in tradition. So religion has never really played a part in choosing friends.

Now as for this next section, please forgive me as I may be a bit offensive and insensitive. I'm in the top class in school and I'm also a prefect. This is gives me and my friends the perfect opportunity to hone our skills at profiling. So first off, one thing I noticed which is particularly evident in weaker classes is the fact that these cliques tend to consist of a group of people who are often of the same race. ( Talk about 1Malaysia eh?).
First off there is the PKBM group. PKBM stands for Pasukan Kadet Bersatu Malaysia. PKBM is a uniformed body which comes under the jurisdiction of the army. This unit is 100% Malay and most off they're members are the rempit kind. The kind that loiter around KLCC and Jalan Imbi on the weekends. They are also the kind whom are very disruptive in class and don't seem to have any educational interests besides maybe in Pendidikan Islam.

Then you've got the basketball gang. These are the Chinese boys who play basketball at opportunity even if they have a class going or have to jump over school wall while evading prefects and teachers. They also tend to dye they're hair the cringiest of orange and have very long hair.

Lastly there is the Indian gang, these are the guys who flirt around with Indian girls very obviously, pick fights with other students.

However the thing that all these groups share in common is the fact that they all smoke behind Block F (which is abandon and supposedly haunted). 1Malaysia memang boleh!

But then you can't forget the group of fun, active students who come from all races and religion no matter what anyone says.

P.S I know should post a lot of photos but I'm just too lazy to find some photos in my pile of 10 000 files.