Looking beyond wrinkles at meetups with old classmates

My friends and I just sent a “love letter” to our physics tutor in junior college, more than 30 years late.

- Chang May Choon Assistant Foreign Editor

Our school doesn’t even exist any more after a 2019 merger, but when we recently learnt he was still teaching at the merged school, well into his 70s, we decided to pay tribute to his dedication to teaching.

It’s funny how we never realised he was a favourite among us, until now. After scribbling down personal messages for him in a cafe where we last gathered in August, we the class of 92S4 whipped out a gigantic cake and celebrated our 50th birthday milestone together.

We sang the birthday song not just once, but three times.

Celebrations are always more fun in the presence of so many “partners in crime”.

In today’s digital age, birthday greetings are often delivered through text messages and voice notes. Tech advancements may have made communication easier, but nothing can beat the joy and laughter from interacting face to face with old friends as we revel in shared memories of the past and enjoy new experiences together.

This year being the half-century mark of my existence on earth, I made it a point to celebrate in person with two groups of classmates — primary school and junior college - simply because we are all the same age.

Primary school was a long time ago and a few of us went to the same secondary school where lifelong friendship bonds are typically formed and developed separately. What binds us together is our common background of being kampung kids made good, and it’s heartening to see how far we have come in our respective careers. Our school does not exist any more, but memories live on in the people we attended it with.

Two years of JC flew by quickly, most of it spent mugging for the A levels, but somehow we still created enough fond memories to last a lifetime. We may not be one another’s closest friends, but we still find value and joy in occasional meetups and asking: “How have you been?”