Farewell book from my teenage school year
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Before I show you some of the contents inside my farewell book, let me show you some photos from school. You may have seen one of them before in my previous post about my teenage years. This was taken when I left. I was in class 1C, and Miss Wong was our class teacher. It was a mixed school and there were guys as well, but I only rounded up the girls. Can you spot me in the photo?
If you haven't, I'm second to the right to Miss Wong. The girl on her left is Alice, my best friend, and Kelly is between me and Miss Wong. Kelly was the cleverest in the class, even cleverer than me 😄
Here's me and Alice on the left, and me and Winnie on the right. Winnie was another of my best friends, maybe second to Alice at that time.
Being my best friend, Alice was the first to sign my farewell book. You can see I've had to tape the pages together to stop them falling apart. Many of my friends added their photo to their message. That's what makes this so special otherwise they would just be vague teenage memories.
My friendship with Alice didn't kick off from the beginning. We both thought each other looked arrogant and unapproachable, but it turns out negative negative is positive and we ended up as besties for the year. After I returned to UK, I kept in touch with most of the girls for a few years. I might have seen them once or twice when I went back to Hong Kong for holidays, and then relationships fizzled out. I was especially sad to lose contact with Alice. One year is a pretty weak base to build long term connections.
Winnie was in class 1B but we sort of clicked. She was a talented pianist and in the following years, she got a diploma in piano and started teaching. I remember the last time we met, which was a few years after I left, she had moved in with her hairdresser boyfriend. Don't know why I remember that so well, maybe because she was still very young and it wasn't such a common thing to do in those days.
Here's Kelly, the brainbox in the class, if I remember correctly, she might even be the top in the year (we had six classes). She's the type of student who memories everything in the textbook, even the footnotes in case it comes up in exams. And when I said she's even cleverer than me, that's not because I'm particularly clever, but I was one or two years older than everyone else giving me some advantage. Kelly popped up on my Linked connection profile many years later, I can't remember how that happened. She seemed to be doing well career wise. We messaged each other a couple times, but never met up.
The twins are so sweet, and they always had this beautiful smile. They are the people who light up the room as they enter. I love them! They're Winnie and Christy, but I can't remember who is who. They were in class 1F (it's funny how these random facts stick with you) the same class as William, who Christy mentioned in her farewell message to me. It was an open secret that William fancied me 😊 The twins lived with their grandmother at the time, and I think their parents were in Canada. I heard not long after I left, they emigrated to Canada to join their parents, so I never got to see them again even when I went to back to Hong Kong for holidays.
I also got my teachers to sign my farewell book. No photos of them, just words of encouragement, or was it more than that? Have a read yourself.
| This is from my class teacher Miss Wong | I think Mr Lee was my science teacher, this says "There is sky beyond sky" |
|---|---|
 |  |
| I can't remember who Mr Chiang was, maths teacher maybe | Ms Li and Mrs Cheung, they might have been my music and home economics teacher |
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Now looking back as a grown up, I can't help to wonder, is there a hidden message amongst all those messages? I was quite a popular student back in those days. Academically I did well, and being a little older than the rest, I guess I wasn't afraid to be vocal or different. Were my teachers trying to tell the teenage me something? 🤔
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