happy children's day!

happy children's day!

It's 1st October. It's a very special day. It's one of the days I like most in the year. It's a day to bring out the child in everyone.

Yes! It's Children's Day! And I'm so thrilled that there is NO holiday for Secondary School kids. Children in Singapore are DEPRIVED of their childhood. Wonderful. Just so wonderfully wonderful.

Do I not miss the sweetie treats that teachers used to give every Children's Day?

Do I not miss the hilarious performances put up by teachers every year?

Do I not miss screaming and cheering one year and trying to be adult-like by acting cool and nonchalant the next?

Do I not miss being a child again?

I do, I do. I do so very much. Suddenly I realize a part of me refuses to grow up. Of course, as a kid, I had always wanted to reach adulthood asap. But now, as a teenager, I feel that time is flying pass without me realizing it, contradicting to how I felt when I was younger - time crawls by; it never passed fast enough; I was growing up too slowly. I was irritated by my young age. But now, I'd give anything to pause time, just for a little moment, for me to appreciate my teenhood, and reminiscence my childhood.

Today's a perfect day for all that.


I took a walk around my old neighbourhood today. It's just next to my present neighbourhood.

I walked on the same grounds where I first learnt how to ride a bike; the same grounds where I used to run up and down with my friends, each of us with a gigantic school bag; the same ground I walked with Mummy and Daddywhen my baby brother was first brought home from the hospital; the first ground where I first scraped both knees.

I looked up at the same window where I used to sit on, with my legs dangling on the outside every night (you see, I was always sent to bed at 9, but I can't get to sleep that early, so I've acquired the habit of sitting on the window almost every single night and wave at the people walking by. I wondered if anyone had called the police. I really do.) But I couldn't be sure which window it really is. I felt a sense of loss.

The place now, no longer has the aura of childhood that I had expected to find. It's my first time returning ever since I moved away. Times have changed; people have changed; and I guess, places change too. The pavements and void decks - kids no longer hang out there. Different people live there now. Everyone seemed to have moved away. I see grown men sitting around, lost in their own set of dreams and troubles and memories. No more children running around, like we used to back in the days.

I miss being a fearless little girl.

I wasn't fearless walking through the neighbourhood, with the grown men sitting around, staring at me as I walked past. It was a little creepy. I thought I could see traces of hopes and shards of broken dreams in their faces. But then again, I may have been simply semi-sleep-walking.

With the old neighbourhood just next to the new one, it feels like the past has merged into my present; my childhood imprinted into the paths I walk as a young adult.

I am but a lost child who's finding her way.

P.S I think blogger has caught Dengue. I can't blog in html! Which resulted in the ugly colour of the title. =( Anyone knows how to fix it?