"Guess what, I never liked wushu. I remember running away from trainings with Susi, contemplating whether to skip trainings on Monday and Wednesday nights, waking up late all the time on holiday training days, hating jiaolian, hating CCA in general. But again, if time turns back, if I’m allowed a second chance, I’ll choose wushu all the same. Maybe I’ll hate it again, but who cares? Will any other CCA give me Susi Yiting Alyssa Sarah Venus Chingyee? No. I will never meet those wonderful people anywhere else. Anywhere else but wushu. I think the brain (or heart?) is the best thing bestowed to a human being. It keeps all the great things forever, and sometime not even time can erode one’s feelings for them. Those memories are permanent, it gives a beautiful illusion, and we think there’s such a thing in as Forever in life. Back to wushu. I hated trainings to the core, I feel it in my bones, why didn’t I quit it like Yuxin/Yixuan/everyone else who left it? Because there were people I can’t leave behind. They were my emotional support. They didn’t have to do anything, their presence is everything that’s needed to pull me through when times were bad (like end of Sec 3 and beginning of Sec 4). Drinking soyabean milk on the swings, chatting until it’s 7+ and realising that only because the skies turned dark, rolling around on the di tan in wuguan, staying late choreographing moves, disagreements, getting pissed at each other, crying when we realised we didn’t manage to win the very last competition, left to fend for ourselves when no one else could be bothered with us, talking about literally everything under the sun, playing truth or truth, dancing to kpop in wuguan when we are really supposed to train, cutting ourselves and still joking about it, batch outings of any kind, meeting up before going for trainings, playing soccer and captain’s ball with deflated balls, changing in a closet, spazzing over cousin (hahaha), taking photos in the same pose, complaining how we are always treated unfairly………Do you guys still remember all of these? And how much it changed over time? It really pained my heart that things won’t be the same anymore, but the fact it actually happened, that’s a really wonderful realisation isn’t it? 4 years.. We spent two fifths of the 4 years together, or more, you guys will forever hold a special place in my heart. And I mean Forever. (And I realised I took the most number of Instax with you guys) When something doesn’t come back anymore, when you realise you’re losing something forever, memories of that, whether happy

or sad, all become so very beautiful, that they will never be lost, because they will be kept securely in your heart, until the day you die."

Quoted from Yiting who quoted from Grace.

Thankyou Grace, for telling us the truth. It isn't easy for you to make this choice, and actually I admire you for being so clear in what you want, and to never once look back on your choice.

If you want the truth, I wasn't that much of a wushu enthu when I first joined. Sure, I had plenty of background with martial arts form, but what I really did wanted to join was Taekwondo. Sadly to say, Nanyang didn't offer it, and wushu then came in as another alternative.

But through the four years, I have come to love wushu for what it is. Love, as in not the over-enthu-I-must-do-wushu love, but just love in general. Love, as in the fact that I know, and am sure that I'll rather just be lousy at it then to give it up. Maybe it's just because a part of me doesn't want to let go of the past, of our past that I'll see through it in my JC years, hoping for a shadow of the past we share in our future; or just maybe, because if I were to let go, our past will just become a figment of our memory.

Is it silly to wish for a replay of high school years?

We've come a long way together, where we cry scream laugh together, where we spent 4 years of our life together regardless of the class, regardless of anything.

We weren't perfect. We were new, unexperienced, we slacked together during trainings, we complained about our teacher in charge all the time, we argued, fought. But despite the imperfections, we were perfect in our own ways. We weren't a big batch, but each of us were bonded, something I'd rather have then to have a large batch and not personally knowing each other.

We aren't perfect, our personalities are like skies and earth apart, our opinions often disagree more than agree, we came from totally different backgrounds, but together, we are one.

And we'll always be, no matter how far each of us have gone.

Gracey, you'll always be a part of our batch, so do come and see us often kays? :)