EI0603. One unforgettable memory.

Before I begin, this post is dedicated to everyone in EI0603, a wonderful class otherwise also known as D3, that brought nothing but fun, peace, joy and laughter everyday. This post might sound very solemn to you, but I'll try to add some humourous parts in.

Everything typed in this post will be the truth and nothing but the truth.

As I always say with my three fingers on my right hand raised,

"I cross my heart and hope to live."

EI0603, or otherwise known as D3, was the class I was assigned to be in Year 1. The first bus trip to school on the bus 72 while I was eagerly waiting to meet new peeps, new friends, forge new bonds and perhaps, build a new family.

That day at the interchange, I saw Suhendi waiting for the same bus. He was my friend in my previous secondary school. During the trip to school for the orientation, I found out he was in the same course as me. Of course, having a friend you knew already would make it easier to know more people in the same course. Little did I know that other than him, there was Geraldine, who was also from my secondary school. The surprising part was that both of them were in the same class as me too!

Me, being half-blooded, might have difficulties making new friends as some Malays speak malay to me, which I rarely have a clue about if they speak too fast, or some Chinese, who might feel weird speaking chinese to someone who looks malay. Nevertheless, I decided to try and make some friends around the malay community in my class. Slowly, I got to know Mastura, Sashayz and Hidayat.

Mastura was known for her "interestingly" funny laughter, which spread smiles to those that heard it.

Sashayz and Hidayat were known for their way of being able to mingle around with some of the other classmates we weren't that close with, yet.

Each time we had breaks, the five of us would go have lunch at the south canteen. Our class would be scattered into groups, with each and every different communities and groups spreaded around the whole campus. During the orientation, I got to also know Eileen, Kenneth, Han Xiang, Chun Hwee, Kevin Chew, Joni, Hui Hui and Kevin Loke. Though we weren't very close, but we knew each other's names for a start.

After that 3-day orientation, school started. I spent the first 2 weeks with the Mas, Shayz, Yat and Susu. Definitely, every passing day made our bonds closer and closer.

As for the lessons, C# or pronounced C sharp, was definitely one of the things I used to hate going lessons for. The lecturer, Mr Simon Yee, or how each of us would call him as Simony as his name appeared on the timetable, explained how C# worked and tried to teach the codes to us.

Didn't know about the others, but I knew I definitely had a hard time understanding what the hell he was talking every single lesson.

One example was during the lessons, I kept hearing "Console.Writeline" and "Console.Readline".

Of course, I had no background knowledge on C# and I guess not everyone in class had that too. Sitting at the back with Susu, we were like playing flash games on the PC almost every lesson. Until when a C# project was assigned to class to do in groups of 2.

During the times in class, I tried to break the ice between Xiao Wei and the rest of their clique by approaching Geraldine often for help in understanding C#. Not to mention, I also approached Kenneth and Ken during that week. As I expected, no one understood what the lecturer was talking as the codes he was saying were like alien language to me. I got curious as to how I was going to complete the first semester if I couldn't do something that I was interested in.

I plugged in my 128mb thumbdrive and copied all the contents of that module into it. During the days, I spent around 2 hours everyday trying to understand what was C# and how the program worked.

The next week, I finally understood not only "Console.WriteLine" and "Console.ReadLine", but also what he was saying during the whole lab session. Of course, my foundation of logic was still not that good yet. I asked around for help and advice, learning not only more about C#, but also improving my friendship with some people in the class.

During week 6 to week 8, we had a new student that joined our class. I'd never knew this guy would be one of my best buddies that helped me out in need. Jie Sheng was 2 years older than me as he graduated from ITE. I noticed him the first time sitting on the stairs in a lecture. Then I gradually approached him during class. In the end, he gradually became our friend.

We also had another new student that joined our class. Shi Qin was from Taiwan. But he had no accent of it whatsoever. Really great guy to talk with. Lots of jokes and laughters.

By week 9 to the end of the semester, I had known the whole class. I also hung out more often with the chinese people, which consisted of Kenneth, Joni, Kevin Chew, Jie Sheng, Shi Qin, Chun Hwee, Han Xiang, Eileen, Hui Hui and Kevin Loke. By then, we weren't the usual silent group that didn't talk much, but the group that made the most laughters around.

I also got to know Ken, Jing Rong and Jun Hao during that time. Me and Ken used to share ideas on how this particular program could be done.

Of course, C# wasn't the only lesson that improved our bonds and relationships. The Computing Maths tutorial was really a fun time to get to know each other. My E-Maths was seriously total crap in secondary school. In Computing Maths, we studied A-Maths, which was even worse. But each of us taught each other on how to do the various questions and equations, not to mention some bits of copying.

Slowly and gradually, the first semester passed. I felt happy to get a starting grade of GPA 3.071 even though I didn't fully understand all of the topics.

But I knew for sure, it wasn't the GPA that made me really happy, but the new friends that I just made that made school compulsory to attend everyday.

"I go to school not to study hard, but to talk more and play hard."

By the second semester, we learnt about the basic fundamentals of networking by using programs such as Packet Tracer and Ethereal.

Our friendship became a family. No more groupings or communities. We were FFA, or free for all. This semester, I played really hard. Every 4 hour break that we had would mean either walking around in Ang Mo Kio, playing pool at Grassroots, the LAN centre at Tenchi Comics or Raiders and the arcade centres.

On the fact that the fundamentals of networking was somewhat, a rather hard-to-understand topic because of its confusing nature in configuring IP addresses, we questioned each other everyday on how to do a question in this module. Of course, I had only interest in programming and nothing else. Didn't really bother to read up on it till Week 14 to 15 where the semestral exams were nearing.

We managed to slip past that module and go on to the next semester. My grades did drop, but not by a huge margin.

In Year 2, semester 1, we would help each other if we did not understand on how to do this question of a particular module. We were already more than just friends, but a real family.

Every lesson in class would be filled with chitter-chatters and laughters.

I could remember how Eileen would keep nagging to me about how "interesting" her french teacher was.

I could remember how I finished Chun Hwee's C# project and the lecturer still found out in the end.

I could remember nearly every bit of all the fun we had together.

Year 2 semester 2.
The last semester to Year 3.

Networking became a tough obstacle for us. Mostly due to the new lecturer from a University.

Visual Basic was hard for some to cope. Due to the harsh environment. Someone cried in class because of the way the lecturer replied her question. I shan't mention who though.

The System Application And Control Project was one of the hardest projects ever to date to do. The specifications were simply, confusing. The codes were not fully given to us. I learnt how to get codes, the hard way. That is, by taking one of Jie Sheng's friend's program and spending 1 night reading his near 10 page long coding just for a single function.

Database Management was really the module that nearly delivered the finishing blow to me. Due to time constraints in dealing with the System Application And Control Project submission date, I spent and burnt the midnight oil, literally, doing out a database and a program for the Database project to be handed up on the following day. Simply put it, I chiong-ed a 15 week project in 14 hours non-stop. I got knocked out on the bus back home later on.

Networking project presentation was simple enough. My group, otherwise also known as the "Dream Team", had to do on the various internet protocols, DNS, DHCP, WINS and NAT. Each one in the team just researched on one topic and we placed the information together like a simple jigsaw puzzle. One of the presentations I've had so far that went with a breeze.

And now, back to the present.

A few of us have broken up into different paths.
Eileen, Chun Hwee, Han Xiang, Joni and Kevin Chew went into Integrated Logistics.
Mastura, Sashayz, Hidayat, Jing Rong and Shi Qin went into Programming.
Me, Jie Sheng, Kenneth, Ken and Geraldine went into Networking.

Even though we are separated into different classes, we still meet up sometimes while walking around in school, have lunch together like the old times and other stuffs like that.

For me, I feel its so hard to make new friends in the new Networking class. I just feel that D3 is enough for me.

The times, fun, jokes, riddles, laughter, troubles, obstacles and all we've faced in the past 2 years and 3 weeks are really, literally unforgettable.

We might not have anyone in our class in the top 10% of the cohort every semester, and literally EVERY semester, but I dare say the amount of dependence on each other we've had before makes our friendship stronger than the few other classes.

And I'm not shy to say this thought I've had since Year 1:

"I want to graduate together with you guys!"