You tell me...

Today was the OneACS National Day Celebration.

When I got there at Queenstown Stadium, I searched t=for the rest of the prefects, which I found at the canteen. We then had a short briefing on our duties before being led out to the field. My duty today would be 'Miselaneous', basically being that I do whatever I'm told by the teachers in-charge of us, for this case Ms Goon and Mr. Bongard.

Walking down the steps of the stadium, I saw all the many different uniform groups in their uniforms and props, and it looked cool. On ground level, I walked past ACS (Independent)'s cluster of students, and found Tim, Matthew, JKit and Raam. I tried to force myself to say a "Hi" or something, but I was somewhat so amazed at the uniforms that all I could do was just wave without even smiling.

We then went to the opposite end of the stadium, where we met up with Mr. Bongard and a few Student Councilors from ACJC. The councilors then taught those who were having cheering duty a few new cheers. Man, their version of Dynamite is a lot cooler than ours.

I, along with the other Miselaneous people, were then told to protect the back gate of the stadium, making sure non-ACS people don't enter and ACS student don't exit. We did it in half-hour shifts, and I was one of the people on the first shift. And coincidentally, the marching started half-way in my shift.

Thankfully, I was still able to watch the marching from where I was. But it wasn't as grand as how it'd have looked like from the breachers. One thing that facinates me about marching is how different groups of people can come from different directions and somehow end up at a standardised position by the end of the music. Ah, well.

Then there was the waiting of the GOHs and the speeches, which took up one and a half shifts. By the time it was the March-Past, I was seated down on the track eager to watch what was going to happen. And so the music started playing, and the March-Past was on the road...

As I watched the contingents march by, I had a sinking feeling in my guts. I knew it was because I was so awed on the systemacy of the whole thing that I thought to myself how cool it was to wear one of those uniforms and say I did something important in them.

As they marched off the tracks, they slowly loosened up and became more mobile again. Soon, troops of white and black were taking off their caps and running for their bags that were in piles beside the back gate. Yeah, it really does look cool, even when you're easing off.

I watched them as they left for the buses at the back of the stadium, around the same time I took on my shift again. Protecting the gate, I looked back time after time to see friends from the different UYOs. Tim and Matt were looking sharp with their riffles for NCC (Land), JKit and Raam were bright in their white attire for NCC (Sea), and even Faraaz looked neat in an NPCC (Sea) uniform, along with Sanjev and ZWei.

And what do I wear? Berms and a white shirt saying we're 'Igniting the ACS Spirit'. If I was told to wear a blazer, at least I could tell myself I was still wearing a suit. But compared to the UYOs, I was just in civilian clothes. I felt deprived. I felt naked. I felt... I felt...

Yes. That was exactly how I felt. Couldn't draw so better myself. But soon my shift as over so I had to report back to the breachers, thus I departed from the misery of watching my uniformed friends.

For the next hour or so, I watched the games that carried on for the OneACS thing. Being positioned on the opposite side of the stadium, I didn't really get a good view of what was going on, let alone know what was going on. But soon after the hours ticked by, prize presentation was quick gone, and we were all dismissed school by school.

By this time, all the UYOs had already dissapeared. I walked my way to Queenstown MRT Station, where I took a train to Dover and caught a 74 to Clementi to change to a 75 or 184. And it just so happens that when I reached Clementi, Joel and Kirby were on the next bus!

They then told me about the documentary preview in class. They mentioned details like how we were going to be pinalised for typos in the subtitles, that the class clapped when I slammed the table, that Mr. Ang laughed many times through the film and even that Toj whistled when he saw me naked in a blooper. And when the bus came, Kirby was still there to tell me rough details on how things went.

That cheered me up a lot, I guess. Well, I better brush up on my ISO Report now while I still can. John 2:13-22! God bless y'all!