Thursday, July 06, 2006

Cheeseman Elocution Competition.

Every day in school, I dread for something new and exciting to happen. Something out of the mundane, pathetic lives we lead in school. Waking up at 6a.m. in the morning, when everything is still pitch black outside , to another daily routine is boring the life out of me! No matter how hard I try, I just can't seem to change spice up this sick routine. It's technically the same everyday! I wake-up, clean up, get dressed, breakfast (rarely), go to school, feel sleepy in school, wait patiently for school to end, get back from school and launch to my computer-addict self.

Minus the boring routine, there hasn't been a day that I spent in school, this entire week (and a few weeks before), being extremely alert and awake! It's impossible to pass the day without falling asleep in one of the many long classes of Mr. Khor. Most of the time, I find my eyes gradually closing with my chin falling gently onto the table, slowly falling into the tender, soft arms of slumber before the end of every lesson. The only thing that keeps me awake is Aiman hitting my back repeatedly throughout the lesson or when the class monitor addresses the teacher, only that I'll suddenly wake up and wipe away the saliva hanging halfway into my pocket.

The other thing is that I find myself daydreaming even more since the new time schedule started. It's easy to stare into the alluring dark green colour of a blackboard with some writings or number scribbled over it with chalk, letting my mind slip away thinking if anyone is ever going to come up with something wild once in a while like something we see on High School Pranks. *sighs* Imaginations starts to run freely and I lose all my consciousness again, paying no attention AT ALL to what Mrs. Chee is mumbling about in front of the class. Everything turns into a blur when I get myself caught up in another one of my daydreams. It feels like I'm on drugs or something. Undeniably, the extra time spent at school is really tiring. I could swear that by the end of Wednesday, it felt like it was Friday!

Enough about boring school.

So here I am complaining about the same ol' boring school when I just got myself a 12 marks worth of demerit on Wednesday and at the same time, have a 600words worth of essay to prepare for. You know, after what's happened to me for the past 2 days, I shouldn't be complaining about how boring school is. I'm not gonna change it cause school IS boring... and definitely troublesome too.

Remember how worried and caught up I was when Mr. Goh said I was going to represent my class for the Inter-Class Oral Competition, thingking that it was going to be a speech kinda thing when it turned out be an ordinary one-on-one oral test? Well, this time it's for real. For a moment I thought I already had passed the barrier of fearing a presentation on stage facing approximately 265 restless students, but I was wrong. Mr. Goh once again, happily picked me to represent my class for the annual Cheeseman Elocution Competition! At the beginning of the year, I thought it was going to be the Inter-Class Public Speaking Competition, which by now, I have heard no news off. This time it's the Cheeseman Elocution Competition?! Didn't I tell you the school was troublesome with so many "annual" events?

I've heard of this elocution competition a couple of times before in the past 3years of my schooling life. I was never bothered (the I-don't-give-a-damn attitude) to learn or know about it, always living under the impression that I am never ever going to get picked to join any of those heinous competitions. Who would ever thought that I'd be picked for the most of it, on my 4th year of school!? I never thought of this prospect when I chose the arts stream class, at the beginning of the year. I wasn't going to give in easily to Mr. Goh when he broke the bad news to me, pulling me out of Mr. Samad's class when he was saying somehting about midpoints, I deliberately begged Mr.Goh to differ his choice!

He simply refused repeatedly and was on the verge of yelling at me when I finally relented. He wrote my name down on the back of the piece of paper, that was meant for the participants of the elocution, with rules and regulations and particulars about the elocution printed, unceremoniously over it. I gave him a really messed up expression when he finished writing the final letters of my elocution title which is 'Blogging'. Mr. Goh kind of wrote the title himself without asking me for my consent. I just nodded my head in blankly when he assured me the date and the time of the elocution, set on the next Thursday (13/7) on 12.40, I think.

Matt : So who am I going to face? The whole of Form 4?
Mr. Goh : I don't think so. I think there'll be changes this year.
Matt : Who are the other participants?
Mr. Goh : I'm not sure. They'll have to be picked by their own respective teachers.
Matt : How long is the speech itself?
Mr. Goh : About 5-6minutes.
Matt : ...
Mr. Goh : I'm sure you can do it!

Somehow, he's tone of voice didn't really convinced me that I wasn't going to face the whole of Form 4 and he was pretty rush-y about this whole thing. I liked his words better when he told me to represent my class in the beggining of the year! He sounded more encouraging than this. Maybe he was juts being fed up by my complaints and my lack of confidence. I can't blame him. Come to think of it, the only RATIONAL explanation to me agreeing to Mr. Goh the last time was that I had lots of time to prepare.
But now, to come up with 600words (it's not that hard actually) about the topic 'Blogging' itself in a few days time? Let me catch my breath first...

I don't even know what the hell this elocution is! I mean, I had helped Grace with one of her elocutions 4years back and she got pretty good grades for writing my ideas and taking everything that I say about 'peer pressure'. It sounded really stupid when I asked Mr. Goh, "What exactly is AN elocution?". I've never done one or attended one before! I think it's something similar to public speaking, is it? I'll Google it.

It's like I have not enough stuff to deal with. Technically, my usual pile of homework is still there, despite all the effort I've been putting in lately to (hopefully) finishing it. It still stands! Plus, the monthly examinations are coming up in two weeks time, including this week. I haven't exactly put any effort it that, I gotta admit. I've been spending alot of wasted afternoons instead of sitting down and opening my book to the million tiny words of my History textbook, reading up on the history of the Prophet Muhammad and memorising numerous names with really weird spelling, and falling asleep not long after. I still prefer the wasted afternoons.

But now, I'm going to have to think of come up with something to write about blogging. And fast.

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