Sitting on mummy while she explains the concept
of a leap year with a diagram in New Straits Times.
Lego blocks
and sewing five stones with a plate of rice on my lap
Wynonna Judd on the tv.
Wearing new white stockings and black boots and feeling oh-so-pretty
walking with a skip in my step
while a lady nudged her boyfriend to look at me.
Fish nuggets
from the Fish Shop
doused in chilli sauce and tartar cream.
Sitting near the back of kindergarten
with a lost pal named Eugene.
Both hands on the handlebar
in a pink minibus
darting in and out of kl traffic
with sister in law.

Wearing a new dress
sometime in January nine-five
brother married sister-in-law
on stage for the first time
mic in hand
Elton John's Can You Feel The Love Tonight
the first two lines of the first stanza eluded me
I bravely resumed singing. Little did I know
I would be on stage many more times.
School was flooded in the first year
balancing, walking along precariously on canteen benches like ballerinas
with thoroughly soaked socks and shoes.
There was no fourth,
left old friends behind
and made new ones that would be kept for life.
Turqoise pinafores, rolled-up baju kurung sleeves
Leo vests, unflattering PBSM berets
being thrown and abused around a drama competition stage
noisiest class in F3,
with all the boys being punished
narrowly escaped.
Worried after the streaming
but
Cempaka turned out to be the best years of my life.

From MUFY corridors to the student council room
and back and forth again
stressful times
many late meetings
a bunch of amazingly diverse and warm people
shuddering at Maths B
good times good times.
On a jetplane
to the Land Down Under
new faces,
new acquaintances made,
old acquaintances strengthened
sights and sounds, smells and shops, the sun sea sand; and saccharine memories
Late night conversations
5 o'clock strolls
from the library to the carpark
your heart beating beneath my cheek,
in Love.
Three years
Tiresome moments
precious exchanges
the long sittings in freezing lecture theatres
averting tutors' watchful eyes as they await answers
newly wrapped books
cradled in my right arm
fresh clean white notebooks
and blue neat printing evolving to scribbles as the semester flies by
rainbow swipes of Stabilo highlighters
watching the sun go down, cross-legged in the library
a folder blocking the screen
while WES loads
happy tears.

And now,
about to start the next chapter
afraid and anxious
excited and hopeful,
earning my way
learning my way
in this crazybeautiful thing we call life.