Last Saturday, my alma mater SCGS had a Home Coming Day to celebrate 20 years since moving into the present campus at Dunearn Road. SCGS was where I went to primary and secondary school, spending a good decade in the sky blue sleeveless sundress of a uniform that distinguishes SCGS girls from the many schools in Singapore. SCGS is also where my mum and sis went and it would be where I’d like to send my daughter if I had one. For 9.5 years I was at the Emerald Hill campus which was located in the heart of Orchard Road; SCGS girls were like blue accessories walking around Singapore’s downtown shopping area until the school moved. My cohort spent only about 5 months at the present campus, where we sat for our O-levels and then it was goodbye to SCGS and being forever sweet 16.
Of the several educational institutions I’ve attended, SCGS is the one that I feel the most for as I spent the most time studying there. Some of my closest friends are from SCGS too and we have many shared memories. Three of them returned to SCGS for Home Coming Day and how I wished I could have been there with them! Thanks to technology, I was kept abreast of the day’s happenings with their whatsapp messages and pictures of themselves, posed photos with other cohort mates who had also turned up, and SCGS memorabilia they had bought which included a customised SCGS Lego set, a white teddy bear in the blue uniform, a dark green hoodie with ‘SCGS’ emblazoned in front and ‘Jade & Gold’ (our school colours) at the back etc.
SCGS girls are proud of our school and its heritage – the school was established in 1899 and is one of the oldest schools in Singapore – and I think SCGS girls must have some sort of connection which brings us together in mysterious ways. Seven years ago, during my working holiday stint in London, I had a blog reader write to me saying that she’s also a fellow Singaporean foodie in London and brought up the idea of meeting up as she had just moved to London. At that point, I was already due to leave London in two weeks to return to Singapore, but that didn’t stop me from meeting a fellow foodie and making a new friend. And so that was how I got to know E.
We hit it off right away, chatting away like old friends, and discovered through our conversation that we were both from SCGS, with her four years my junior. We didn’t meet again until three years later in 2010, this time back in Singapore where she had returned after her 3-year secondment in London. Again, conversation flowed and then the years flew by again. Thanks to social media, I found out E was in Hong Kong for work and managed to meet up with her two nights ago for a quick catch-up. Three meetings across three cities, and it was such great pleasure to see her again. It was a fun night and at the end of it, we attributed our friendship to the SCGS spirit which is being kept strong and alive by us Kim Geks (i.e. gold and jade, but also connoting a young Chinese girl brought up and educated in the best manner)!
