Homecoming Kings (and Queens).

Let me just start off by saying that I've just finished watching the North London derby, and it was amazing. After Walcott had scored Arsenal's fifth goal, I could have cried. Yes, it felt that good.

Anyway, now to the main point of the post. A few weeks ago a friend invited me to spend the night at Semesra, my former school, on the 25th (i.e. last Saturday). Eventually, I got my parents' permission to do so, and this got me counting down the passing days, such was my excitement.

And the day finally came. My step-dad drove me to the Ampang LRT station, where I began the long journey to Rembau.

After almost two hours, I got off the train in Seremban before making my way to the Terminal 1 bus station, which was within walking distance. It was there where I had planned to meet up with a friend who was travelling all the way from Johor. The only problem was, we had planned to meet at noon - I had arrived at 9.30.

He eventually arrived around half an hour late. So then we boarded a bus with two other friends (who had also planned on travelling with us) and set off for Rembau.

Along the way, the areas we traveled through got increasingly less developed, and we knew we were close. The signboards that had the name 'Rembau' on them helped to inform us of that as well.

The four of us then got off at a taxi station, where we (obviously) hired a cab to take us to our final destination. As the roads and the surroundings got more familiar, we could feel the excitement building up from within. And when the taxi turned that final corner, thus bringing the school into sight, we knew - we had reached the Promised Land.

Photo courtesy of Semesra official blog.

Old memories flooded back as we looked around the place we had left three months ago.. It hadn't changed a whole lot, but enough to significantly alter the lives of the students there. The boys' hostel now more closely resembled a prison from the outside, what with all the new grilles installed. My old classroom now housed 1 Einstein instead of 5 Einstein. And we also found that the two water coolers that had previously been conveniently placed next to the toilets near our old classrooms were now situated in the canteen.

But it was good to see that  even though the Valedictorians had gone, we had not been forgotten.

Photo courtesy of Mia Nasir.

Of course, the juniors still remembered us.

Anyway, what had actually triggered this sudden gathering of Valedudes and Valedivas was a series of rugby matches between the alumni Lycans and three teams of current Lycans. That afternoon, the grandstands overlooking the school field were practically filled with cheering fans.

Photo courtesy of Amirul Faris Abdul Halim.

Despite a huge lack of match fitness and game time for the majority of the alumni, they still managed to pull off two wins out of three. The one they actually lost was only by two points, so I'm thinking that it was either:

• the Old Boys were brilliant, or 
• the school's current team sucks. Real bad.

And of course, the adventure didn't end there. That night we had dinner at a humble cafe within walking distance of  the school. We were there for a pretty long time, eating and talking and who knows what else.

Most of the girls had already left by then, and now some of the guys had to leave as well. But there were still around 20 of us left.

We were spending the night at the teachers' quarters, where one of the school's counselors had (bravely) offered his place to be used as our room in his absence. While some of us hit the hay early, the rest of us simply weren't ready to go to sleep just yet, including myself. Some of us went for a walk, some just stayed in the room and chatted or did stuff on laptops. At one point I went off with a friend on a motorcycle and we did a few laps on the school's tar-based roads.

Our lodgings. Photo courtesy of Semesra official blog.

The next day, we had breakfast in the school canteen. Then, we said our goodbyes as the time to go had finally come. We now had to go our separate ways, and in my case it was in an eight-seater car with nine other guys. But let's not get into that.

It was a great weekend, and truly a highlight of an otherwise mostly mundane month for myself. As I watched the juniors go about their schooling lives, I looked back on the old days when so many things seemed to matter a huge deal - they all appear so trivial now that I'll soon be in the real world. But that time has passed now, and it's not coming back.

Well, I'll be going back next month. Let's hope that that visit will be even better than this one.

The Town of Bent Necks.

Note: This is a true story.


Back in 1920s Germany, there was a man named Cristoph Dassler who worked in a shoe factory. He lived in a town named Herzogenaurach, and this town was unique as it was split almost in half by a river, the Aurach.

Cristoph had three sons, but for the sake of this tale we only need to know the ones named Rudolf and Adolf. Now, being brothers the two were close, but they were also very different. Rudolf was the loud, outgoing one whereas Adolf (or 'Adi', as was his nickname) was more reserved and quiet.

Adi (left) and Rudolf Dassler. Picture courtesy of the Internet.

When World War I broke out, Rudolf was sent to the trenches. He managed to keep himself alive, and after the war ended he took up a job in Nuremberg, about 15 miles away from his hometown.

In early 1920, Adi set up his own shoe factory just 500 feet north of the Aurach river, and he decided to concentrate on the production of sports shoes. Four years later his older brother Rudolf joined him and they formed a formidable partnership: Adi would use his craftsmanship to make the shoes and Rudolf would use his marketing skills to sell them to the world.

Nevertheless, their company was a great success. At the 1928 and 1932 Olympics German track-and-field athletes wore Dassler shoes, and in 1936 Adi personally delivered a suitcase full of spikes to American sprinter Jesse Owens and persuaded him to use them. Owens went on to win four gold medals, and the company's reputation grew. Business boomed and the Dasslers were selling 200,000 pairs of shoes each year before World War II.

A rift grew between the brothers, but nobody was ever really sure how it happened. What we do know was that Rudolf eventually packed up his things and his family and set up camp in one of the company's factories just north of the river.

And thus, the old company was discontinued and in its place two new companies were formed. Two companies who, as it turned out, were not only out to dominate the market but to also destroy its rival from the other side of the river.

The company south of the river was named after its founder, Adi Dassler: Adidas. And the company north of it? Well, at first Rudolf tried to do the same thing, naming his company "Ruda", but it just didn't sound right so in the end he went with the name Puma.

Thus the Dassler family was torn into two feuding halves.And the town of Herzogenaurach, too, was split on the issue. The town then came to be known as "the town of bent necks", because people who met in the street would first look down to see what shoes the other was wearing, to know whose side they were on.

Sadly, the two brothers never reconciled. When they died, they were buried in the same cemetery, but spaced as far apart as possible.

In the 1980s both Puma and Adidas experienced a bout of decline. This was because the two brothers' sons and successors, Horst (son of Adi) and Armin (son of Rudolf) were so constantly at war with each other that they simply missed the coming of Nike and Reebok.

Rudolf's clan finally lost Puma in 1989, as Armin was dying of cancer. Horst had died two years earlier, but his side of the Dassler family managed to hold on to their company for a bit longer: Adidas was finally lost in 1990.

We can never know what could have happened had the feud never existed - maybe the Dassler brothers could have monopolized the entire sport shoe industry up 'till today. Well, we'll never know for sure. But one thing we do know is which brother's company came out on top: Adidas has been sponsoring the Germany national football team's kit since 1954.

Picture courtesy of soccerbible.com

So, the next time you put on an Adidas or Puma shirt, or a pair of Adidas or Puma shoes, spare a thought for that family feud all those decades ago. Had it not happened, the world of sporting fashion might just have turned out quite differently.

Sources: ESPNsoccernet, Wikipedia.

Introversion.

Extrovert - People who are more energized when around other people.
Introvert - People who are more energized when alone by themselves.

We live in an extrovert's world. At work and at school, group discussions are highly encouraged, in which the guy who talks the most and the loudest is the one everyone listens to. And in general, it is those friendly, sociable types who have the best connections and receive the most admiration from society.

And what about the introverts? Well, they are mostly misunderstood. They are almost always perceived to be shy or anti-social, due to their quiet nature. Well, the truth is, introversion and shyness are two very different things. Being shy means you get nervous or anxious (or something like that) when it comes to social situations. Being introverted means you just prefer not to be in social situations.

Confused? Well, it's not that introverts are afraid of social situations. They can be social, they can deliver great speeches, they can be the life of the party, they can make everyone laugh with hilarious jokes - but only for a short while. Introverts need time to 'recharge' after being involved in a social situation. This is because their energy is somewhat sapped the longer they are with other people, and they need their 'alone time' to re-energize.

And yes, there are introverts who actually are shy and/or anti-social, but that's just a coincidence. There are plenty of introverts who do fine socially.

Introverts are simply wired differently than extroverts. You'll usually find that there's nothing 'wrong' with them, unless of course someone subtly suggests otherwise.

Introverts tend to avoid social situations. Photo courtesy of Yassin Roslan.

There's a reason why God created both extroverts and introverts. We need both to make the world go round.

Introverts

• Bill Gates
• Michael Jordan
• Barack Obama
• Albert Einstein

Extroverts

• Steve Jobs
• Winston Churchill
• Muhammad Ali
• Bill Clinton

As a matter of fact, one isn't usually a pure introvert, or a pure extrovert. Most of us are actually somewhere in between : ambiverts.

During my school years, various teachers have told me to be more sociable. To talk more. To interact more with other people. And not just my teachers neither, some of my friends have said the same as well.

And I don't deny that their advice was for my own good. In fact, I am quite grateful that they took the time to try and help me to live in this world of extroverts.

But when all is said and done, I can't change who I really am. I was born this way. I am an introvert, and I'm proud.

Perspective.

Photo courtesy of Akmal Wahid.

Okay, firstly look past the five handsome guys with your decidedly average-looking author in the foreground, and focus on the magnificently-designed banner in the back. Now look at the word 'Valedictorian' on said banner.

This word just happens to be the name of what will potentially become the best batch of students to have ever walked through the hallowed halls of SM Sains Rembau. And this name, or rather its usage, has come under a bit of scrutiny of late.

As it turns out, the new Form 1 students this year had apparently decided to use the exact same name for their own fledgling batch. A Facebook group had even been formed (ultimate symbol of official-ness). This sparked somewhat of an outrage from several of my fellow batchmates.

So, me and my very stimulus-deprived mind decided to voice out our own point of view on the matter. A short post on the wall of my batch's group triggered a nice, healthy discussion over whether the name 'Valedictorians' should be allowed to be passed on or not. As a result, my brain was so stimulated that I think I took maybe two hours to fall asleep last night.

The conclusion? Well, it's not for me to say, but it was good to see that my friends had not completely lost their powers of critical thinking. And it was also a demonstration of the diversities that exist in human thought.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, as people view the world from different perspectives. Is the glass half-full or half empty? Nike or Adidas? Messi or Ronaldo? Apple or Microsoft? I could go on, but you get the idea.

Man has been said to be the acme of creation. Every single one of us is different: we have different looks, tastes, thoughts, et cetera. This is even more amazing when you realise that there are over seven billion people in the world right now, and when you add that to all the people who had come before us... glory be to God the Creator.

That being said, respect and embrace differences. Don't force people to change, unless what they're doing is morally wrong or something like that. It is all this irregularity that makes the world a much more interesting place to live in.

The Little Things.

Today marks the second anniversary of the day I, and so many others, first stepped into SBP life. I don't have the slightest doubt that a lot of people will be writing about this today, but despite the fact that I don't tend to do what others are doing I'm writing about it anyway.

I took a while thinking about what the focus of this post would be. Should I write about that historic day two years ago? Or should I write about some significant event that occurred during my time in Rembau? Well, in the end, I decided to go with something else entirely - the little things.

It's the big things that tell the story - gold medals, academic achievements, going on national television, etc. - but it's always the little ones that we tend to look back on. And depending on one's point of view, the little things usually differ from person to person. Hence, here's a list containing some of those little things I'll miss about Rembau, in no particular order:

• Rushing to the canteen and dining hall to avoid the queue.
• Taking a nap in the school surau, only to wake up around two hours later.
• Walking past the school field back to the hostel, alone, after night prep.
• Watching juniors play football.

Photo courtesy of... uh, Facebook?

• Correctly answering a question asked by a teacher who's just caught me dozing off in class.
• Watching my classmates getting 'punished' by my English teacher for cracking dirty jokes.
• Playing around with expensive cameras that don't belong to me.
• Going to the school co-op during night prep.
• Ordering juniors around.
• Hurrying down to the courts in the afternoon for futsal.

Photo courtesy of Yassin Roslan.

• Listening to Mr. Azman's announcements at the surau after Maghrib prayers.
• Staying up late to study/gossip.
• Singing in class.
• Being the first one to return to my dorm after night prep, and lying on my bed quietly waiting for everyone else to get back.
• Ordering fried rice with chicken from the security guard.
• Walking to class in the early morning, just to squeeze in a 15-minute nap before the school assembly.
• Prolonging said nap after finding out the school assembly was cancelled due to the rain.
• Studying in different places almost every night.
• Watching my friends do crazy things, and sometimes joining in.

Photo also courtesy of Facebook.

• Seeing teachers overreact to the admittedly stupid things the kids do.
• Using public phones.
• Going for early morning walks, especially in the fog.
• Sleeping during exams.
• Watching football on TV with the guys, and celebrating like maniacs after a goal.
• Seeing other kids with their families every weekend, and envying whatever food they were eating. 

Of course, a complete list would be even longer than this, but you get the idea. It's always the little things you seem to remember the best, 'cause maybe without those small pleasures the big things might not have turned out the way they did.

Likewise, without each and every single batchmate, would it have made any difference at all to the story of the first ever Semesra graduates? Most definitely. Happy anniversary, Valedictorians.

Photo courtesy of Yasmeen Fazeera Shamsuddin.

The Road Not Taken.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And perhaps having the better claim

Because it was grassy, and wanted wear,

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I marked the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference. 

- Robert Frost

Now, this is one poem that interests me. For those of you too lazy to actually read the whole thing, don't worry. I'll break it down for you.

Basically, it goes like this:

• A guy walks through the woods and finds a fork in the road.
• He can't decide which way to go, since both roads appear to be exactly the same.
• He decides to go one way, and maybe he'll go the other way next time.
• However, he knows that there probably won't be a next time, and that he may never find out what the other road holds in store.
• When he gets older, he'll reminisce about his decision. He took the road less traveled by, and that has made "all the difference".

The message? Well, we all come to our own 'forks in the road' all the time, for as long as we live. It's all about making the right decisions on which way to go. And the way I see it, when you finally get to the end of the road you'll either find yourselves 'upstairs', or the dreaded 'downstairs'. Hopefully we'll all take the right turns - I know where I'd rather end up. ;)