  Blabbers Watching High School Reunion (HSR) further emphasises that school life plays a big part in shaping a person's character. Since Singapore does not have the high school system, the closest comparison would be with the Junior Colleges (JC) or the polytechinics. My JC life was certainly a memorable experience for me and shaped some of my thinking, especially about friends. Unlike HSR, there weren't stupid labels like "the Jock", "the Player", "the Popular Girl" and so on, at least not that I knew of.
Rarely did one person stick out prominently. Groups or cliques featured heavily in school. We had the "in" crowd, who of course, were cool but rowdy. We also had a swimmers crowd, and they occupied a particular place in the canteen known as the "swimmers' table". Other groups included the band people, the Malay society people, rock-climbers, counsellors, exco (executive committee) members and other smaller cliques. The arts faculty students (those who studied Lit, Geog, Hist) tend to stay together because we were the minority.
A similarity might be seen in the amount of bitching that is done about people from different groups. My class particularly, wasn't known for our friendliness, and we had the awful habit of giving science students nicknames. Of course, then, the nicknames used to crack us up so much that we spent a lot of time making fun of other people. Among the nicknames created were "daddy long legs", "duck mouth" and "pornstar". Til this day, I still have no idea what their real names are, and all 3 of them studied at NTU with me. My favourite nickname has to be the one I called a girl I really didn't like, because her behaviour was annoying.
I called her "Chucky". Hee, yes, in memory of the doll. Nowadays, my friends and I give nicknames to some uni mates but they are less venemous, however still retain a little humour. Crushes, as seen from HSR and various books I've read, have a big impact on the lives of many girls. All those time spent mooning over a guy who was oblivious to the silent attention given to him by the girl.
I remember my JC crush very well. I liked him for one and a half years. Never did speak to him although we had Geography classes together. I called him "His Royal Cuteness" or HRC for short. Perhaps, the biggest part of a students' life, aside from the academic aspect of it, has got to be the friends. Somehow at that age, doing things in group were very common. Lunches were taken together, friends sat side by side in class, copied each other's homework, went out together, pee-ed together, bitched together. You get my drift? I found that to be the most exhausting part of being in a group of friends. In such cliques, there has got to be the leader, or alpha-member. As fun as such groups were, keeping up appearances and always worrying about getting on the wrong end of the alpha-members temper was time-consuming.
I had to learn that the hard way and it made school life painful for a short while. However, lasting friendships can be forged in the 2 years and I've got close friends from my JC days. Looking back, I've realised nothing much has changed. I still have crushes, my friends still form a great part of my life and I still bitch about certain so-and-sos with fellow NTU friends. However, there is a lesser need to do things in groups and I value my personal time very much. It was a nice trip down memory lane. And lucky for me, I've got tons of photos to look at, if I want to take another trip down that lane. 
