#03 People Watch

Yesterday around 2pm, I was having lunch at Ikea, and a middle-aged woman seated across me caught my attention. She was having lunch too, all by herself. Immediately, I caught myself wondering what she was doing all alone. It is so common to see people nowadays having meals with groups of friends, including myself. So naturally, I was very intrigued by this particular woman having a meal alone. She was dressed with a simple black V-neck tee shirt and jeans, and she was constantly writing or drawing on her notebook with a pencil while she was eating. That led me to wonder, what’s her occupation? Could she an interior designer out at Ikea to gather inspiration for an upcoming project? Or could she be a graphic artist? I thought of such possibilities because it doesn’t seem like she’s someone with an office job because of her attire. Or perhaps, she took a day off from her work and came down to Ikea merely to look at the furniture and enjoy a meal? I will never know for sure.

Name: Monica Koh

The second person that caught my attention was a young indian guy on the bus that I took to home after school. Unfortunately this time, I did not manage to capture a photo of him. He was rather good looking with his sharp features and deep-set eyes, and appeared to in his early twenties. He was dressed rather smartly in a white formal top. I failed to see what bottom he was wearing though. Throughout the journey, he was reading a stack of bound papers, which I believed to be his lecture notes. He also carried a simple black laptop bag. I supposed that he is a university as he dressed rather maturely. As he continued to be deeply engrossed in his set of papers, I can’t help but wonder the contents in it. Was it really his lecture notes? If it were, I wonder what course was he in? And what module were those lecture notes of? I found it quite interesting as to how he could have such a long attention span to be reading the stack of papers for such a long time (over 15 minutes) without taking a break once. I figured that he should be quite passionate about what he’s reading about. That heightened my curiosity even more, because I was unable to catch a glimpse of the contents of the paper. What exactly is it that he’s reading? I alighted from the bus still wondering about the contents in the stack of bound papers and the guy’s occupation.

Name: Jayakumar

It was Friday 3am, and Soon Lee was still unable to complete her literature assignment to be due on the following monday. Deciding to take a break from all the relentless typing on her laptop, she went to the 24-hours open coffeeshop below her block. She took her notebook and pen along with her. Those were her faithful companions to jot down the sudden rush of writer’s inspiration she sometimes received. She never left anywhere without them.

Soon Lee ordered a cup of coffee and a bowl of beef noodles and chose an empty table. The coffee shop was not vacant even at such a late hour. This does not surprise Monica, however. The elderly often spend time with their companions at the coffeeshop. It is a common sight to see old men smoking and drinking beer together with their friends, laughing merrily.

Just as Soon Lee was about to flip open her notebook to read through her previous scribbles, an old man wearing a white singlet and shorts sat beside her. He smiled kindly at Soon Lee, and Soon Lee returned a smile too, before going back to her notebook again.

Barely three minutes passed, and the old man beside Soon Lee spoke to her.

“What are you reading, girl? You seemed to be very deeply engrossed.”

Soon Lee was shocked. Not because of how the old man initiated conversation with her, but rather, she did not expect the old man to speak in such fluent English! Normally, the elderly that she knew of do not speak English, as they only had command of dialect and mandarin, but this man was an exception. Furthermore, the way this particular old man dressed, it certainly did not come across to Soon Lee that he would be educated in the English language!

“Uh, just some of my literature notes. I need it to write my essay,” said Soon Lee after she got over the initial shock.

The old man nodded his head knowingly.

“Ah, Literature. Interesting. I used to be a Literature lecturer in a junior college. Catholic junior college, you know?”

For the second time, Soon Lee had a shock. What was this retired junior college lecturer wearing a singlet and shorts, doing at a coffeeshop at such an ungodly hour?

All these do not matter though. She had all the night to find out for herself.

Soon Lee smiled to herself. She had found a most unlikely friend, in the most unlikely hour, at the most unlikely place.

What a day!

 

 

Reflection:

As most of us would already know, it is not compulsory to join a CCA (Co-curricular Activity) in a polytechnic. I joined a CCA however, as I thought that the CCA points awarded will be useful if I were to further studies in a university.

Of all the CCA available, I chose Magnum Force. Yes, cheerleading. I have been eyeing this particular CCA for a long while, even way before I entered school.

Of course, cheerleaders are often portrayed in a negative light by so many Hollywood films and TV series. Take for example, Jennifer’s Body, Mean Girls. Cheerleaders (the antagonist) are often seen as flirtatious, arrogant, stuck-up, and snobby. Or if I were to put in crude terms, they’re often portrayed to have a really bitchy character.

This is not true, however. The friends that I have come to know in Magnum Force are really down-to-earth and real. Furthermore, none of them are those ditzy airheads so commonly shown in media.

Films also often portray cheerleading as though it is something really bimbotic, an activity which is way too glamorous to be considered a sport.

First of all, I wouldn’t think cheerleading to be that glamorous anymore, now that I know what goes on during training. I’ve seen flyers (people up on the stunt) fall and sent to hospital with back injuries, and I’ve seen bases (people supporting the stunt) get kicked in their faces when flyers fall.

There was once, where the flyer kicked the base’s nose when she came down from a stunt, and he bled till the mats were stained with all the little drops of blood from his nose.

There was also another incident where a flyer hit another girl’s face, and the impact cause her cheek to bruise and tear. She started bleeding, and was sent to a hospital to get stitches for the wound.

Furthermore, we sacrificed every Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights to go for stunts and physical training at the school’s sports deck. And not to mention, all the hours we spent at the gym working out.

It is almost like our second home now.

So if you think that cheerleading is just another “dumb blonde” activity, think again.

Just a few days ago, we had the tryouts for national competition. The purpose of the tryouts is to let the coaches decide if we are good enough to be placed in the national team. If we do not make the grade, we will merely be placed in the performance team and we won’t be taking part in competitions.

The result of the tryouts will be out tomorrow night. Hopefully, I will be able to make it to the competition team.

If I do not qualify, well, lets just take it one step at a time and not ponder over the uncertain now.

Goodnight!