A Shoutout to Ex-CMPeans
Have you ever met with a bunch of people who just blends so well into your life that it almost seems as if they’ve been there all along? Throughout my lifetime, I’ve been blessed to have come across groups of people who have so enriched my journey just by being who they are.
Last Sunday, I had the privilege to meet up with some of my old college mates once again after a god-knows-how-long hiatus. Boy, reminiscence at its best, I’d say. We all go a longggggg way back. How long has it been since I was in college? Nine years come the end of this year. That was how long we have all known each other. Nine long years, in which we lost touch a couple of times and found each other yet again.
Sunway
College back in 1998 rocked big time, didn’t it? At least the people whom I have met back then made it that way. College time was just…madness…there aren’t any other words to describe those late nights of loitering around college grounds like the bunch of scoundrels that we were and feeling as though we had the world at our fingertips. The sheer ecstasy of being in a noisy, lively, fear-nothing, try-everything gang is just indescribable. I dare say the experiences that we have gone through during those times made every difference in making each and every one of us who we are today.
Back then, with all of us being seventeen at least, and nineteen at most, we did seem invincible, the whole lot of us. Talk about gang power! It still puts a smile on my face remembering how we all crammed into one of the guy’s MPV (Damien I hope you’re reading this) and cruised around when there was absolutely nothing to do at night but count mosquitoes. Painted the whole town red we did, bright, glaring RED. Just the other day, we were laughing in amazement at how the lot of us could fit into the MPV (there were at least fifteen of us), and we came to the conclusion that many of us were slimmer and lighter back then. Which holds true, really. I shall bug everyone for a group photo during our next reunion and post it here so you can see for yourselves how we have morphed throughout the years.
We’d share our crazy stories that meant nothing to the world but everything to us. Oh, not forgetting that little bump on the slip road from Summit leading to Sunway College that serves as our rollercoaster track (how could we ever forget that bump, bless it!)… We’d speed through the bump and scream in glee at the flying sensation we felt burning at the top of our stomachs (as if nothing else could make us happier). It was silly, but damn, doesn’t the memory of those simple joys reminds us of how carefree life had been during those days when we had nothing to worry about but what to wear for class the next day?
Oh, then, there were all those hilarious coming of age stories…most of us being decent, over-protected innocents back then meant that there were a lot of discoveries to be made outside the family home. There was once when some of us tried smoking in the college hostel. I will not divulge names here lest I be murdered in my sleep during the next few days. That image of Calvin trying to light a cigarette in his hostel room will forever remain in my head till my dying day (oops! I did mention a name, didn’t I? HAHAHA!). Fanned it he did, after trying to light it and since that didn’t work, the poor chap thought to put his science mind into good use by holding the cigarette under the bed where the fan could not get it! It was so funny we all developed a bloated tummy laughing over it.
Oh, how I miss the college foyer where we hung out, did our homework and discovered ourselves…and the cafe, where we would spend countless breaks complaining about schoolwork, lecturers and anything that we could complain on. I could even remember what our favorite foods were at that time. Me, with my tuna sandwich and bottle of fresh milk, Nick and Damien with their yoghurt … or was it? Maybe not. Hehe.
Not to mention our forays into drinking (and I don’t mean tea) and the city night scene. Chivas, at that time was as alien as a Martian on the next planet. We’d order our single bottle of beer and watch the rest of the world get drunk and go into oblivion before following suit in the next few years. At times after our crazy nights out, we would loiter around Sunway Pyramid long after all the shops have closed for the day. Sometimes some of us would climb onto those shopping trolleys while the rest pushed and we would have a mad race along the dark walkways…until one day when the guards came onto us with ferocious dogs. I swear when I walk along the same paths these days, if I concentrated hard enough, I could still hear the echo of our laughter from those days long gone.
Sigh. Those blithe days of no worries have left us forever, no doubt. Last Sunday, the faces that I saw were familiar, but there were lines that told of stories we never had the chance to share in between meeting up with each other. Each and every one of us has come a long way since then – whether it was toiling to build our careers or to maintain/ build a relationship, etc. And then unquestionably, there are those endless responsibilities and roles we have to play as adults, bills to pay on our own and big decisions to make; so much that screaming in excitement while speeding over a bump seems a distant memory of the past.
It is bitter sweet isn’t it? To be reminded of the youth we have somehow lost along the way…until reunions like these bring those memories back to the surface once again. Already, we have planned for our next reunion, one of the agendas being revisiting our old college and having lunch in the café, no matter how the food sucked. Maybe if we tried hard enough, we could embrace those lighthearted days once again. And maybe if we tried even harder, the burden of the years would vanish somehow, and we would all be seventeen once again. Fat chance huh? But goddamnit, it would be worth every single attempt along the way.
