BrokeBack Void Deck

I was shocked by the news delivered by our principal today. Firstly, the case of the intimidation of a couple of ACS(I) boys by J2s believed to come from SAS. I was just sitting through that announcement stunned, terribly ashamed of my alma mater. Yes, I have my own strong opinions about the AC family of schools but I think it's absolutely low-down and crass to have to resort to intimidation to scare someone off. What kind of image are these people projecting of the school?? The whole thing just backfires. Here you are trying to frighten two AC boys into submission, on the supposed grounds that you can't stand their school for various reasons, oblivious to the fact that that very act of intimidation speaks worse of your own school. Let inter-school rivalry remain on the rugby pitch, within examination halls, competitions, and the usual chit chat between friends. Threats of violence do no good to anyone.

Something is inherently wrong with the culture of SAS if it consistently produces such cases. I walk into Macs and I see hooligans. The street soccer court teems with unruly "Saints". Such bitter irony. I've always thought that the label "Saint" was a keen double-edged sword. Assuming such a noble title must require a certain level of decorum, the slightest failure of which stains that name. Maybe Saint is too good a title to confer on any student, regardless of institution.

If my alma mater makes me want to hide my face, my current school couldn't do worse. Two guys making out! In a HDB void deck! What unspeakable flames of passion and perverted lust must have compelled, nay, driven them to carry out such gross displays of affection in public. And I'm speaking with religious convictions aside. The thought of any couple, gay or straight, petting and kissing in public in their school uniforms is quite sickening, when looked from thr perspective of an outsider of the school.

And yet for all this, I still have a bond of loyalty to the school. But loyalty must come with a qualitative statement, like Mary. I cannot love the school. I can only love it, or be proud of it, in spite of all this. Such is the allure of the underdog. Saint Andrew's has always carried a rather romantic and tragic quality in my eyes. It has the collapsed grandeur of an institution that has fallen from greater glory onto hard times, since it once rivalled Raffles, long long ago. And this diminished stature adds greater glory to those moments in which the school rises to the occasion, when it manages to trounce its rivals. That, at least, is how I see the school. Ha, such idealistic notions of grandeur...

I'm going to adjudicate at the Julia Gabriel Debating Championships tomorrow! Or at least, to shadow adjudicate. It will be a paltry compensation, I think, for actual debating.