Its a normal Monday morning when I followed my usual routine to school. I had my breakfast and took the usual feeder bus to school.
When I reached the school, I placed my schoolbag at the bench where I will normally sit. "Hey, good news! Come!" From my seat, I could hear his call loud and clear. When I turned my head over, I could see it was Xavier. In my mind, I wondered what was the piece of good news? Is it chinese teacher not around? That was what I really thought of at that moment. When I approached him, he asked wheather if I am able to do the job as a flag raiser. I hesitated as I did not know if I am able to perform. My answer to him was "Erm... Maybe?" And he took it as a "Yes" as the answer. He also told me that he will sms me the time and date for the day that I need to raise the flag.
I went back to my seat to pack my bag and take out my tie. As I am packing and sorting everything neatly, I heard him call out again. When I went up to him, he wanted me to be the flag raiser today! I stood rooted to the ground when I recieved the piece of information. I did not have any mental preparation yet. That was the first time of my life!!! I could imagine many possible mistakes I would made, such as pulling the wrong string of the pulley, flag dropped on the floor and the speed of the raising of flag is eitehr too fast or too slow.
When everything is settled and I am supposed to raise the flag, Xavier and Jeremy taught me the procedure of the whole flag rasing process. They even told me the number of steps I should take before coming to a halt in front of the flag that I am going to raise, which is the school flag. As I am hearing all the instructions, I could feel my legs shivering a little. I am nervous. The more information I recieved, the more nervous I would become. After all the instructions were given, we took our position and practised once through the process to get ourselves prepared.
Soon after, the chime, which is the school bell, had gone off. It was time to assembly at the parade square. We took our position at the back of the flag poles, 8-steps behind, waiting for the whole school to settle down. When the school settled down, Ms Angie Goh place the mike at the mike stand. That was the signal for us to start. We marched up the stage and towards our flags.
"Sekolah...Sedia!" The commander had already shouted his command when I am still untying the string that secure the school flag. My mind was in a total chaos. I panicked. When the national anthem was being played, I decided to forget what happen and left the string half-untied. I looked to what was in front of me and started to sing the national anthem. I felt uncomfortable as there seems to be many eyes staring at me. However, the real fact is that they are staring at the national flag which is being raised slowly as the anthem is being played.
"Let's take our pledge together...ready begin." After the pledge taking, I immediately tried to untie all string, before the school song is being played. "To you Bowen we come...." I took a deep breath and slowly raised the flag up. My hands was a little shivery and I was extremely nervous. As the school flag was being raised, I felt more and more at ease as my job would be completed soon.
" Sekolah... Senang Diri!" The commander gave the command to stand at ease. Finally, everything was over! I felt I had a stone being lifted off my shoulders. I felt totally relieved. After the parade, I found out from the commander that he actually made a mistake. He was too fast in saying the command of standing at attention and forgot to give us time to untie. I could understand his nervousness as I felt the same when we were on the stage.
This flag raising experience was a brand new experience that I never had before. Perhaps if I had another chance, I might want to experience that again. Then that would be known as "Second Time In My Life".
When I reached the school, I placed my schoolbag at the bench where I will normally sit. "Hey, good news! Come!" From my seat, I could hear his call loud and clear. When I turned my head over, I could see it was Xavier. In my mind, I wondered what was the piece of good news? Is it chinese teacher not around? That was what I really thought of at that moment. When I approached him, he asked wheather if I am able to do the job as a flag raiser. I hesitated as I did not know if I am able to perform. My answer to him was "Erm... Maybe?" And he took it as a "Yes" as the answer. He also told me that he will sms me the time and date for the day that I need to raise the flag.
I went back to my seat to pack my bag and take out my tie. As I am packing and sorting everything neatly, I heard him call out again. When I went up to him, he wanted me to be the flag raiser today! I stood rooted to the ground when I recieved the piece of information. I did not have any mental preparation yet. That was the first time of my life!!! I could imagine many possible mistakes I would made, such as pulling the wrong string of the pulley, flag dropped on the floor and the speed of the raising of flag is eitehr too fast or too slow.
When everything is settled and I am supposed to raise the flag, Xavier and Jeremy taught me the procedure of the whole flag rasing process. They even told me the number of steps I should take before coming to a halt in front of the flag that I am going to raise, which is the school flag. As I am hearing all the instructions, I could feel my legs shivering a little. I am nervous. The more information I recieved, the more nervous I would become. After all the instructions were given, we took our position and practised once through the process to get ourselves prepared.
Soon after, the chime, which is the school bell, had gone off. It was time to assembly at the parade square. We took our position at the back of the flag poles, 8-steps behind, waiting for the whole school to settle down. When the school settled down, Ms Angie Goh place the mike at the mike stand. That was the signal for us to start. We marched up the stage and towards our flags.
"Sekolah...Sedia!" The commander had already shouted his command when I am still untying the string that secure the school flag. My mind was in a total chaos. I panicked. When the national anthem was being played, I decided to forget what happen and left the string half-untied. I looked to what was in front of me and started to sing the national anthem. I felt uncomfortable as there seems to be many eyes staring at me. However, the real fact is that they are staring at the national flag which is being raised slowly as the anthem is being played.
"Let's take our pledge together...ready begin." After the pledge taking, I immediately tried to untie all string, before the school song is being played. "To you Bowen we come...." I took a deep breath and slowly raised the flag up. My hands was a little shivery and I was extremely nervous. As the school flag was being raised, I felt more and more at ease as my job would be completed soon.
" Sekolah... Senang Diri!" The commander gave the command to stand at ease. Finally, everything was over! I felt I had a stone being lifted off my shoulders. I felt totally relieved. After the parade, I found out from the commander that he actually made a mistake. He was too fast in saying the command of standing at attention and forgot to give us time to untie. I could understand his nervousness as I felt the same when we were on the stage.
This flag raising experience was a brand new experience that I never had before. Perhaps if I had another chance, I might want to experience that again. Then that would be known as "Second Time In My Life".
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