ah... to be 12 again (:

I belong to a generation which
exchanged letters even though we were just a few seats away,
idolized Mediacorp Actors/actresses and proudly professed them on each others' autograph books,
and ranked friends according to Golden, Silver, Bronze tiers..

I had a particularly difficult childhood,
because i matured faster than the rest of my age.

No, i'm not talking about maturity around the chest regions (i wish it was so),
but i was the first ever kid in my class to have pimples,
Primary 3 to be precise.

It took me a lot of courage to show this photo, 

but i reckon i have to show it, 

expose myself to my hurtful history, 

so that i can fully emerge from the dark shadows of my past...

hahahahha *& the psychology grad in me speaks

To erase your memory of what you just saw, 

here's a picture of a happy me a few nights ago,
right before my recording interface crashed ):

So the story goes,
I quickly earned myself the title of "pimple girl"
along with other creative names "peanuts, etc."
And i had to laugh along with others, as part of my defense mechanism,
to shield myself from a hurt ego.

The tiny teeth referred to my vampire tooth, 

i suddenly had an additional tooth growing from the top of my gums, 

making my set of teeth look realllyy horrible..

I later went for braces during my JC days 

and that was one of the best decision i've ever made in my life (:

I also had a little bit of hunchback problem,

thus the "special way of walking" 

(i'm beginning to make myself sound more & more like quasimodo)

& i was a rough-it-out kinda girl.. 

Back then, my 偶像 was Nicholas Tse 谢霆锋.

i would tape down every single interview of his, 

and watch the video over and over again,

i had all his albums, including the cantonese ones, 

and i bought 2 of his 谢谢你1999 album cos 

the 2nd edition came with a 写真集。。

Nicholas Tse's 谢谢你1999 album 

gosh i still think he looks cute here in this picture.. 

The classic badboy of the 90s!!!!
"我早已付出了灵魂!!"

I was also madly in love with Christina Aguilera,

and as you can read on the RHS 

my friend was creative enough to form sentences 

using the titles from Christina's first album (: 

This lasted throughout secondary school
and finally turned for the better approaching the end of my JC days...

My childhood wasn't easy,
also because of an interruption during the primary school days.
I had to move from Eunos to Boon Lay because
my dad's office then got burnt down in a huge fire and relocated from the east to west.

So, i transferred from a p sch in the East to one in the West,
and i was devastated.

All of a sudden,
my friends weren't around anymore :(
Even though i later adapted to my new environment,
i tried to keep my friends by exchanging letters with them.

So recently, the most amazing thing happened.
A stranger contacted me because he saw my "hey soul sister" youtube video,
and told me we were long-lost penpals...

Hey Soul Sister, ukulele version with John Khoo 

@ UCC backstage (:

I was skeptical because i totally had no recollection of him,
until he sent me the letters we exchanged throughout primary school!!

Introducing my 12 yr old male interest haha

This was my 2nd address, so it now belongs to another family (:

Wrote this letter during year 2000, 

when i was 12 and battling with the PSLE monster..

I love how i used part of the plaster to seal the letter lol

HAHAH reading the letter of a 12yr old me is really hilarious..

I was so desperate to be remembered..

And... i got a reply from my penpal!

 apparently he was a smartypants lol

and ah.. i was there during the advent of email..

As i read on, i was kinda bothered by the emphasis on academic results, 

it's like all there is to a 12 year old me ):

In the words of Hui Khang,
"ah... to be 12 again" (:

What were you like when you were 12?