You know when you're in school, your mother would say, "I tell you ah boy/girl, school days are the best days of your life!" and you will roll your eyes and think, my gawd, these old folks. Now that I'm 24 lemme tell you, if you're still in school and spend days fantasizing about the day you turn 18 and go to college (or for you farther sighted ones, you're thinking of *gasp* WORK), stop now! Because it’s true. School days are simply the best of your life.



I might not have been the most academically driven student in SMK Taman S.E.A but thanks to my 3 friends, going to school everyday was something to look forward to. There was Yunner who had this habit of "ostriching". Back in school she liked nothing better than reading under her desk with her head down. We borrowed the term "ostriching" from the ostrich behaviour of burying their heads in the sand when there's danger. And that is just the first of another gajillion odd habits she has that nobody knows.



Then there is the elusive Larry who’s really into J-pop, art, comics and everything that’s dark. No surprise that she’s doing architecture now. Larry is probably the most cultured of us 4 and the one who always impresses all the parents with her good manners. Her mother wanted to name her Cezanne after the artist but tak jadi. She also doesn’t like to eat anything except for selected Japanese foods, and occasionally an apple or bread.



Lastly, Carol makes up the 4 of us in the group. She is the most normal, stable one who does the best in exams and pontengs school the least among all of us but has a secret fetish for shopping. Looking back, it’s odd how we became such close friends because we all had very little in common. I guess that’s what defines friendship; there are no rules.



Actually there was one thing we all shared, and that was the physical resemblance of our fingers. We all had - are you ready for this? – stumpy, pudgy fingers. Thus we called ourselves Pudgy Co. (or P co. for short). I was surprised to learn later on that there were some of our other friends who wanted to be part of our group. This news took some time to digest because we were nowhere near being what you’d call the cool clique. Neither were we the most popular or teacher’s pets either. I think it might have something to do with the fact that fun is infectious.



And oh! The fun we had during our senior year! I was the first to get my driving license and when you pair that with a father who gave you the use of his car, havoc I tell you! The original intention was to only use the car to get to school and tuition classes but kamon, who are we kidding? Thank goodness my parents brought me up with enough sense so all we did was go for daytime excursions after school to various music shops and hang around pretending that we wanted to buy 5 piece drum sets and Ibanez guitars...



Honestly the last few days of my Form 5 year are abit of a blur. All I can recall is coming to school and passing time laughing in class and dreaming of life after school, kinda like what you may be dreaming about now if you’re still in school. As a teenager, I thought everything was possible and every dream was as good as a reality I just hadn’t achieved yet. Lucky for me the mindset is still the same; just a little harder to believe now that I’m an adult.



As you can imagine, this war thing against the Pagi Show with all of us kononnye going “back to school” has dug up a lot of memories not just for me, but for all of us. If you’re still in school, please please please do register to tutor any one of us (you can find the link somewhere around here) so we can all pass our PMR papers without embarrassing ourselves too much!



And to my 3 friends: Yunner who is in Amsterdam now, Larry who will be completing her studies soon and Carol who will start her first posting as a pharmacist in a few months time – guys, look what I’ve dug up! Hidup Pudgy Co.!