Saturday, September 16, 2006
FlashBacks Entry #1
This is the first of my flashback entries. I believe flashbacks are an aid to discover why I am who I am today. They help me to see my responses, my behavior, circumstances and how it has affected me. Hmm.. At the rate I am going my blog should have fewer readers in time to come.. :p So here goes the flashback..
I was brought back to my primary school days. I was having a school camping trip. That day we were going down to the beach to learn how to canoe. We gathered around the edge of the sea and Miss Tham was giving us an intro about canoeing. It was then that my classmates and I saw the biggest spider in our entire life. It was the size of our palms back then. The web (the size of a small corkboard) that was spun was intricate,using two beams of the canoe yard as the base, and the spider was just immaculately perched in the middle of the web. My classmates were gawking at the spider and expressing disgust and fear. I was known as an insect and amphibian lover back then. I remember having excitement mixed with an awesome fear. It was too close for comfort yet I was strangely drawn to it. I took note of the unique designs the spider had on its body; shiny green stripes around the abdomen. My friends asked me what kind of spider it was. I did a mental search in my memory bank for some fanciful name of a spider I had read about and spurted in out. I didn't think they believed me. They were nonethewiser so it was left at that. We went out to sea for our first trip out to sea. It was a sort of surfboard so our legs were in the water while we held on to then enormous looking oars. I remember I was intent on following the instructions to twist the oars before digging it in the water. It was a fun time. When we returned to shore I noticed that there was a slipper floating out at sea. It belonged to one of my classmate. I told Miss Tham about it and volunteered to go get it back, having full confidence in my life jacket and had no sense of danger. Miss Tham was influenced by the confidence in my tone. She sent me out and so i waded out to the sea to get it. I was only halfway there when I heard her telling me to swim. I continued wading, senses becoming dull. One of my classmates stripped of his jacket and started to swim there. Yes I was from ACS (All Can Swim). He started much later than me but was able to get there sooner. I remember feeling that I had been a smart aleck, putting my nose in where I shouldn't have, especially when I didn't have the ability to do so. At the same time I remember thinking that it was not wrong for me to use all I have to help a friend. Something happened lately to remind me of this incident. I wonder what it was.
Mantou at 10:31 PM