There's a point to this post.

Just bear with the photos and read on. Neither of them are particularly good pictures, but still. I believe that I tend to look better in photos than in real life because I'm not very pretty and am a good camwhore, so I've picked photos in which I don't look my best because I don't REALLY look my best.

BUT ANYWAY. Read on- yeah I'm looking at you Jianing. :]

I'd like to introduce two girls.


This is me in Year 11, when I was still pretty new. I had friends, but I wasn't close to any of them yet. I couldn't trust anyone in Uplands except for Pin and maybe Priscilla and Xiao-Tian- and I was still pretty miserable about some friend problems I had in my old school. I don't think I look happy in this picture. I'm smiling, but there's something sad about my smile. It comes through, in all my old photos, especially the ones from back then. My smile doesn't reach my eyes.


And here's a favourite photo of mine.... Me. As of yesterday. It's not one in which I look great, but it's my new Facebook display picture. I thought it looked wonderful at first, but I looked closely and realized how fat I look. How small my eyes are.

So why do I like it so much?

Because I'm looking at the picture, and I see myself laughing and I'm smiling and I can picture Jasryn lifting up her hand to take the photo and missing and getting only me, and I know I look totally ugly and stupid in the picture as I do normally, I've always been ugly but there's ONE difference, one BIG FAT difference between the me in this photo and the me in the first photo and it's this. I'm not TRYING to look happy. I actually am.

Because now, I have people. Even though XT and Pris left, I have friends in school that I like and can trust to have my back. I've made new friends since Year 11, Jasryn and Su and Sarah and Sara and Darren, and of course I'm still friends with Jing Min and Kylie and Pin, and I've gotten to know Priya and a few others; all of this and the friendships I've made have brought that smile to my eyes instead of it just hanging at my lips. You guys have been amazing, absolutely wonderful, and I couldn't have asked for better friends or a better group of people to be surrounded with in Uplands. I remember a stage where I wanted a "best friend" in school because I felt lonely- then I woke up, looked around and realized I didn't need just one person.

I have all of you.

I was thinking of making shout-outs of love for you, but forget it. You all know how much I treasure each and every one of you anyway. You made me smile- and even if we never see each other again after high school is over, you can bet that you'll always have that special place in my heart.

Here's to the prude. The lunch-and-slacking partner. The innocent lala. The poet laureate. The camwhore. The pigeon. The tennis pro. The one that kicked me when we were young. The first friend. The people that made the last two or three years worth plodding though. The ones that never fail to make me smile.

You're amazing.