Chapter 2: The Mid Years

I remember when i was 12, my mother got the opportunity to pursue her studies in York, England. So after i had my UPSR(std. 6 final exam) I shifted there with my mother, leaving my brother with my dad over here at first. My brother then joined after a couple of months seeing as he was kid and he needs his family around. So yeah I said to my family and friend thus leaving my life in Klang for good when i was 12 instead started a new one outside of my own place. That was the first time I had to ride a 14 hour flight in my life, long as hell.

When we arrived there, I was kinda excited cause I never been that far in my life before. It was cold when we got out of the airport, really different from where I came from. I had to ride trains and buses to get around over there. I was curious to see what the life's like over there and compared it to where I came from. At first I didn't really liked it that much, I had trouble adapting with the weather cause it was cold, the language cause the place i lived had their own tongue, the food cause it was bland like f***. But after some time i grew to love the whole thing.

I remember my first day in high school. My form tutor back then, Ms. Downing introduced me to the class and i made friends with some of the guys, I had trouble communicating with them at first cause of the language barrier i supposed, i mean they were speaking in a really thick northern english accent and it came out as blank to me cause i don't understand shit they were speaking especially the gym teacher. I really was close with no one at first and kinda felt different cause i was a brown kid growin up in a white environment but i made a few close pals later on around my neighbourhood and also in school.

After a few months of being in the country also in school, i finally blended in. I guess if you can't beat em' join em' that's what I told myself. So I really had fun growing up there. I really got close with this white kid called Rob. Me and Rob we're practically brothers, we did everything together. Getting detention, writing lines in school, sending paper rounds after school and also hangin out during the weekends. I still remember that time we were taking the mick out of our maths teacher, Mr fell. We called him out loud in class "Colin "Fell Over". He was really crossed and gave us detention after that and we would laugh.See, Rob was a really cheeky kid who had a snapback mouth and he's really funny. We was tight as hell, I know his family, he knows mine.

Apart from that I also made friends with my brother's friends who lived nearby among them was Arnie, Joel and Edwards. We would always play footie and basketball at the outgang( a park nearby my residential area). Arnie was my brother's classmate. He was the type of kid that listens to a lot of hip hop music, to say in a way he was a "wigga". I saw rhymes at the back of his schoolbook. He introduced me to a few hip hop albums back then. Joel, who lived nearby our place was also close to me and my brother. He practically comes around to our place for dinner, sleep overs and shit like that. He would always got pissed when the rest of us taking the mickey out of him. Hahaha it was really funny cause Arnie would say the meanest thing bout him cause he was of jewish descendant but really we didn't discriminate him, it was just for laughs. Edwards or Teddy Edwards as friends know him was also tight with us. So yeah all the five of us was pretty tight back then. On weekends my mom would cook somethin' and they were always there for lunch or dinner. They liked my mom's cooking, I bet cause what they had before was kinda bland, haha. But yeah, it was really fun growin' up having close friends around you kinda made you feel welcomed I guess.

Me and my brother grew up there for a couple of good years. It was one the best years of my life I suppose cause I was already used to it, since half of my highschool years was spent there. But all of that had to end somewhere, I had to go back during my first half of my Year 9 which is equivalent to Form 3 over here. So I said goodbye to my friends again and flew back here. The only thing i regretted is not seeing Rob on the last day of school. Some said he wasn't being himself when i left. I felt bad back then but not anymore cause i saw him again after 9 long years last year.

I guess what i learnt was " all good things must come to an end", sometimes I feel like going back to this point of my life and re-live it all over again but then again I wouldn't change a thing cause I wouldn't be here writing bout this.