Before I show you some of the contents inside my farewell book, let me show you some photos from school. You may have seen one of them before in my previous post about my teenage years. This was taken when I left. I was in class 1C, and Miss Wong was our class teacher. It was a mixed school and there were guys as well, but I only rounded up the girls. Can you spot me in the photo?
If you haven't, I'm second to the right to Miss Wong. The girl on her left is Alice, my best friend, and Kelly is between me and Miss Wong. Kelly was the cleverest in the class, even cleverer than me 😄
Here's me and Alice on the left, and me and Winnie on the right. Winnie was another of my best friends, maybe second to Alice at that time.
Being my best friend, Alice was the first to sign my farewell book. You can see I've had to tape the pages together to stop them falling apart. Many of my friends added their photo to their message. That's what makes this so special otherwise they would just be vague teenage memories.
My friendship with Alice didn't kick off from the beginning. We both thought each other looked arrogant and unapproachable, but it turns out negative negative is positive and we ended up as besties for the year. After I returned to UK, I kept in touch with most of the girls for a few years. I might have seen them once or twice when I went back to Hong Kong for holidays, and then relationships fizzled out. I was especially sad to lose contact with Alice. One year is a pretty weak base to build long term connections.
Winnie was in class 1B but we sort of clicked. She was a talented pianist and in the following years, she got a diploma in piano and started teaching. I remember the last time we met, which was a few years after I left, she had moved in with her hairdresser boyfriend. Don't know why I remember that so well, maybe because she was still very young and it wasn't such a common thing to do in those days.
Here's Kelly, the brainbox in the class, if I remember correctly, she might even be the top in the year (we had six classes). She's the type of student who memories everything in the textbook, even the footnotes in case it comes up in exams. And when I said she's even cleverer than me, that's not because I'm particularly clever, but I was one or two years older than everyone else giving me some advantage. Kelly popped up on my Linked connection profile many years later, I can't remember how that happened. She seemed to be doing well career wise. We messaged each other a couple times, but never met up.
The twins are so sweet, and they always had this beautiful smile. They are the people who light up the room as they enter. I love them! They're Winnie and Christy, but I can't remember who is who. They were in class 1F (it's funny how these random facts stick with you) the same class as William, who Christy mentioned in her farewell message to me. It was an open secret that William fancied me 😊 The twins lived with their grandmother at the time, and I think their parents were in Canada. I heard not long after I left, they emigrated to Canada to join their parents, so I never got to see them again even when I went to back to Hong Kong for holidays.
I also got my teachers to sign my farewell book. No photos of them, just words of encouragement, or was it more than that? Have a read yourself.
| This is from my class teacher Miss Wong | I think Mr Lee was my science teacher, this says "There is sky beyond sky" |
|---|---|
 |  |
| I can't remember who Mr Chiang was, maths teacher maybe | Ms Li and Mrs Cheung, they might have been my music and home economics teacher |
 |  |
Now looking back as a grown up, I can't help to wonder, is there a hidden message amongst all those messages? I was quite a popular student back in those days. Academically I did well, and being a little older than the rest, I guess I wasn't afraid to be vocal or different. Were my teachers trying to tell the teenage me something? 🤔
good memories
I'm glad I have it to remind me
This is such a wonderful memory. I love the 'Little Twin Stars' (Kiki to Rara) pocketbook with beautiful handwriting.
Little Twins Star is my favourite character, I have lots of their products, particularly the ones I buy in Japan 😊
You were tall in your class!
What a find! I have no idea how you kept this through all the moves.
I dropped off bits and pieces with my sisters over the years and every now and then they will turn up with a bag of my
things when they clear out their own stuff.
Wow, that's a great thing to have and to have kept all these years. I guess the closest thing for me would be yearbooks, but if I still have any of my old school yearbooks, I have no idea where they are.
I'm guessing yearbooks are the last thing you would have lugged over to Japan with you. You'll probably find them at your parents place, maybe they kept them for you
That's pretty cool. We used to get yearbooks in school and everyone would go around and have their friends and acquaintances sign them at the end of the year. This reminds me of that. Though yours was a bit more permanent of a goodbye.
Getting people to sign the yearbook is a very nice addition to the yearbook, you can look back to see how friendships have developed over the years.
Yearbooks seems an integral part of school life in America, I see they often come up on TV and movies when people want to find the background of someone 🙃
Yeah, I'm not sure how much dirt you would really dig up on someone via their yearbook. Most of them are pretty mundane. I'm not really even friends still with anyone I went to school with.
Wonderful memories! I had a chuckle at Christy's message that she loves you more than William does😅
Bless the twins, they were darlings!
Wonderful way to take a walk down memory lane, these books were so popular at the time, nice you kept yours!
Twins looks as cute a buttons, they must have had loads of fun confusing teachers and friends.
Many friends over so many years lose contact through moving, always a pity, still nice to have fond memories looking back.
Its easier to maintain friendship, or rather connections nowadays through social media, once you're connected on FB or whatever kids do use nowadays you're pretty much connected for life. Sometimes I wish I could reconnect with some of my childhood friends, but then I'd be worried we have nothing in common anymore, there's only so many conversations you can have reminiscing old times
Fun to meet friends you knew when bare foot running around over a cup of coffee. Alas each has lives of their own, seldom take time from their real life to commit to ongoing friendships or coffee shop visits !LOLZ
I keep some memories from when I was a child, some photos with my father, mother and family, like my great-grandmother.
!PIZZA
Photos with great grand parents are so precious, you're so lucky to have that, take good care of them!!
I will take care of them, they told me many good things about my great-grandmother, she loved me so much and did everything possible so that I would not have any need, I will always love her even though I have no vivid memories of her.
$PIZZA slices delivered:
(1/15) @ydaiznfts tipped @livinguktaiwan
Such sweet memories… finding this little book must have been wonderful. Especially with the messages and photos.
Thanks for sharing it with us.
Have a nice evening Pauline 😊
Now I've settled down, it's nice to pull out these bits and pieces from my childhood times and have a little giggle
Oh I know the feeling… I wish I could, I haven’t settled yet. Still about 25 boxes 📦 packed. Haha !LOL
Have a nice Friday
The best way to remember is to have physical backup.
Photos are very well preserved in spite of time and so many moves. You are very tall, of course you were also a little older than the rest of the group and you are still tall because I remember you once asked that question in your contest and the answer was about 1.62 cm if I remember correctly.
Of all the messages your teachers left, I liked these the best and they got me thinking a bit.
"The deep water still runs"
"A man must know himself, before he knows all men".
@livinguktaiwan 😘🥰
I have a lot of old photos at home, especially my parents, it's nice to go through by them every now and then and brings back nice memories
Yes, the teachers had many wise words, food for thought
What a great thing to have to look back at your teenage memories. I would not have remembered who was in which class though, lol.
I don't know why I remember these random useless things, I wish my brain worked like this academically, I would have done much better at school, and maybe come top of the year ahead of Kelly 😁
The mind can do funny things sometimes and they say we only use 5% of it. I guess anything above it would just make us anti social like some of the big brained individuals, haha
Time is passing very fast and we see that a year starts and then ends. When we get books like this and things like this, childhood memories are fresh and we had many friends. With whom we used to spend hours but now he is not with us so that is called life.
We're luck my if we keep in touch with many childhood friends
Yeah agree with you.
Yup, you were easy to spot, thought I was gonna win a prize then you gave the answer away !
Happy days no doubt, always good to have stuff like this and reflect
It's happening more often as I get older 🙃
I just have stuff in my head, very little real stuff to get hold of it is something I never did growing up.
What a sweet post filled with beautiful memories. 😍
Simply priceless!
You and the rest look so tall in the photo:)
This was a very odd year, I started the school year knowing that I'd be leaving at the end, so was kinda not too bothered about building friendship. Still had a good time though
Why did you downvote me?