For as long as I can remember, the singularly most important thing about National Day for my family was the holiday, and by implication, the long weekend, which was excuse enough for us to head to Malaysia for a short trip. Considering that I have many relatives residing in M'sia, it really isn't much of a surprise. This means I seldom get to celebrate National Day, especially when my parents request for a leave from the school celebrations so we can leave one day earlier. Still, I've attended enough of these celebrations to feel nolstagic now that I can no longer experience it all.

Every year without fail, there would be some of my peers who expressed their reluctance at attending the celebrations our school organised. They'd scoff at the red-and-white colour code, chit-chat with their friends while the Nat Day speech is being read out (I'm guilty of this too), and mumble the words to the Nat Day songs. The rest of us would be pretty excited about the whole affair (maybe because we didn't have to study and we didn't have to wear our uniforms) and the general atmosphere was rather hyped up.

My favourite part of the celebrations was always the song session. I love many of the oldies (older-gen Nat Day songs) like Home (1998), Where I Belong (2001), Reach Out For The Skies (2005), and We Will Get There (2002). These have beautiful melodies that transcend time. You know, I bet individually many of us just don't have the talent to sing well. But when everyone sings together, somehow it all balances out and becomes very lovely. The crazy thing is, I get so touched by this I actually teared sometimes (ok now it sounds like I cry a lot). It's just so hauntingly beautiful, you know?

Random fun fact: Every year, whenever we sing Where I Belong, people head into the chorus right after the first verse, when there's a second verse first. Every single year.

Anyway, since we're on the topic of Nat Day songs, I feel obliged to talk about this year's theme song, One Singapore. I don't know, nowadays I don't really remember what the new songs sound like. I think in primary school we were all taught (and made) to sing the songs, so we can remember for so long. I've heard quite a number of negative comments about the song, and I finally went to listen to it today. Hmm.. (better be careful here) Haha I guess it's not thaaat bad, just that it doesn't really have a nice melody that people would remember. The bridge felt a bit out of place.. but the last part (after the bridge) was not bad.

As you can probably tell, I kind of miss Nat Day celebrations. In university there isn't such a fun event for Nat Day and most people don't care anyway. And I just realised most schools had their celebrations today. Wish I could have crashed ): Singing the songs alone in my room with Youtube just ain't the same..

How do you celebrate your Nat Day?

Happy National Day,

Labels: author: ji inn, school and schooling, themed entries