Yesterday was the last level event for the students. They had a inter-class ball game, soccer for boys and volleyball for girls. So have to be the photographer under the sun from 10.30am until 3.30pm.
I chose to go against the "norm".
I wore a sleeveless exercise tank, 3/4 exercise bottom, sport shoes, a sporty visor and a pair of sporty sunglasses with reflective lens and my wrist, knee and ankle guards cos of the amount of walking around I had to do as a photographer.
The "norm" is to wear the Sports Day sporty T (have to pay for it out of our own pocket, got school logo and your name and number on it, I didnt buy this year, but have 2 from the previous 2 years, 168 and 178),
wear a pair of golf sleeves on both arms,
wear long exercise pants,
wear Jap style fisher hat but with longer brims (ladies) or the school cap (with school logo, usually males wear this)
and a pair of sunglasses with lens that is dark but can still see the eyes. (I had that, but my sunglasses had interchangeable lens, chose reflective this time)
Reason being, I had about enough with trying to act their norm. It kinda feels unnatural at times. Like so restricted. My get-up is NOT unusual or strange, its a common exercise gear. Just that everyone around me don't do it, then make me stand out...
Yeah... when I walked towards my class cos they have assembled at the ground, as I walked nearer and students saw me. I had some of my class female students exclaiming "My Best friend!!!" and others like cool and ikemen again... Of course the rest of the classes stared... I just waved the comments off, and stood at the back and started taking some pictures.
Of course, while doing my job as a photographer here and there, students told me that I'm cool and ikemen... Took lots of pics especially of the girls cos I stayed at the volleyball area. The Aussie took mainly photos of the soccer area but he moved around to take pics of the girls too. Only near the last part, I walked to take some final pics of the soccer. It's already good enough that I've stayed mainly under the sun the entire duration of 5hrs and kept taking pics. Almost like a sports day again. 2 students offered to take my pic, so I had 2 photos of myself with students. I saw exactly how I looked to them. I think I looked really sporty.
I tried to take pics of the match and also support my form class as well as other classes. After all I do teach all 4 classes of students even if its more of a group each from each class. Kept on my feet and walked about, take pics, drink water here and there.
By the end, I got sun-burnt on my exposed shoulders, the rest are fine. This is despite me applying 3 times the powerful SPF +70 sunblock already. It's kinda shocking but luckily its a small patch of skin at the top of my shoulders and my exposed back that's not covered by the sports bra. So got a cross-back sunburnt at the back... Putting aloe vera on it now.
Reached back but have to have cca. So I wore my sporty hooded jacket and a fisher 3/4 cos I didnt have any classes save for the ball event which I changed into the sports gear. Then change back to those again after a quick wet-tissue wipe-down. Didnt help that it made me look very student-like. Lagi best, that Jedi-master made an appearance and I had to sign my contract next year in that. The increment is decent but the pay is still lower than my previous MOE pay. Its really cos the starting pay was kinda low... I did ask for consideration, cos I just heard that there would be like 5 classes in the level I am teaching, that translate straight into a 4 period (4 hrs) increase in my teaching load, plus the Aussie colleague in charge of the communication class is leaving, so I might have to lead. That meant a lot of increase. I asked for flexibility in the timetable because this year 16hrs I am quite tired. He commanded the VP to note that down. How it plays out remains to be seen... There are some things I cant mention here, but from a recent farewell party, I found out some stuff about certain colleagues and about myself.
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Today in my cca, small group of girls after all. 2 from another class, not my Eng students call me Ikemen again. I just waved it off and said I'm female.
In the meantime, when the S1 students see me, they kinda stared at me. It's really obvious, both boys and girls, not everyone but those who do. Really got stared at even if I am wearing my glasses today, but casual t-shirt and khakis... When I carried my guitar home cos the holidays are coming, kena stared at again. I've come to realize. They really have a bad habit of staring, then later talk about their comments amongst themselves. Plus I can understand what they are saying... but they are unaware of that cos they are not in my level.
Luckily it's towards the end of the school year. Can't imagine living through this for an entire year. Kinda superficial also... adolescence (what exactly was I doing that their age? study and do cca, simple existence? I don't remember thinking which of my teachers were cool, good-looking or whatever. Maybe just whose kind.)
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