The other half I find in my schooling years. I was schooled in the local system. Days began with me wearing stiff uniforms amongst the masses of fellow sweaty students through morning assemblies, and usually ended with visits, either to the nearby convenience shop for a sweet treat or the school detention room — my friends stuck with me for both.
By any conventional measure, I’m a typical Singaporean. I’m 27, a journalist and have lived my entire life in the East — perhaps not the “best side”, as the trope goes, but when I was younger, I used to joke (rather foolishly) that the air smelled different past any MRT station after Kallang.
When I think of Singapore, half the images that come to mind are rooted in the East, specifically between Bedok and the East Coast. My favourite chicken rice? In the East. The mall I went to most, the tuition centres I slogged through? Also in the East. My first date? East. My worst growing-up memories? No prizes for guessing.
