Bond

What is a bond? A bond is a connection between people or groups. Are bonds important, some may ask themselves? A bond is what keeps a group of people united. Without unity nothing can be done. There are different types of bonds, friendship and kinship. Kinship should be already there when you’re young while friendship is something you need to earn. I do not think friendship will find you. Right now, I feel I cannot find a bond between my classes. Everything is so split up. Everyone does their own things and bother with their own lives. It is saddening.
Chinese New Year is round the corner. My school has a tradition to decorate the classroom with the theme of Chinese New Year. There will be judging and prizes will be given to the top few best decorated classes. Apparently, nobody took much interest, including me. Yes, I too was not very interested as I had already much on my hands. I guess this is the mentality of everyone. When the teacher split us into different groups to decorate the classroom, everyone was talking. There was no discipline or any of the sorts. At least I gave respect to the speaker by paying attention. I knew from then, nothing much will happen to the class. The classroom will remain undecorated until a teacher had to organise a time after school to decorate the classroom. Days and days have gone past and I was right. Nothing had been done. No effort, no ideas, absolutely nothing. Most of the classes have put up some kind of decoration, like red packets or lanterns. Ours was blank. The notice board at the back was blank, the outside was blank, the whiteboard was blank and practically everything was left BLANK! The class committee members had made little attempts to gather support. They posted messages on Face book or other platform to inform people that they need to take action quickly. Few paid attention to this. While other classes spent time and effort to decorate, ours was nothing. It was quite embarrassing when I walk across Secondary 1 classrooms. They had better class bond than my class. Even though they met for barely 5 weeks, they have the commitment of the whole class to accomplish this task. Our class pales in comparison to those classes of Secondary 1.Sigh....

My form teacher Mr Lau could not sit back and relaxed. He had to do something. As Mr Lau had gone overseas for 1 to 2 weeks, nothing had motivated or pushes us to decorate the classroom. Mr Lau said this was unacceptable, we must at least put some effort in decorating the classroom. I agree with him. It is not about winning the competition, but uniting the class together. Having a united class was more important but few have seen the importance in it.

Mr Lau asked everyone without CCA or other commitments in the afternoon to decorate the classroom. As Mr Lau was not in class until later, many classmates just left. Some had commitments while others just did not care. It was disappointing. What happened to the class bond? What happen to friends helping others? What happen to the entire lecture our teachers gave on the importance of class bond? Did any of it actually get through to our thick heads?

Only a hand full, about 10 with class spirit actually put hard work and sweats into the decoration. I am proud to say I am one of them who stayed to the very end. I would not say the decorations is very elaborate or the best but at least some hard work has been put in and prevent the judges from thinking our class has no joyful spirit in the new year. We were all happy and we enjoyed ourselves. I really feel closer to those that did the decorations together.

One of the factors that led to the undecorated class till the last minute was because of apathy. People think that it is the class committee members' job to do all the decorations. They feel it is their responsibility. I know how it feels, I have been chairman before. I seriously put myself in the shoes of the class committee members. They can only do this much to decorate the classroom alone. Many fail to understand this. Everyone wait for things to happen so they themselves do not care for the class. No enthusiasm was shown as Chinese New Year drew nearer. Being apathetic is very BAD, waiting for others to do the job is worse. Our class has been like this since "time in memorial “Nothing has brought the class together. Everyone lives their own lives. I feel that there is a rift separating each and everyone one of us. Perhaps the schools competitiveness in academic results or CCA have been the reason behind this "rift “Everyone wants to be the best and care more about themselves. Everyone cares more about themselves than others.

I must admit, I am wrong too. I too am individualistic. This I do not deny. I keep more to myself and therefore people in the class do not much about me except my good or long-time friends. I feel distant towards my classmates. I feel I do not fit in. I must take up the responsibility that I have not contributed to the class spirit. It was only because Mr Lau arrival that I actually started to help the class, contributing to the bond. However, this is a mistake I must correct. I must not be apathetic and actually get in the class spirit. It is difficult but everyone has to try. I know there are people like me, trying to get the class together for a better cause. I believe if one day my classmates care more about each other, our class bond will be strong, and we can face anything as a class.