A while back when I was in SP(Sungai Petani), Lie Yuen, Brenda and I were driving out for dinner and we reminisced about the dating scene back in secondary school.
There were so many cliches when it comes to secondary school type of boy girl relationships.
One of the main consequences when a young girl and a young boy get together would be immense popularity. Somehow or other, all the couples in the school are known to everybody.
Most relationships from school days won’t last the test of time. Kids usually break up over the most trivial of matters. And get back together. Drama-mama then break up. Back together. break up. backtogetherbreakupbacktogether .. *jolene walks away from the show, bored*
The situations I mentioned below are based on the assumption that it is very rare for relationships in school to be of real devoted love. I am not being patronizing but just how mature can the average 17-and-below-years-old teenager be about a serious relationship? What’s that word again…..ah, yes. Puppy love.
However, the three of us agreed on this scenario as it seemed like a constant in all our old schools.
Senior boys prying on junior girls.
While a year or two below is acceptable, a form5 boy trying for a form1 girl is just weird. It makes you think, “Why?!”
But the answer is usually obvious. Usually these type of guys have a lousy reputation with girls in his own year(who can gossip to the closer junior friends hence this rules out the girls who are in a year or two below) and they have all labelled these guys as “loser” material. Hence these guys usually do not stand a chance with girls their own age. So they go for the easier targets. I’ll get to that later.
Oh you know the type. Lame jokes, trying hard to be cool, picking up smoking at too young a age even if it doesn’t go with his image, join gangster(and swagger around with the impression that his balls are too big), skipping classes and stuff.
On the other end of the spectrum, you have the form1 girls who have form5 boyfriends. Can really garner alot of respect from your peers if you have a form5 boyfriend. To the other form1 kids, it’s like you’ve seen the world. There is this great big aura radiating from you if you have a form5 boyfriend when you’re in form1. So what if he is not cute? He is in form5, damnit!
Form5 boys, to a form1 girl, are usually the-out-of-reach boys. Somewhat like a popstar. Someone whom you will never get to touch. I’m describing the average form1 girl here. Unless you are the next big thing to hit that secondary school, then good for you lah. You’re probably rejecting form5 boys while your college boyfriend picks you up from school.
Which concludes the form5 chasing form1 girl theory, due to the novelty of it. For the girls, that is. It’s an ego thing for the boy because someone is finally paying him attention! As for the girls, most of them have never had a taste of these things, so it’s quite special.
But have you ever heard of a form1 boy who could snag a form5 girl? Now HE would be a legend.
What about the senior girls who have college boyfriends? Those are well respected as well. It was all a status thing back in those days.
College boyfriend..? 10 points.
College boyfriend who is NOT a lala chai…? Another 10 points. (meaning that the boy has class and is of good quality.)
College boyfriend who has a car..? 5 points.
College boyfriend who has a car AND is not a lala chai..? RESCEPT!(you have to watch Ali G to know this).
A college guy getting a girlfriend who is still in secondary school would not be perceived in the same light as a form5 boy cradle-snatching a form1 girl. At least the former has grown boobs already.
But a college guy(or older) who decides to ‘fall in love’ with a form1 girl should be reported to the police immediately.
Yeah, I get you about how age should not matter when it comes to love. But just how many form5 boys from your school truly madly deeply loves a form1 girl? Not a common occurence, that’s for sure.
This type of guy usually thinks of himself as “Player” material. Just because he can snag a desperate young child, it doesn’t makes him Casanova. Those are easy targets. They don’t count.
Every school will have their official hamsap lou who will go around scouting for all the chun girls. He will attempt to woo each and every hot chic in the school and fail miserably.
Number One: Face problem.(most of the time this is is true)
Number Two: Face problem nevermind, but at least be sincere when it comes to these things.
Number Three: He would aleady have gotten himself a very very bad reputation among his peers. Nobody would give him the time of her day.
That being said, there are of course the normal couples who date within their age range(plus minus 1 or 2 years). However, majority of the students are single back in school.
At the end of the first college year, almost everybody would have paired off. Heck, even in my class(university).. there are only about four single girls and 2 single guys left.
The other day at Swensens, I overheard Sing Foong and Edwin discussing this.
Edwin: Eh, Sing Foong, you know ar, now we like girls who are our age..When we all 28 that time ar…SURE like girls who are 20, 21 etc again one.
Sing Foong: Yalo. Confirm.
Dirty old men theories are a whole other ball game. Let me live for a few more years to observe this age old phenomenon and I shall come back to give my two cents.