By Arissa Binte Kamaruzaman (24A01A) and Isabelle Tan (24S06D, Writers’ Guild)
Through this collaborative piece by Raffles Press and Writers’ Guild, the writers have explored a very unique style of writing that combines the strengths of both creative writing and journalism: creative nonfiction. Examining what binds music to our memories of school life thus far, this piece is an ode to friendships, faith, and more. Each track represents a diary-esque ‘slice-of-life’ of each of the writers who have contributed to this piece.
A soundtrack to school life can only mean a mix of many genres. Maybe, you’ll find the upbeat tunes of a pop song to match laughter bouncing across classroom walls. Then perhaps, an edgy ‘80s rock ballad to match your ‘main character’ moment walking to school alone in the morning. Still, what shapes your soundtrack is uniquely yours—what stories in these sounds are yours to tell, and yours alone.
Arissa’s Track: “Daylight by Taylor Swift” — Joy is what you make of it
All that joy, scintillating in the daylight.
Every morning is different. Some of us are bleary-eyed, resting our heads against canteen tables that still show dried paint marks. Daylight is the bright sheen of the coffee we almost spilled, while nodding off to sleep. Others are nibbling on Meiji biscuits, and drinking from an expired Milo packet they scavenged from the class snack corner. Daylight is the cool glare from a classmate’s lunchbox, filled with more treats.
Daylight is the orange of the Marymount tiles, the metal of the turnstile that whizzes faster than you can pass through without annoying the person behind you, the glow of rainwater against cold cement that you have no other choice but to nearly skid on to make it to Assembly on time.
Daylight is there on Monday morning, when you close your eyes along the corridors and are still dreaming of Sunday’s dinner—home-cooked rice and omelette. Daylight is there, still, on Friday morning, when you open your eyes to see the sky deliriously blue from the parade square, as if to tempt you with Saturday’s sleep.
Every morning is different; but daylight is never different. Daylight is a promise: you are reborn again, this day, this sunrise that meets you along the school stairs, this breathless moment when you are smiling to this song.
It ends with a sudden, yet persistent wish: “I want to be defined by the things that I love.”
My school year in 2023 was defined, truthfully, by what I love.
I remember my CT asking my class at the start of the year what we wanted to achieve for ourselves. My hope was to find joy in the little things. Although that sounds simple enough, it was hard; I’ll admit.
I should have realised that from the get-go, because change has always been hard for me. Meeting different faces every day; or even eating a different meal in the canteen: some things have become so routine for me over the years, that to undo it, takes time and effortful reminders that even the little things that I find joy in are never constant.
Perhaps joy is not something you find deliberately, but something that comes to you, unknowingly, in your most innocent of moments. Joy is not something you choose, either. Joy is something you are given.
“I’ve been sleeping so long in a 20-year dark night / And now I see daylight / I only see daylight”
Taylor Swift’s ‘Daylight’
Isabelle’s Track: “Faith” by Bon Iver — Having faith in the dark
This year has been a lot of firsts for all of us J1s (now J2s!), and for me that came in the form of companionship: reaching out to people, figuring out school together, and trusting friends to have my back.
That’s why Bon Iver’s Faith stands out as a symbol for 2023, with warm musicality and powerful lyrics like ‘time to be brave’, ‘so what I lose? I’m satisfied’ and a personal favourite, ‘we have to know that faith declines… I’m not all out of mine’.
During trying moments throughout the year (and there were many), believing in myself and having friends who believed in me gave me the courage to push through.
Right from the start of the year, I had struggled to make meaningful connections with my orientation group, perhaps due to my own hesitance, and this lowered my hopes of making friends within other prospective social groups, my class and CCAs. In search of help, I consulted a friend for guidance, and she gave me a piece of advice that applied not only to this, but to the extent of my life here in JC: have faith.
In the end, contrary to my own fears, I’d managed to find friends who understood me and people I connected with in RI. Perhaps surprisingly, I also ended up relying on friends I knew from secondary school as pillars of familiarity even though I’d initially expected distance to wear away these relationships.
Now, looking back on my fears and hopes at the start of the year, I’d tell that younger version of myself not to worry that she’s doing things wrong. No matter how badly or unpredictably things were going, there was always a way through as long as I didn’t give up.
But of course, my Rafflesian journey is far from over. With a whole year left to go, we still have A Levels and CCA responsibilities to navigate, not to mention the very imminent question of what comes next. But I’m ready, because having faith to be brave will get me through these challenges. And I’m not alone.
“Fold your hands into mine / Do I believe in / Seeing every time”
Bon Iver’s “Faith”
Outro: “Thank You for the Music” by ABBA
If there’s one thing that you should take away from listening to our soundtrack (listen to more here), it’s that the tunes you nearly skip are the ones that get you to stop, catch your breath, and live.
“What would life be? / Without a song or a dance, what are we? / So I say thank you for the music / For giving it to me”
ABBA’s ‘Thank You for the Music’
Watch the behind-the-scenes of this collaboration piece here:
