The best memories I have on celebrating Merdeka was way back in Form 4 at my alma mater, Victoria Institution. That year, about 100 of Form 4 students were selected to be part of the Merdeka celebration to become the human formation of the Malaysian flag, National celebration logo and the slogan. That year it was a bit special because the formation was done at night so we had to dance with these colourful torches in our hands. Also, instead of being done at the Dataran Merdeka, that year it was at Stadium Merdeka. Initially, my class wasn't chosen to take part but after a lot of coaxing on our part, some of us managed to join in the fun. I do believe those were my best moments at secondary school.
We had to learn steps of simple dancing, which involves a lot of practice. After a while it was like 2nd nature to all of us. The fun really started when the combined training was done. I think about 20 schools in KL were involved. Hey, you need a lot of people to make up the National flag. Our colour was blue so we're really just a small part of the whole student troupe. I said it was fun because there were girls, and I mean a lot of them. Come on lah, we were Form 4, hormones was raging and VI is a boys school. So, you put all that into context lah. :)
The first training stage was at our school field. Second stage at Sekolah Menengah Cochrane and the final training was done at the venue itself, Stadium Merdeka. Ini lagi best lah. The training was done at night, so we all got permission to sleep at our school as the training ended quite late. (VI is just next to the stadium). So for about 3 or 4 nights, we all roamed the school. It wasn't very comfortable to sleep on hard wooden tables so we stayed up actually. We laid in the middle of the Quadrangle and sang Taman Rasyidah Utama. Some of us went to check out a happening disco at that time, Piccadilly but couldn't enter because we don't have enough money to pay the entrance fee. Lagi best, about 5 of us, climbed the wall surrounding the swimming pool and had a dip in there. Since it was dark at 2 am, I think we all just skinny dipped. Hehehehe, some of the things that were done during our youths.
The event went quite well, actually. The organising committee chairman, Sanusi Junid was happy with us and gave us extra pocket money. All in all, it was a lot of fun, I made many new friends and missed many days of classes. Also, it was quite a proud moment to be able to contribute albeit in that small manner. At least, if someone asks me what is the National Day motto in 1992, I could confidently say, Wawasan Asas Kemajuan, and I was part of the letter 'N' in Kemajuan!!