August 02, 2007

Talking To The Boys

I went to an all-girl primary and secondary school. That's 11 years of a lot of girl action (no, no, not that kinda action, although I have heard of and seen a lot of juicy bits :p). As much as I loved my girls, sometimes I wished my parents have sent me to a co-ed school instead. Being in an all-girl school for so long, and having no exposure to boys from a young age, made me painfully shy amongst them.

I remembered that up to about Form 5, I could not talk to a boy. I'm not kidding; I literally could not talk to one. I was awkward when boys were around; I got tongue-tied, and my face would flush beetroot red. It became a damn nuisance actually. Despite the parties I attended, where my friends would invite boys, I'd much rather hang out with the girls, lest I make a fool of myself.

There was this one time ( ... at band camp ... tee hee hee! Got the joke? No? Never mind :p) at church, that the situation had gotten so bad, that I remembered how ashamed I was with my actions till today. I was 12 then, and a boy had approached me to ask me to pass a message to someone else. To ANOTHER boy. It was bad enough that I was all flustered when he gave me the message. I spent almost an hour, contemplating on how to pass the message without making a fool of myself. I was so stressed out with so many thoughts that, in the end, I just fled. I told my parents that we needed to go home immediately after church service. I never did pass the message on to the other boy.

It might not be such a big deal to you, but it was to me. I remembered going home, feeling utterly ashamed of myself for not being able to do such a simple thing. Just because I couldn't conquer my awkwardness. And really, they were merely boys. Nothing so special ;)

The situation took a 180 degree turn when I went to college. Being in the engineering faculty, I was one of the very few girls in the course. Being in a male-dominated field really changed my perspective, and it became so easy for me to talk to the guys. I ended up dating one for many years, had guy besties and lived with two guys in the UK (nope, nothing spicy then. Unfortunately :p). It came to a point where I was more comfortable talking to the boys than the girls!

When I started working, I had so little girlfriends, and spent so much time being one of the 'boys', that I found it a little difficult being around girls. Tsk tsk tsk. Talk about a major change, eh?

It took me a good number of years for this to settle down, and to strike a balance of friendship between the sexes. But the experience of being in the two extreme ends, well, that's something I'll never forget.

9 comments:

PabloPabla said...

I was in an all-boys school twice and co-ed the rest. I think going to a co-ed school was good for me. I was so foul-mouthed in that boys' school that I needed to "change" my "language" as soon as I stepped into a co-ed school. The rest was history. LOL!

Horny Ang Moh said...

Its a good things that u changed! So now u see guy r not so bad afterall! Have a nice day!

Tine said...

Pablo: Glad it worked out well for ya. The opposite sex always manages to change us, for better or worse ;)

Horny Angmoh: Hiya, thanks for dropping by. Yep yep, I guess you "lot" ain't too bad. Tee hee hee!

zewt said...

tell me about it... i spent 11 years in an all boys school and like you... going to college was a whole new environment. i ended in the accounting faculty and need no mentioning on how many females are there.

then i work in the accounting firm where boys are precious...

we have been to the 2 extreme...

Lingzie said...

reminds me of my schooling days too, when i was in an all girls school. talking to boys was...a very intimidating thing for me!!

but college changed things, and i've had quite a few great guy friends. And for some strange reason, i find making new girlfriends even harder, now that we're older!

Kok said...

tine,
Guys are not that bad afterall eh? haha!

By the way, what made you choose engineering as your degree? Like you said, not much girls will take this.

Anonymous said...

LOL... I can commiserate :)

Anonymous said...

you RAN away?? that's hilarious...

I never thought you were all nervous at our parties. I do remember all the girls sitting on one side and the guys coming to us asking why they were being ignored....lol

Tine said...

Zewt: Yay, at least there's someone who's been to the 2 extreme ends as I did :p

Lingzie: I know! I don't understand why it became harder to make new girlfriends. Sigh.

Kok: Hehehe, nope. Well, most of the guys anyway ;)

It was more of a parents' choice than my own, to be honest. And also a no-choice kinda thing. See, I wasn't interesting in business, finance, marketing and all that. My parents thought it frivolous to pursue a career in the dramatic arts (which I actually wanted to). And since I was pretty *ahem* good at Maths, we figured the next best thing would be engineering.

Paris: Tee hee hee, high five! :p

May: Ya lah, sad right?

As for the parties, aiya, I reckon some of the girls were like me too, too scared to go talk to the lads :p