01:24
It never did occur to me all this while. No, that’s not it. It DID occur to me, quite a few times, if I may say so…
There was a time when I had no idea what I went to school for. Probably the only reason that kept me going was that it would keep my parents from being noisy about it. Meeting friends was a plus, too, but then again, I’m not exactly the type to hang around in a big group of friends like most people do. Not to say that I’m unsociable or a loner or anything.
[I was an evil prefect, with long hair, wore a few silver rings and always covered up for delinquents, lol. I'm quite popular around the teacher's room, too, participating in inter-school debates, quizzes and what not.]
It’s just that, meeting friends wasn’t a real drive to get me going to school. I never really was in a particular circle of friends, anyway.

Of course, the above only applied to the second half of my secondary school years, as I was in a boarding school before Dad pulled me out [for embarassing reasons that I refuse to discuss here :p].
I went through some difficulty with PMR* since I registered for it at the boarding school, yet I’m taking it at a daily school. I had to make a couple of visits to the boarding school again [all the way in Kedah] to get over some matters dealt with. It was during one of those visits that something appeared in my life. I was cleaning out my locker when I found a book lying on top of it. I never noticed it, before, I would guess that someone must have put it there.
The front cover was missing [and has been ever since], but its inlay beheld a very interesting title, written in big, bolded, capitalised block letters;
SEE YOU AT THE TOP
by Zig Ziglar
I had no idea what it’s about. I can’t even judge it by its cover since it was missing [okay, lame joke, I know, get out of here], but I picked it up anyway. It was almost as though the book called out to me. I didn’t really have the time to flick through it, but out of instinct I just shoved it into my bag and made my way out of the dorm.
I didn’t open the book until PMR was over, and I was unpacking my bags.

