The Harbours from Before: Stumbling upon Squash

It was by some chance that I joined squash as an ECA in Sec One. However as Ansari says, nothing happens by chance or by luck. Hmmmm ... ... ...

I remember how dejected I was when I was not accepted into the RGS basketball training squad. They had their trials within the first month of the new school year. There was no training sessions at all. During the trials, one had to do dribbling, passing and basic lay-ups. I got through the first round and during the second round, I recalled not being able to get the ball into the basket quite a number of times. Bad misses ... though I did not think that was a good reflection of my potential for the sport. But as it turned out, I was not amongst the 20 or so Sec Ones the basketball seniors selected. The alternative they provided for those still keen on basketball was to join the Basketball Club in their weekly training.

Maybe I would have taken that alternative if Jialu had not asked me a few days later to join squash. Well, I had no idea back then what the heck squash was, really. I had not seen a squash racket, a squash ball or a squash court. In fact I had not even heard about the sport (perhaps because it was supposed to be dying). Being at a loss of what I should choose as an ECA, I thought I should just give it a try. Squash did not have selections of any sort. At the same time, Ruth asked me to join Chess Club. I went along too, without knowing how to play International Chess. Chess too, did not have selections at such an early stage.

At the end of 4 years, I left RGS as the best Squash player and one of the top Chess players in my batch. I won a number of individual squash titles, 2 National Schools Squash Championships (at times, I still think about the one I lost in Sec Two with a tinge of sadness) and 2 National Schools Chess Championships. I was captain of the Squash team and vice-chairman of the Chess Club. In fact I was voted chairman but decided to give it up as I was much more into Squash and was concerned about the amount of attention I was able to give Chess. For these achievements, I was awarded the Rafflesian Award for excellence in ECAs.

Thinking back, I wondered how life would have been if I had got into the basketball training squad. I wondered how things would have turned if Jialu had not asked me along. And what would have happened if I had not agreed to tag along?!?!

Is there such a thing as luck? Or had I brought myself upon the path I created for myself?

Whatever the case, I am glad that squash had no selections and took in rejects from other sports. Hahaha.

And I am empathetic towards those who cannot join a sport or ECA of their choice because many schools nowadays select only those they view have good potential to join certain ECAs. Those who are not looked upon as athletic are just assigned ECAs they may be totally disinterested in. I have heard about such a common practise from various sources. This deprives many students from doing something they enjoy, something that they could eventually excel in because they want to.

Imagine if I was put into Chinese Calligraphy ...