STUDENT TESTIMONIALS

"My Hostel Experience" by Darlyn Kimberly Yu Yang

"Life @ Dunman High" by Lavanya Raghavan 

"A Place called Home" by Yuan Tian

食景诗 .  画言堂  陈婧 (PDF)

德明宿舍，我的骄傲  李 璐 (PDF)

我的德明，我的家   吴炜炜 (PDF)

+ Designed and Maintained by Ken Mizusawa 2003 (c) +

It's funny how we can sometimes be stuck in a pit of confusion, when things suddenly appear oxymoron to each other, leaving us speechless and to an extent, lost. Three years ago, I encountered this crossroad in my life, when I was offered a scholarship to a land I have never set foot on. Although the whole idea of receiving a scholarship may appear inviting, I knew it had many implications attached namely, leaving my family and friends and moreover, leaving the house where I practically grew up in. It was the evidence that life is a contradiction. I was feeling happy and sad, excited yet reluctant or in layman's terms, just simply confused.

Having grown up in a sheltered home with space and service as my luxuries, the last thing on my mind then was leaving my house and jet setting to a far away land. Needless to say, my arrival in Singapore made me realize how dependent I was on the luxuries I had back home. My initial reaction to Dunman High School Hostel was that of seclusion. Right in front of me was this humongous block of buildings with simply hundreds of people my age living in it, yet I did not feel the "homey" feeling I was looking for. In fact, it struck me, how melancholy the atmosphere of a hostel is.

These negative feelings were probably brought about by my homesickness. The small two-bedded room in the corner of the second floor was where I was expected to resided. I was blessed to have my cousin as my roommate then, nevertheless, all good things do come to an end, and thus, by the end of December 2001, my cousin moved to another hostel whereas I had to stay back in Dunman High Hostel and move to an even smaller four-bedded room.

As it is human nature, it took me quite a while to adjust to the life in the hostel. The first few months were simply draining. I never realized how hard it was to run your own household. I had to start as a novice in doing my laundry, sweeping the floor, organizing my closet and numerous other chores I had to do in order to survive. For a while, I felt as if I were a contestant of the hit reality TV series, Survivor. My total naiveté to doing all these chores led me to succumb to living a life of simplicity.

Emotionally speaking, I was filled with awkwardness with the thought that I was living and sleeping with people I did not know at all. It almost appeared hopeless to gain friends in such an international environment. People from all walks of life were suddenly living together, people with international backgrounds and language barriers suddenly grouped together. At that time, I had a choice, whether to make this hostel experience a truly memorable one by making friends with these people, or to opt to seclude myself from everyone else around. Luckily, I was wise enough to finally accept the importance of friends. In the short span of staying on that fourth floor bedroom, I was able to gain friends, of the many people I became friends with; I grew closest to my roommates namely, Siran, Yuan Tian and Erlianda. I am simply blessed to have such supportive roommates who eventually became my emotional pillars. They were my emotional punching bags too. I was in awe by how much these people could care for me. Contrary to my expectations I was able to find true friends whom I will never forget.

When I first arrived in Dunman, I was bombarded with numerous rules from curfews to room checks, leaving me in total shock of the strict rules. Risky as this may sound, I had a vision of monsters when I think of the hostel staff. It was as if I was being locked in a dungeon for a crime I didn't commit. But contrary to popular belief, first impressions never last. For me, my initial view of the staff as colossal monsters was only temporary. In a few months time, I was able to see the staff as the holding foundation of the hostel. The hostel staff were not punishing me nor stripping me off my privacy. In fact, these people were doing there best to improve living conditions in the hostel by setting up various facilities such as computers and washing machines, and were even organizing hostel events.

The climax of my life in Dunman High School Hostel occurred in July of 2002, when the hostel opening ceremony took place. I was one of the participants in the modeling show. Clad in our various national costumes, we participants strutted our way on the stage and showed off our respective costumes, all intricately designed. It was then at that moment that it struck me how incredibly lucky I was, that out of the sixty million people in the Philippines, I was the one chosen to come here to Singapore and live in a hostel. For the first few months, it never occurred to me how rare it would be to be able to see various races and cultures being able to sit together and applaud each other for their performances. It dawned on me then, how shallow I was to superficially judge the hostel by my life way back in the Philippines. What I did not realize then was that my life here in Singapore is totally different from my life way back in the Philippines. Both are independent of each other and are incomparable. It was at that exact moment of the applause from my fellow hostel mates that I was able to put down my prejudices and embrace everyone with all my heart. True enough, accepting everyone led me to enjoy my life in the hostel. It was as if I was standing in front of the Hostel for the first time again. My initial reaction now was not that of seclusion but rather it was that of comfort and fortune. For the first time in my hostel life, I felt as if this hostel was my home.

Living in a hostel may appear intimidating initially. Imagine, having to adjust to a whole new lifestyle alien to you. Nevertheless, it should never be faced with hostility. My hostel experience taught me lessons I could never have learned if I were back home. For one, coming here to Singapore led me to grow up and open my eyes to how big the world is outside the Philippines. Living in this hostel made me realize that the world does not entirely revolve around me, but rather, this world revolves around each and every person in this world. The greatest virtue I have learnt here in this hostel was not simply that of independence and maturity, but rather, that of selflessness and humility. We are all created equally despite the colour and language barriers, and if we cannot accept this reality, then the world will never progress nor will the term "world peace" be actualised. I am proud to a part of this hostel, because each day, as I wake up, I try to think of all the less fortunate people who could not even find a bed to sleep on. Who am I to complain how small my room is when millions of people out there are starving to death? Moreover, I sometimes think about my friends way back in the Philippines and instead of jealousy, my heart is filled with pity for them. At this tender age, I believe that they should be brought out of their well-protected shells and be brought to this hostel situation for then to be able to mature and be independent. Sometimes, I try communicating to them how big the world is out of Philippines, but I guess they never really understood what I meant. Honestly, I would be a hypocrite to say that I am completely mature now as I do occasionally succumb to my pessimism; nevertheless, I have come to realize that my hostel experience has made me a stronger person. Now I know better what life is really about; it is not about money or luxury or even me, but rather, it is about waking up each morning knowing that I can make a difference in this world. It took me such a long time to learn these lessons, yet somehow at the back of my mind, I know that there are far more lessons to be learnt in life, just as there are far more terrains to be discovered, and yes, I am still learning from this hostel experience.

netrated the crystal-green window, spreading the light curtain on the grassland below, I told myself while looking around with curiosity and excitement, “oh, this is gonna be home!”

Stepping into the hostel, a dark-skinned girl waved to me shyly while her sparkling blue eyes, conveyed a message of warmth and hospitality. I smiled back in the same manner; this was the first time that I met foreigners in this cosmopolitan country and also the start of my wonderful experience with those friendly foreign friends from all over Asia . The rooms were brand new. When I entered my room, I could almost smell the paint of the newly painted walls mixed with the moist, fresh tropical air. Looking out of the window, the city was sleeping soundly in the clam night, with the star-stubbed dark blue sky above while the impenetrable darkness outside and the shinning street lights far in the distance reminded me everything at home.

Time went by, I tried very hard to adapt to this new life style in a country I knew so little about. Everything was different from before: no mum’s anxious voice to call me up early in the morning, but loud and annoying alarming clock; none of father’s funny jokes at the dinner table, but sad and lonely moments at night with inconsolable homesickness. I suddenly realized that life had totally changed at the time I made up my mind to leave home. A terrible thought rose from my heart, maybe the following years meant loneliness, loveless- ness and struggle. Deep in my heart, I missed everything at home and regarded the hostel only as cold and lifeless architecture with the absence of my family’s love. At that time, I was just a little innocent girl without any knowledge of what the outside world was.

But life had opened a new chapter for me by following its own timetable. Two newcomers had entered our hostel life. They were both Indonesian scholars who now shared the same room as us. We rarely communicated due to the language barrier, and I was too shy to speak to them with my broken “Chilish”. Smiling had become the only way for communication during the first few days. Real friendship started when school was about to open. One of our roommate left Dunman High School Hostel with many of her other Indonesian friends for another hostel, the other one, Erlin, stayed as she was offered to a place to study at Cedar. Late at night, we saw her sobbing in her bed with red and melancholy eyes staring at the wall absent-mindedly. She must have missed her friends who had just left and had to swallow the pain of being one of the few Indonesians left. “We need to do something to cheer her up.” Siran suggested. We went to her, trying to make her feel better. “ Don’t be sad, we are your friends and we are going to be schoolmates, isn’t that nice?” A slight smile appeared on her face and all three of us hugged each other with expression of mutual understanding that did not require words. From that moment on, I learnt to cherish the friendships  because we can never know how long we will have together . In our life, we have to face dear friends drifting in and out of our lives, the only thing we can do is to make sure we never take anything or anyone for granted.

School started in January, and another newcomer, Darlin, became our new roommate. She was charming, talkative, modern and humorous. This Americanized Filipino girl has brought fresh air and a new quality to our room. From her, I saw how happy life could be and began to appreciate each individual and their unique characters despite the differences between us. Our room is always filled with (a myriad of emotions varying from great joy to deep sorrow) laughter, friendliness, youth and so many things I can hardly put into words. Living in this room with such a loving atmosphere, I do not feel lonely any more. On the contrary, I have a sense of home, shared with all the friends from different countries with different backgrounds. I find our room unique because of my great roommates. I have different insights on life due to vary points of view my roommates bring and learnt how to respect other people’s culture and customs.

Hostel life is not only about eating, studying and sleeping. It also offers a wide range of activities for us to participate in and through these activities, we begin to understand one another better and build up a strong bond among the hostel folks. In the Karaoke competition, boarders had showed their talents in singing and created a more relaxing atmosphere for everyone to enjoy. During the barbecue, we cooked food by ourselves with smoke-stained faces and collaborated with our group members with high spirits. During the mass dance, we danced with enthusiasm, fully expressing ourselves no matter how queer we danced or how unfamiliar we were with the dance steps. Vietnamese, Indonesians, Malaysians and Chinese, though we have different nationalities, we enjoyed the wonderful night we spent together and showed the vigor of our youth. Now, our hostel is really a big family as we have formed our own vibrant culture and it is something we feel proud of.

Two years in Dunman has taught me things that are so precious in life: love, friendship, understanding and tolerance. With the days here, I have grown from a narrow-minded girl into an open-minded mature-thinking young adult with a passion for life.

In the future, I may go further away from my homeland to seek my dreams and look for meaning in life. However, no matter how far I go, the years I spent in Dunman will forever be kept in my memory and I will always remember there is a place called home…