Being Clique-y

Clique - /klik/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[kleek, klik] noun, verb, cliqued, cli·quing.
(noun)
- A small, exclusive group of people; coterie set
- Informal. To form an associate, in a clique

No it’s not cli – key or cli – cue. It’s another simple French originated word, much like the very misunderstood quiche which was still pronounced by some of my friends as ‘quicky’ which definition entails something else altogether.

When I was still in primary, I was in the prefect clique, one of those pompous control freaks and some called ‘pembodek cikgu’. And then after finding it too hard for me to juggle between being a control freak and the over achiever in ‘sekolah agama’ (Yes Sarc ‘actually’ studied in one until Standard 5) the control freak that was Sarcy quit. I hung out with a bunch of students who were neither geniuses nor idiots, and I had a crush on the class monitor whose name I could still remember until now.

And then I met Suz, and it seemed like we were the only two people who spoke English then. We bonded, we pore over UK teen pop magazines together and we became best friends, still are.

Came early secondary, I was selected to be in the top class in school and my clique, though it still included Suz as my best friend, was Hwee Ching and a bunch of other so called ‘over achievers’. Hwee Ching, my desk buddy was what you would describe as your classic brainiac, although she was more like the cool type of brainiac. She speaks flawless Malay, she understood complex mathematics formula and she had that golden touch and turned our classroom’s memo boards into works of art.

And then I got to know 4 lovely ladies, with whom I applied boarding school with and was selected for enrolment in somewhere near but still it was my first experience being far away from my family. My mother was against it, my Dad said go ahead. And so I did.

In boarding school, I was in a clique with a specific name, being, ‘Emphasis’. Our motto was to ‘emphasize’ our femininity, and our boldness. However, I was the tomboy in the group. We were mistaken for a violent gang with the supposedly violent issues that will effect our well being in the school, woken up by a bunch of idiotic seniors who thought we were a threat to the senior – junior hierarchy.

We broke up eventually. I hated to be in a bunch of judgmental people who seemed to be a bit too emotionally involved with everything. I got bored and since I wanted to take my studies seriously, I drifted away and joined another clique, kids who studied, for a change and organize study groups instead of nightly plan to ‘fly’ out of the school’s vicinity for a taste of Ramly burgers out campus (though the taste of them beef patties in between two buns signifies somewhat a distinct sense of sweet victory in going against the ‘authorities’)

My clique patterns seemed to have evolved from being a tomboy to a person who wears lipstick, expensive perfumes, branded silk blouses and fashionable totes. Now, I am in the professional clique, people who wears their dressy get ups, buy their own satisfaction and beamed at their own personal success, be it something small as dumping that toxic boyfriend or big things, like, securing that honcho of a business deal.

I have always seen being in one specific clique as something that is somewhat passé, for one, it made us look a bit too superficial, fake and almost, egotistical. But, every now and then, we do need that little dose of self induced confidence and pride.

So my clique experiences have turned out rather cozy and comfortable. I don’t feel like stepping out, and to those who are in my clique now, we rock!

PS--> Honestly though, I do not have any idea what drove me to pen this entry out, what I do know is that sometime I let my fingers do the talking.