Classmate

This is the first of the three part series regarding school politics

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What is a classmate? What is a classmate to you? What do you perceive him or her as? Someone who would become your lifelong companion or just another person whom you would come across in your life? According to Cambridge's online dictionary, a classmate means someone who is in the same class as you at school. Sounds facile to comprehend right? Well, maybe not

An optimist would say a classmate is someone you address as a classmate when both of you are schooling and as a friend when both of you have graduated and left the school. A pessimist would say a classmate is someone you address as a classmate when both of you are schooling but as an ex-classmate when both of you no longer belong in the same class or school

Comme il faut, the pessimist's viewpoint is absolutely right. Picture this. A teenage girl informs her mum that she is going out for a bbq class gathering with some people. Who? The mother would naturally enquire. The girl would reciprocate by replying my ex-classmates

See what I mean? Even when the girl has grown up and becomes a mother, she and her ex-classmates will still address one another as ex-classmates and not so much of a friend even though both parties know each another inside out. The fact that the word classmate is more powerful than friend cannot be denied

The purpose of having a classmate varies from person to person. Some believe that classmates make use of one another for the benefit of everybody. You help me write this, I assist you in solving that, he provides paper for the class, the class provide something else for him. It is a politically correct thing to do so in school as it all sums up to school politics

Your classmate is your best option after the teacher to assist you in your schoolwork. Helping one another would be advantageous to both sides and enhance one's knowledge. In short, a classmate is only really your friend in school as the saying goes friends help each other. I think it sounds something like this

How often do you contact a current classmate on weekends? Let's say there are four Saturdays and Sundays per month. How many times would you bother to pick up the telephone and dial his/her number(or using msn)for a chat that is absolutely not related to schoolwork? One out of those eight days?

Maybe most of us would have a score of zero, not surprising though, given the fact that we will be seeing them in less than seventy-two hours time before the Monday blues come back to haunt us. Weekends aside, how about holidays? School holidays I am referring to. You and your classmates are entitled to a month-long vacation. How often would you conatct one another during this "cold war" period?

Ask yourself honestly, how frequent will you make the first move to contact a classmate, be it a former or current one? If friends do not contact each other, then obviously they do not regard each other as real friends. Again, the word classmate comes to mind, it still looks more appropriate to use after all

When there are gatherings by classmates, it is always called a class gathering because each and everyone belong to the same class before even though that class no longer exist. A classmate will always be a classmate and you just can't lie

Real friendships do blossom among classmates but how many true brothers or sisters will you have at the end of the day when you finally graduate? Not those who address you as "bro" easily when you are talking with him

In short, a real friend is for life while a classmate is only for your schooling life. Look around yourself and count how many "friends" of yours who studied with you before are still in contact with you. And I don't mean the once in a year kind of contacting