Sunday night was the night of the full moon; it was the night of the "Howling", the only tradition that UWC-USA has retained since its establishment in 1982, until today. We, the first-years were told nothing more than to dress in black from head to toe, and to stay in the day room in complete silence until further instructions. The suspense was killing everyone, I could tell. After fifteen minutes or thereabouts, we were led the way by two of our second-years. As we exited the castle, standing on the handles of each step were our second-years, dressed in black (some even with sunglasses, others with masks). As we passed by the lower campus, there were second-years everywhere, some sitting, some standing, some in squatting positions. Nobody was talking. The second-years...they simply looked through us, with no single trace of an expression on their faces - I was the last one in line, and as I passed them by, they started following behind me too, one by one they followed. Nothing but the shuffling of footsteps could be heard. Given that the castle was the farthest dorm from the field, we were the last ones to reach, during which all the first-years were huddled up at the centre of the field, as the second-years formed a circle around us. It was ten at night. The full moon was our only source of light; It really was the only source that we needed, given how bright it was.
Suddenly, the silence was broken, as a second-year spoke. I could not remember everything that was recited that night under the full moon, but I did remember the last few words that were said before...before hell broke loose, and it went something like this:
We are all wolves, you and I. And you were chosen to come here to join our pack. Together we stand tonight under the full moon, as a pack. And together we will run to the garden of Mukul's house and we will howl at the moon and the stars and the night sky, as a pack... Let's go!
Before I knew it, everyone was running. I found my legs running. In the dark. In the cold. I could not make out who was who, but together we all ran towards the same direction, cutting past bushes and weeds, together we ran. And together, we stopped. Everyone started howling. As a pack, a pack of wolves.
It was a combination of Twilight and The Hunger Games and Divergent... We were infinite.
And it was that same night that I realized... I had never loved this school even more.
I actually felt infinite then.
On that same night was also the mid-autumn festival, the "mooncake festival", so to speak. Being the only Malaysian Chinese, I really didn't think I would have anybody close to home to celebrate this festival with... Little did I know that that exact same night I would be spending it with firstly people from China, then I would go moon-gazing with people from Hong Kong. But those were what I did exactly, because they said to me, "Of course you can join us, we're family!".
Sitting at the tennis court, with a gigantic blanket wrapped around me, we ate mooncakes and drank hot tea and listened to Cantonese songs, simply talking about anything and everything. Until it was way past midnight and we were starting to freeze. That night, it then dawned on me, they are the closest ones to home than I could possibly have.
See...? Don't you see...?
New Mexico, ¡eres hermosa!
Until then,
xx
