Dalat International School: Senior Scribble

After months of serving freezies and boiling-hot cups at Surf Shack ‘27, the Class of 2027 traded schoolwork for sand, sunshine, and adventure during Senior Sneak at Little Planet in the small village of Kampong Juara. The journey to Tioman Island began with a 12-hour bus ride and ended with a two-hour ferry ride. Then, the seniors were loaded into pickup trucks and driven through the jungle until we finally reached our destination. Boys and girls were each split into five rooms, each room filled with friends and different dynamics. Soon after, the screenagers’ phones were collected by the Class Sponsors. Then, 66 seniors were divided into three randomized groups to break out of their usual social circles and form new friendships.  Josh Lacap (12) explained, “At first I was sad about being the only Beat It Kid member in my group, but I soon realized that it was a good thing. It forced me to get closer to people whom I don’t normally interact with.”  Not only did the seniors pa...

The night air was filled with the buzz of chatter and anticipation as the senior class arrived on campus, laden with bags of snacks, stuffed animals, backpacks, and luggages of varying size. Last Monday, the senior class piled onto two buses at 8:30 PM, just a ten-hour drive and two-hour ferry ride away from officially beginning their Senior Sneak trip. A very successful run with their Junior Class Store, the Surf Shack, allowed the seniors of 2027 to choose Tioman Island as their secret destination. Tioman is an island off the southeast coast of west Malaysia, known for its beautiful beaches as well as its diverse rainforests. In other words, it was the perfect place for both relaxation and activity before the chaos of senior year truly unfolded. Little Planet, an educational activity organizer, welcomed the seniors to their property at Kampung Juara. Their camp of beach front halls nestled between the pines and cozy residences filled with bunk beds would become home for the next four...

As students headed out of the bus and onto the beach of Tioman Island, it marked the fateful beginning of the course of the next 5 days of Senior Sneak hosted by the local organizers, Little Planet.  Tioman Island provided the seniors with beautiful views of the ocean and forest jungles, and Little Planet provided them with the activities that allowed the students to sightsee everything in full relish. Students got to explore the ocean through kayaking, snorkeling, and the jetty jump, and experienced one of Tioman’s beautiful rainforests through an extensive hike featuring a waterfall. As Little Planet led the seniors through the island, many students were able to try out new activities they wouldn’t typically do in Penang and step out of their comfort zones. “Even though it was scary at first, I felt fulfilled afterwards,” remarked Rebecca Seo (12) as she excitedly spoke about her experience with the jetty jump.  Aside from just the physical activities and views the seniors g...

Where did two years of working grueling hours on the Sophomore Fridge and Junior Class Store lead to? Four days on a random island. Was it worth it? Well, I say YES, and I’ll do it all again. “I will make sure we will go somewhere outside of Malaysia for Sneak,” said Jaden Lee (12) during one of his electoral speeches. Everyone cheered for his promise, hoping that all their hard work would pay off in one grand trip at the start of their senior year. The light at the end of the tunnel.  Everyone was enamored by the light and despised the tunnel, yet they didn’t realize that the journey through the tunnel was what made the light so bright. For every drink served, every snack sold, and every event planned, we did it with our friends and classmates, all of which added fuel to the joy of Sneak.  The connection we built by working together for those two years was what made the class grow closer to each other, not Sneak itself. Working with that acquainted classmate in the Junior Cla...

Right outside Harbor Hall, Dalat has two large swing sets. People use them on a daily basis, but why? What are the benefits of swinging, and how do they contribute to the Dalat community? Last year, a swing set was added outside of Harbor Hall after the school middle field was renovated into a soccer pitch. A few months later, a large tree fell on the swing set during a violent storm, and the swing set was severely dented and unable to be used for several months. This year, the broken swing set has been fixed, and another one has joined it, also near Harbor Hall. The swings are often used by all grades, especially during breaks, lunch times, and after school. So why do people get onto a seat suspended by chains, and swing? What is the point?  According to Naomi Drinkall (12), swings “offer a way to have fun when you're alone or with friends, … being on a swing is very relaxing [and] they are nostalgic.”  In addition to being fun, in a Dalat setting, both teachers and students ...

Every semester is a new chance at grades, sports, and other activities. However, every semester, this one event happens 3 separate times, in one weekend.  During every semester of Dalat, there is a group of people, who meet every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday meet from 4-6 in Harbor Hall (sometimes Heritage Chapel.) These kids, who have a certain calling towards the dramatic productions by Dalat, join together for drama practice. One kid, a certain Nicholas Lim, expressed “It’s pretty chill- it’s the one place where everyone just kind of relaxes and laughs together, y’know?”  After around 15 weeks of meeting every week, and a few weekends where we all come together to build the beautiful sets, production day casts its gloomy shadow on all of us. What a simple watcher might see on stage as a well-cast, rehearsed production, could be a mix of joy, fear, but most importantly, a group of kids whose goal for the semester is to prove that they are a part of Dalat Drama, and that t...

As the Eagle Games came to an end, the main gym was filled with thunderous cheers. After eight years, Bolt has returned to the top. Eagle Games is an annual event where the school's four houses (Wave, Quake, Bolt, and Blaze) compete in various games, showcasing school unity and sportsmanship. Students participated in each game, representing their respective houses. After all scheduled games were finished, the house with the highest total score ultimately claimed victory. This year's Eagle Games were particularly special because construction work had prevented the event from being held last year. Furthermore, for the seniors, this event held even greater significance as it was their final Eagle Games as high school students. I was in Bolt, and Bolt never won after 2017. However, this year was different for Bolt. Within each house, students were divided into several teams, and the senior leaders of those teams led them. Senior leaders for Bolt were mostly highly athletic individu...

After a full day of non-stop house games, Team Bolt finally broke an eight-year losing streak last Friday, taking home the Eagle Games championship for the first time since 2017. The games ran all day long across campus, mixing 9th through 12th graders into the four houses: Bolt, Quake, Blaze, and Wave. From morning to afternoon, our small groups competed in everything from Pictionary to Captain Chicken (which is literally just captain ball, but played with a squeaky rubber chicken). Before the day even started, all of Bolt got together to write chants and figure out how to get everyone hyped up. Co-leading my small group with Haram Jeon (12), our main goal was making sure no one felt left out. But the push for cross-grade connection stretched far beyond our team. "Normally I wouldn't be able to have this connection due to the age difference, but through the games we were able to have fun and work together as a house," said Wave leader Jaewon Kim (12). "It was nice t...

Among the loud noises of unfounded accusations, panicked defences, and the calm arguments of evil masterminds, the sound of the timer ending was heard by all. The time had come to vote who among them was the werewolf. Discussion where shushed, fingers were pointed, and cards were flipped over to reveal an outcome that none had anticipated.  It was Friday, the 21st of August, and the designated hour had at last arrived. It was time for the first Game Night of the year. The fists to arrive at the designated location were Ms. Carin Loraine, the incredible staff sponsor and unofficial queen of Game Night, and Gabe Roylance, the veteran Game Knight and the undefeated champion. Over the course of an hour the remaining Knight would arrive. There was Nick the Grand, Giovanni the Joyful, Nathan the Stedfast, Karyme the Quiet, and myself, David the Eager.  As the other members of the Order gathered, discussions on what game should be played ensued. One of the Game Knights had brought hi...

If you have a school full of growing children, why not fill it with growing plants? Many Dalat teachers and staff have found value in bringing vegetation into their classrooms. “They make the classroom more welcoming,” noted middle school language arts teacher Mrs. Catherine Bekker. “I think they purify the air, and personally, I just love plants.” High school English teacher Mr. Jens Hieber, whose classroom is considered by students as one of the coziest in the school, noted their plants’ potential to create a positive atmosphere: “There’s something about having living things in a space that makes it better,” he stated. “When humans enter a place that’s totally sterile, with no living things at all—I don’t think that’s the best for them.” A semblance of nature, however, doesn’t have the same effect as the real thing, as evidenced by Mr. Joshua Anderson, who wasn’t aware of the plants in his classroom—precisely because they were fake. “We have plastic plants?” the high school Bible tea...

Strange, it’s 5:30 pm already, shouldn’t the campus be closed? Why is the field covered with students of all ages? While some students are kicking footballs and running on the open field, others are swinging and jumping on the playground. Beneath the laughter and the occasional screams of excitement, parents scattered around the field chit-chatting in the background. Today is a special day - it’s the MS and HS Open House! Ms. Wood, the Head of School, explained, “Open House is for our whole community to come together. The parents, and the students, and the staff, and everybody get to meet and get to know one another. We want the parents to meet the teachers, but also everybody just to have dinner and play; have fun together!” During the first hour, the high school teachers waited in their classrooms, welcoming any visiting families. There aren’t many, as participation in such events tends to drop with higher grade levels: the number of groups most teachers attend to is no more than the...

Right after lunch, the seniors gathered outside near the steps of the Harbor. The instructions from the camera crew were simple: tallest students at the back, shortest students in front, everyone must be standing, everyone must be visible. We shuffled around trying to figure out where we belonged, squeezed shoulder-to-shoulder onto the steps. With so many people packed together, everyone looked like they came out of a shower with their striking pink seniors shirts by the time the photographer was ready. By 1 p.m., the Harbor steps became a human staircase of seniors, packed tightly together under the afternoon heat.  First was the formal picture. Stand still. Face forward. Smile.  Then came the freestyle photo, when the carefully arranged senior class finally got to break formation and do something less serious. The moment the group photo was done, the entire group seemed to scatter at once. After standing so close together in the heat, people scattered off almost immediately;...

SPLASH! Naomi O’quin (12) shoved me into the pool at Lost Paradise Resort, forcing me to come to terms with the water’s chilling temperature. She then proceeded to jump in, spraying water over everyone nearby. Many of my friends who had already been on the ExCom retreat before told me that for the first 1.5 hours of free time after arriving at Lost Paradise Resort, people usually go to the pool and have some fun. So we did! All the seniors, a sophomore, and a couple of the freshmen went to the pool, though the freshmen were on the other side.  “Marco!” shouted John Pham (12).  “Polo!” replied everyone else.  Jaden Lee (12) then attempted to push different people towards John in the hope that they would become the next “Marco.”  Ethan Khor (10) especially was targeted numerous times by Jaden and, as a result, became Marco several times. We played more games: silent Marco Polo and Sharks and Minnows, but we soon had to leave so that we could shower before dinner. Once ...

Fast reflexes, powerful slams, and long rallies embodied the match involving Cay Den Eu (12), Aiden Ko (12), David Isaac Lee (12), and YJ Lim (12) on Monday, August 17. After having a scrumptious meal at the Galley, these students were prepared to fight for the king’s space in four-square. With the Harbor Hall behind him, Cay Den held his ground in the king's space, not letting anyone catch him off guard. David and YJ were plotting to overthrow his rule on the court so they could advance to the next spaces. Aiden was aloof with a look on his face that nobody could clearly interpret.  This round, Cay Den served the ball to David rapidly, catching him off guard. Despite the surprise, David smacked the ball and sent it flying toward Aiden’s queen’s square. Like that, the game got more and more intense, where one slip up would leave a person stuck in the loser’s square.  Instead of hitting the ball aimlessly, YJ unleashed his master plan to foil Cay Den. He mightily knocked the ba...

Picture Day happens at the start of every year. These school pictures are used as students’ official pictures and for the yearbook. For us seniors, it is our last one.  It began with our class photo on the Harbor steps. The time allocated for the pictures was right after lunch. People who went out for lunch and ran back just to make it on time were very sweaty, and it certainly did not help that it was extremely hot and humid on that day. We were told to line up from tallest to shortest and take our positions on the Harbor steps. As one of the first in line, we could enjoy the cool and refreshing sea breeze as soon as we were on the landing. However, that enjoyment did not last long as others began to fill the stairs, and the breeze was blocked by a bunch of high school students emitting body heat. I thought that once everyone was in position, they would take the photo, and we could all go, but I was wrong.  Aiden Ko (12) told me that “the photos took longer than I expected an...

Back pains, ankle sprains, bug bites, and late nights. These were the aftermath of our LD retreat that we were all so eager about, but it was all worth it. When we first got together, no one really knew what to expect because we all came from different friend groups. Most of them were just hi-bye friends to me, but we have one thing in common: to lead Dalat closer to Jesus. Everyone on LD is a senior. There are nine of us and we can’t split into even groups, so we made Kathy split the groups. Our group was the biggest: me, Kathy Jones, Naomi O’quin, Noah Dobson, and Nathan Evans. We were called…Dinococo! Inspired by Dinoco from Cars and Coco by the Milo Dinosaur drink, it was a mix of what we liked. The other team was Olive Berends, Naomi Neiger, Mia Yuan and Jay Chong. They were called…Soy Sauce! Inspired by being the salt of the world. The first stop of our bonding was go-karting. We arrived at 1:50, and we each raced two ten-minute rounds. In our groups, we secretly discussed our ga...

Although we have sometimes chosen the pink color, from now on, let’s choose the “right thing.” Sky blue in 2024; purple in 2025; and now, in 2026, PINK. If God were to take away our free will, the PINK Seniors would not be everywhere at Dalat. This is not because it is painful to our eyes– which is true–but because it leads us to complain too much, which is probably sin. We have the freedom to choose many things, which has resulted in not choosing the best color. You can clap your hands when you want, you can take a walk when you want a breeze, and you can help others if you want to make the “right choice.”  Since we have the freedom of choice, let’s use it for the good! Let's reject the “pink” one! “Let’s do the ‘right’ thing,” as Mr. Arnold–the new high school principal and, apparently, an ice-cream lover–emphasized on the first day of school! Let's make our friends smile one more time! Let's welcome our new friends as we were welcomed when we first came to Dalat! There i...

It was Thursday afternoon, and we knew it was finally time to play the juniors in basketball. Knowing the hair on our heads was on the line, we were willing to put everything at risk in order to win and keep ourselves safe. Then the game started. The juniors began with a couple points. Then they scored a couple more. I noticed we weren’t responding like we should. When JD Guffy (12) said, “We’re gonna blow them out,” I thought he was right and instead we were down twelve points already. We needed to respond the right way. At halftime, we were down by 10 and were getting beaten by a more energetic team. We weren’t hitting our shots and playing like we should have. However, everyone knew what needed to be done. We needed to lock in in order to beat this team. We came into the second half with the right mentality. By the end of the third quarter, the game had already swung in our favor. The juniors were running out of energy, and we were hitting threes as well. When the game ended and we...

Dalat holds memories in my heart that I will carry with me through my next journey. The journey from middle school days, when survival during the global pandemic was the focus, to now, the end of senior year, has been long, but looking now it was going to end in a few days.  A tight-knit community is about to disperse to different places, bringing new challenges.  Middle school, a time of immature chaos, was a time to cherish. Within the classroom, Jonathan and Soniya would steal my shoe pencil case and hide it among my favorite erasable pens. The romance in middle school was unique because there was so much drama over who liked who, and I just thought the guys we liked would chase us around physical education class in the name of tag and run. Secret spots, like sitting under the old middle school staircase for lunch and at the Hut every morning before school, are things seniors would remember. There were weird moments in middle school when Ms. Kong would make Zavier Buckley d...

  Swimming and playing basketball used to be an integral part of hanging out with my friends. This usually took place at the cove, since it has a usable basketball court and multiple pool facilities.  Nowadays, everyone is so busy with school, hanging out at other spots and taking the pool facilities for granted, that these hangouts rarely even happen anymore. However, recently, it did.  I met up with Raphael Boyle (9), Zach Ooi (12) and Ben DeVries (12) at the Astaka food court before the hangout, to eat some delicious local food.  After eating, we went over to the cove. However, instead of heading to the basketball court, we went to the tennis court. Zach and I wanted to play some tennis, and so we did. We played for around an hour, and had a great time. I was rather rusty, but was able to still serve rockets.  After playing tennis, we met up with Philip DeVries (12), Abraham Miller (12), Clark Zhang (12), Matthias Seevaratnam (12) and Reuben Beasley (10) to p...

  It was our last outing as a class. The final, and fourth one. Compared to the previous ones, this one was probably the best. We had gone to a waterpark before, but ESCAPE is the better one out of the two. Getting there was less of a hassle that I imagined it to be, since the drive was around 10km from Dalat. Once I arrived, I gathered with the rest of the class, and entered the water park. A few things changed however from the last time I was there. Firstly, face identification technology had been established at the entry/exit gates. This was a great surprise for me, since Penang is usually quite ancient in its technology, compared to the bigger cities in South East Asia. Using the Face identification scanners proved to be a great help, since they just scanned your face and let you through. Secondly, the waterpark contains freely rideable scooters now. They go quite fast, reaching around 25km top speed when you have fast mode enabled. This makes traversing the park ever so mu...

  Not many seniors can believe the way time flies. With graduation a week away, many students are reflecting on their journeys at Dalat. No matter if you started in elementary school or joined just this year, soon you will be able to say that you’ve graduated together. We all benefited from Dalat differently. There were certain people who even marked their years in high school by participation in the NFL. More popularly, people chose to surround themselves with sports, joining varsity teams, D-league, regional tournaments, and ACSC trips. Some opted for the stage, performing well-rehearsed lines in front of hundreds, conveying their emotions through exaggeration, tone, and body language. Others focused on clubs that carried their learning beyond the classroom, or devoted their time to service and chapels.  Rebekah Wood (12), leader of Student Impact Club, explained, “It was rewarding to see how even just showing up put a smile on kids’ faces. I was able to build true connectio...

  At exactly 3:15 p.m, something interesting happens at Dalat. It’s not something loud or dramatic. Quite ironically, it's the complete opposite… just silence. One second, the senior campus is alive, and the next second it’s basically a speed run of who can leave school the fastest, and everybody disappears at the same time. If you stand there long enough, you could almost magically hear the echo of backpacks zipping up in perfect sync.  If you ask me, it’s pretty impressive.  Before this year, seniors used to actually stay after school. People would function normally after school, like hanging out with friends, playing basketball, talking for hours, and then finally slowly making their way home. The basketball court was the highlight, it was practically the main gathering spot after school. There used to be games every day, lots of noise, and the adrenaline was brought to the max.  However, now, it’s really depressingly different. After 3:15, you blink, and it’s emp...

  Christal Teoh (12) disrupted a peaceful Sunday night when she announced that Senior Assassin would officially begin the next morning. Within minutes, the entire class logged onto the Senior Assassin app. While most players stayed discreet in the chatbox, Abraham Miller (12) posted a victory emoji, like a warrior celebrating before the battle began. Within twelve hours, Anna Chand had eliminated him: the game’s first casualty, and its first lesson in humility. Senior Assassin, an unofficial tradition that ripples through graduating classes across American High Schools, arrived at Dalat on Monday, May 18, when Christal Teoh (12) of the Senior Class ExCom launched the game, with 43 Class of 2026 students enrolled. “ ExCom decided to run Senior Assassin because it was a fun way to end our high school days and also a tradition that previous grades have done.” Christal Teoh (12) said. Each player draws a single target; an elimination requires water splashed on the target, verified by ...

  There are games that end with a whistle, and others that stay with you long after the field is empty. For me, this year's ACSC was both.  Before our final game even started, I could already feel myself getting emotional. My designated hair braider, Hannh Blacklock (11) was braiding my hair for the last time. The moment I heard a small sniffle from her, neither of us could hold it together anymore. It’s strange how such a simple action hit me harder than I expected. We had done this so many times before that it felt normal, but this time it was different because we both knew it was the last. Sitting there while she finished my braids, surrounded by my teammates getting ready, I realized how much I was going to miss all of this.  The match was against last year's champions, ICS HK, and from the second the game started, we played like we had nothing left to lose. The Jakarta heat was exhausting, but we kept on pushing harder and harder, remembering how much we had worked f...

 As graduation approaches, a student struggles to let go of a relationship that never even began. This individual had spent months pursuing a girl. According to friends close to the situation, the feelings between the two seem somewhat mutual. Despite the mutual feelings, the pursued individual has made it clear as day that she does not want to begin a serious relationship at this point in life as they both transition into something bigger. Regardless of this, the student holds on to the possibility that things could work out. Friends describe this situation as frustrating, in some cases, even delusional or far-fetched. Jayden Juday summed up the situation bluntly when he was asked about his opinion on the relationship. He quotes, “As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool returns to his folly.” While the statement was mostly sarcastic, it perfectly describes the pattern that many friends noticed. The student had a stubborn love of returning to the same emotional state, despite al...

  One relationship changed a longtime friend group and left several students wondering what happened to the person they used to know.  For many students at school, friendships are a major part of daily life. Lunch tables, weekend plans, and after school hangouts are often built around close friend groups. However, those friendships can quickly change when someone enters a serious relationship.  One senior’s sudden absence from his friend group has become an example of how quickly priorities can shift. Over the past year, one student who was once heavily involved with his friends abruptly stopped spending time with them. According to several classmates, he began declining invitations to hang out, stopped attending group events, and became distant from many of the people he had known for years.  Instead, he now spends nearly all of his time with his girlfriend. What used to be daily conversations and regular hangouts turned into complete silence. Jayden Juday (12), one...

It’s the time of the year when the end of the school year and summer break are approaching. Everyone’s minds seem to numb as time passes, and seniors have already tumbled down the deep hole of senioritis. However, there was one obstacle left before it was all over: the finals and AP exams.  Teachers might have noticed a number of missing students from your classroom over the past two weeks. They might have overslept or left early for the break, but most likely, they were doing an AP exam down in Heritage Chapel. AP exams were held in two separate sessions during the day: the morning session, from 8 am to 12 pm, and the afternoon session, from 12:30 pm to the end of school. Occasionally, if you arrived at school early or passed by classrooms at lunch, you would spot a group of students scrambling over notes right outside Heritage Chapel. Once the exam was finished and students were dismissed, there were plenty of reactions on display for exhibition, from the debutant, frantic sophom...

 Most would call this the most stressful few weeks of the year. This is where all studying finally has to pay off. As APs finally come around, you can feel the tension rising as students start to cram for their exams.  Some students decided to study in groups, hoping that their friends with higher knowledge would be able to help them get through this, while others decided that the best way to study would be to lock in alone. Of course there are some exceptions to these two options. In every grade there are always a couple students who decide to not study for their exams, thinking that their natural intelligence would be enough for them to pass. These are the students who walk into the exam hall with no stress and zero worries on their mind, and after finishing their exam, walk out laughing and making jokes with their friends. Russell Lee (12) stated, “It don’t matter anymore, it’s all done now,” as he walked out of his AB calculus exam. The take away from this is that ever...

  As the year goes by there is one thing on almost every student's mind—AP Exams. The dreadful thought of exams linger in every student's head, but ironically enough, preparation is only done a few weeks out, or more commonly than expected—a few days out. The time you’d usually spend scrolling on your phone, the time you spend hanging out with friends, or, with family, is replaced by a measly laptop, notebook, and pen—it prompts one to rethink their ideals and connotations associated with exams. It almost seems like I’m making an astute criticism of students, but unfortunately I am also subject to the very same issues that most students face during this overwhelming season. This season in particular is essentially a test to see if one is ready for the real world, when one’s passions and responsibilities conflict with one another, leading to a stark reevaluation of one’s day.  Fortunately, by adopting a carefree mentality, exams did not disperse much stress upon myself in contr...