Share a memorable experience or moment from your Dulwich College Beijing years.

Picking out just a single best memory from my 15 years in Dulwich College (Shanghai + Beijing) seems to me an impossible challenge. Still, if I had to choose one, it’d be that time when I gave my winning Student Council election speeches for Chairperson in the Wodehouse Theatre (WHT) and Edward Alleyn Theatre (EAT). Thinking back to how the students went wild cheering and applauding as I flamboyantly paraded the stairways while playing brassy music and rapped for the vote (“I say Eric, you say Choi”) still makes me chuckle. It was quite a hysterical experience, chanting “Your Voice, Your Choice” on that stage, and a very Freddie Mercury-esque performance, might I add. Those giddy feelings of exhilaration I felt when delivering speeches were perhaps what aroused my fervent passion for the art of public speaking and communication.

I’d mention that many of the special moments I can’t forget happened in those theatres. I can still recall our countless events, performances and assemblies: our Graduation Ceremony, of course; House events like Battle of the Bands (Go Owens); the annual Dulwich Christmas concerts where I played the cello as part of the orchestra… The list goes on and on.

It’s really also just our simple everyday routines in DCB that remain in my mind to this day: playing in the Domes/Sports Hall or fighting for the swings in the playground during break time as Early Years and Junior School kids; being told off by Ms Tomaszun about dress code (tucking in shirts or wearing lanyards) in the SSC (Student Services Centre) or canteen as Key Stage 3 (KS3) “munchkins”; messing around in form time and planning school trips in Room 308 as KS4 students; putting our feet up in the IB Common Room and getting a quick power nap wherever and whenever we could!

Those sure were the days that seemed to last forever but passed by before I even knew it, and a wave of nostalgia hits me as I recap on these simple times. My DCB days are long gone in the past for me now, and I may never be able to relive them. But the memories live on, and I’ll cherish them dearly.

Eric GyuMin CHOI