FollowWhenever I listen to Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now by Starship, my mind instantly races back to the year 1987 — one of the best years of my life. I was in Form 2, carefree, full of dreams, and surrounded by wonderful friends. It was a time when the smallest things brought the biggest joy, and the soundtrack of our youth played endlessly on a cassette player that one of our seniors brought along for our school trip.
That year, our English teacher, Mr. Leong — who bore a striking resemblance to actor Tze Yin — and our Physics teacher organized a school trip to Kuala Lumpur and Genting Highlands. I remember begging my parents to let me go, and thank God they did. That trip remains one of the most unforgettable chapters of my teenage years — a holiday with my besties to the “big city,” with no care in the world.
Throughout the bus journey on the old trunk roads from Ipoh to KL to Gentings and back, Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now filled the air from the bulky cassette player. It was the song of the year — the theme from the movie Mannequin — and it became the anthem of our trip. We sang along loudly, our voices mingling with laughter, wind, and youth.
I still remember vividly our stay at Wisma Belia in KL. A few of us girls bunked together in one room, and to our horror, it was infested with flying cockroaches! We screamed and laughed till our sides hurt. Then, one night, a group of mischievous boys came knocking on our door. We were terrified — there were no mobile phones back then, and we couldn’t call Mr. Leong for help. In panic, we pushed the heavy table against the door to block it. Looking back now, it was both scary and funny — the kind of memory that only teenagers could have survived and later laugh about.
One of the highlights of that trip was our visit to Batu Caves, where we had an unexpected star encounter — none other than Morten Frost, the world champion badminton player from Denmark. We were absolutely smitten and thrilled to snap photos with him! Later, a group of lala jai (the “cool gangster boys” of the 80s 😆) befriended us, and we ended up taking pictures together on the Batu Caves steps. For a while after the trip, we exchanged letters — the old-fashioned kind written on colourful paper — until time and life carried us away.
We also visited the Subang Airport, which felt so modern and glamorous to us back then, and did some shopping at The Mall, one of the newest shopping centres in KL at the time. Everything about that trip was magical — the laughter, the songs, the sense of independence, and the feeling that life was just beginning.
Those were truly the days. If I could turn back time, I would go straight back to 1987 — to that wide-eyed teenage girl full of hopes and laughter. I would relive every moment, every song, and every friendship from that year.
And maybe, just maybe, I would take a different path — perhaps accept that job offer from MAS to become an air stewardess. But then again, life had other plans. Still, every time Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now plays, I close my eyes and sing along, and for a fleeting moment, I’m 14 again — riding that old school bus with my friends, singing my heart out, with the whole world ahead of me.
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