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Thursday, January 12, 2012 @ 12:27 AM
You do not need to use dictionary.com for this post Hey homies, I have been forced to squeeze out a blogpost and although I do not exactly have the luxury of time, I shall kindly oblige. Am supposed to tell all about something that is pretty damn important, meaningful and mindblowing, but before that shall just share with you guys what I have been up to. However if you are in a rush for time, you can just jump to the last part. Frankly what I wanna write is not only entertain all those who are interested, but also for me to take stock of my life so far that has run off tracks after advancing from the structured education system that we have been fortunate enough to enjoy for almost the entirety of our life. So yea, one month after As already what have you guys been up to? For me it has been very much about adjusting to a life that seems to be in limbo, stuck between the end of As and my fateful enlistment date. I think that such a life is different from what we are used to on two counts. Firstly, for arguably the first time in our lives, we have complete control over our use of time, or rather the wastage of it; secondly, the end of educational life also marks the disintegration of externally imposed goals upon us by circumstances, that is getting good grades – the realization that we now we have to independently set the direction of our life is both liberating and overwhelming at the same time. No idea about you guys, but this whole experience for me in adjusting to this has been pretty weird yet fascinating, tormenting yet enlightening at the same time. Apart from trying to sort out my life since the end of As, have also been engaged in quite a few things. Went for 2 holidays, one with my family and the other one with my cousins; went for Camp Renewal which is the training camp for the camp facilitator job; did extensive evaluation of myself to find my strengths, weaknesses, interests, aims to determine what occupational line I should strive for, and hence what course, university and scholarship I should hit for; been trying to run and workout regularly to prepare for NS; also signed up for SAT on 28th Jan so have been trying to gather resources to at least make a decent attempt at revising for it. Recently I took on 2 camps as camp instructor (the job advertised on facebook) and must say that it has really been great fun and enriching. In many ways, the experience has been in many ways similar to that of OAC’s camps, yet in other areas they could not be more distinct. Activities-wise, the skills required are really a direct carry-over from OAC. Activities include belaying for height-elements, kayaking, outdoor cooking, nature hike, campfire etc. The understanding that much of what we have been doing is applicable to demands of reality is really something that I find quite comforting. While the activities are more or less similar, there are so many other things that make the experience different. First, the participants. For the two camps that I did, one was for secondary 1 while the other was for p5. I cannot express in words how damn hard it was initially to get through to them, though this shouldn’t come as a surprise since we are used to interacting with more mature homo sapiens. One odd thing that I realized for students this age is that it is extremely hard to get them to sit in a god-damn circle. In fact I think that accomplishing this act is at times more challenging than the main activity like ice-breaker itself. I had to resort to telling them to sit in a way that their knees are touching each other, and at times even manhandle them into the circle. Debrief was another example that illustrated how different interacting with kids is. Many times I could literally see the words I utter fly right above their heads while they reciprocate my attempts at getting through them with blank stares. While trying to keep my language as simple as possible (think Derrick), I also had to grapple with their extremely short attention span of a minute or so, upon which their little heads will just sway away from me in a synchronized manner. While exasperating, can’t deny it has been a really humbling experience and taught me much in getting through to the kids. Also met a huge variety of people over there, especially in the form of other trainers. I thought about it, and realized that making the decision to go into Hwachong at an age of 12 effectively determines what kind of people you are to interact to for the next 6 years. While there are different individuals and personalities no doubt, it cannot be denied they all vary within a fixed spectrum of standards – be it race, intellectual capacity, attitude, family background. Yet the world is made out of so many other kinds of people that are squeezed out of our social circle, and going into this temp job has really enlightened me to so much of what I have been missing. Interacting with these other trainers especially has been most enriching and valuable, learning about their way of operation, values, route in life and many other things. So yea, it has been a great learning experience thus far, and being in OAC does give you a headstart in many things in this job. So anyone who is still sitting around idling your life away may want to consider this, same with any junior who might be reading this (after your As of course). ALRIGHT ACTUALLY THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THIS ENTRY IS THE FOLLOWING. Today Sarah Rebecca June and I returned for open house, and we were just talking about how hard it is to maintain friendships, yet how important it is to do so. Hope every one of you has thought about how things are going to change after graduation: how everyone will soon be diverging upon different paths, how pillars of help and support (and sources of irritation and frustration) will soon be replaced, and how daily meet-ups with friends will no longer be a given. Personally I felt the last point quite deeply after a peculiar incident. So I borrowed eight dollars from Rebecca around a month ago, and meant to return to her asap and noted it down in my phone. Yet soon I realized that this little reminder in my phone would probably not be cleared until the CNY OAC meeting if we do happen to go; and if forgetfulness slips in, the next opportunity would be during results day. That is pretty damn far away. (Of course it was fortunate I met her today and the first thing she said was “Eight dollars.”) To ensure that friendships are maintained require a conscientious effort by all involved. And in this particular circle of friendship, 13 people are involved. With that, we have suggested for an ingenious initiative. We shall meet up once every month for a short dinner/outing/mugging session/whatever, on the first Saturday of every month. This meet-up would not be compulsory though, hence of the 13, anyone who can make it will just go, and those who can’t/don’t want for that particular meet-up need not go. We will take turns suggesting activity/place for food for each month on a rotational basis. We will not use a duty rooster, because lol no one would read anyway right. Instead at each meet-up, we will just on the spot decide who to coordinate the next one. June will still however remind both the coordinator of his/her responsibilities AND all of the meet-up each month before the first Saturday, and then we will just RSVP with her. However, for the first three months after January from February to April, the roles of coordinating the meeting will be undertaken by me, Derrick and Jeremy in that order. This is with due consideration of our NS which may restrict our weekends, making it more appropriate for us to plan according to when we are free. This also means the meet up for these three months may not be the first Saturday k. Hope that all 13 of you (and me) will respond actively to this initiative, because it would really be a great pity to see this 2 years of ties disintegrate. No doubt we will have our own lives after graduation, but I am sure 1 day of 28/30/31 days in a month will not be a major disruption to anyone’s life. Besides I would like to quote Sean, who once advised me to “construct your future not by detaching yourself from your history, but by building upon your past”. So let us all heed this wise man’s words ok! If you are cool with this initiative, please reply on the tag box with an "ALRIGHT! :D" Thanks and see you guys real soon! SzeYuan |
