Be forewarned, this post will be all words and I'm not guaranteeing proper punctuation. Neither am I certain of reflective/bitchy this post will be so again, read at your own pace and risk.
Alrighty, so now that the disclaimer's out of the way...
So I've just come back from Victoria School Chinese Orchestra ( since 1974 ) VSCO LTC 07 3rd to 6th June 2007. That's what it says on my Comm file cover page anyway.
Leading up to this VSCO LTC, by which I mean planning (And by planning I mean practically one-man-show) has really taught me quite a lot about myself and others. Yang En's sense of urgency is non-existent. Alphonsus just rocks my socks six-ways to Africa and back. John's really emo and Vincent's just phat. Oh, and Hao Ming is the most siansational person ever.
Ok, I'll more or less be using my schedule to help remember what happened since I'm quite stoned now. Not that the schedule is absolutely perfect though, since many things happened that resulted in much changes.
So, I awoke on Monday, 3rd of September with excitement in my heart. Bathed, changed and taxiied to school ( because taxiing IS a verb -.- ) and reached there at 6.05. Comm reporting time was 6.30 for anyone's information. But I like to be early because I'm just like that.
The rest soon followed. Yang En was late as usual, and Max was just homygod late. Bryan came 30 mins before the members' reporting time but I do that so I'm not complaining =)
Left at around 9.00 to go Costa Sands with Alphonsus to meet Dickson to check in. Turns out it was a waste of time ( apart from obtaining the authorization needed to check in ) because the check-in time was 2.30 anyway. Lawlz. Bussed/Mrted/Bussed back to school when Yang En called us with the most fabulous idea ever that left me wanting to garotte him but I couldn't because it's impossible to garotte someone through a phone.
Thank God that problem was fixed. 10 mins after reaching school, I was promptly on my way back to Costa Sands, in a MaxiCab, with Max ( lawlz ) Wen Jun and Mr Siansational. Watched Mr Bean on the way there which was super NOT funny but they laughed and I laughed at them laughing.
The rain hit shortly after and everything went to (watery) hell from then on. Heard that Yang En 'screwed' the Sec 2s because they completely [censored] their group cheers and what not. They deserve it anyway.
So instead of delivering my lessoncture at 1.30, since someone didn't call and inform us of what the hell he was changing the schedule to ( ahem ), they all arrived at about 4. Vincent pangsehed his group that idiot. Yang En's group got lost.
*sigh*
Conducted my lessoncture anyway since it was still raining. Then they went to bathe. They took super uber long each to bathe man, like 5 mins. I remember that our LTC saw us taking like below 3 mins each to bathe. Once, Vincent took like 3mins and 10 secs and we were already threatening to break down the door.
Find the Alphonsusabets games was quite dead lah, seriously. The Movie Lesson itself we weren't around, but the pumping of the four after that was really a downer lah. It spoke volumes of the level of discipline in the camp - practically non-existent. Bryan and Wee Bian, members of the comm and still being pumped...
Note: I stopped blogging at this point, saved the document and went to sleep because my fried was brain. I am also blogging first in OpenOffice, not that it makes a difference really but I prefer to do this now so...
Waking up the next day, they tripped and fell in and then had Pythagoras' Theorem aka P.T. Breakfast followed, where I went up for like 10 ins, and came downstairs to see all but the tuna can devoured. Had Mass Games. Trust Thy Neighbour was fun I imagine for a certain group. The combined version was uber. I remember closing my eyes during my turn and just letting them push me. I didn't fall =) The Blind Hexagon was quite frustrating because certain individuals wouldn't put aside their differences. The 'hexagon' looked...nothing like a hexagon.
Treasure Hunt after that. Comm ran around with flags, and I promptly romped through the wonderfully 'dry' and 'clean' field. The first group coming after me was showered with mud, dew and blades of grass. I suppose that's why no other group came after me after that. Ended up the only Comm member to have all his flags. Yang En, surprisingly, lost his to Jing Qun's group. Alphonsus traded his for clean shoes, as in making the group clean his shoes. O.o
Had Ultimate Frisbee after that. Jun Wei slipped and fell and ended up looking like a mudcake. Smelt exactly like one too.
Had the Get to know your neighbours session after that. Facilitated Zhu Bin, Jordan and Wee Bian's groups. They were quite dead, so ended up like just asking them questions, and letting them answer. Zhu Bin and Wee Bian share the same birthday zomg. Had an “interrogation' session after that to test their knowledge. Jordan likes purple, Wee Bian thinks Jing Qun's birthday is on the 24th of August and Chen Ee's favourite animal is a Giraffe, fittingly -.-
TalentTime preparation after that. The rapid Turbanization was greater than I thought, since every single skit more or less included revolved around Turbans. My group's ( Jordan, Zhu Bin and Wee Bian ) one was quite good in my opinion. I've always enjoyed parodies and having Kasitit and Tamantit were great laughs.
They screwed up washing-up, taking 5 mins longer than usual. Screwed them in return. Had dinner, then Case Study which Yang En extended for 45 mins without letting us know beforehand. Had 2nd Mass Games which I happily joined in. Played the 1-2-3-4-5 game and kana'd while explaining something to Eusebio. Ended up dancing around with Jordan, Wee Bian and Chen Ee singing our version of Mary Had A Little Lamb
Mary Had A Little Yang En
Little Yang En
Little Yang En
Mary Cooked Her Little Yang En
And Had Lamb Chop For Dinner
Hoho.
Crash Course after that. Took the IQ ones and promptly got stumped by my own Sudoku puzzle which I have actually solved before but couldn't solve on that day -.- Neither could any of them, but that doesn't justify anything. Especially since I set the question. Quite shockingly, Jun Wei solved all the multiple choice questions with reasoning the moment he looked at them.
Suppose have to Mirror and Peer Appraisal but because Yang En dragged Case Studies 45 mins, we had to postpone it.
Amazing Race the next day. Decided to skip Mdm Farrah's Chemistry Remedial ( SORRY M'AM!) and joined Alphonsus' group ( Which by the way was Zhu Bin Jordan and Wee Bian and I forgot to mention that I was in charge of this group anyway ) along with the rest of them. Vincent is a dope because when Jun Wei shouted out the answer to the Amazing Race Order Game, Vincent went ahead to say Correct
Like zomgwtflolz?
Ended up using Vincent's Music Crash Course game.
We left last btw.
The Amazing Race itself was terrible. Saw a lot of problems within my group, including Wee Bian's one-man-showscrewup. No coordination whatsoever. We actually went to Expo which was like super ulu and it took both Alphonsus and I about half an hour to convince Wee Bian that Changi Airport was in fact a bad idea and that no we shouldn't go there.
Reached back at 6.25, on time. Whilst my group could have originally completed abou 14 stations, they took half an hour longer at Hougang mall and thus only managed to complete 8 stations. Serves them right. Went to buy dinner at White Sands Mall or whatever it's name is and then headed back to the Don't Share Lah. John's group came back at 6.35. Vincent's arrived shortly later. Yang En came back at 7.freaking.15 and I was royally pissed. Locked them outside for about 5 mins as a mini-revenge. Surprisingly, they all managed to bathe on time which just goes to show that they can do it but they're mostly lazy. Mostly, because a certain 3 are good.
Had Stripping of Underwear aka Debriefing after that on Amazing Race. Then the super-dead Marriage Not D'Amour game and then Jue Dui COStar! My group scored quite low surprisingly, because I thought they did quite a good job, if not a little short. The Indian accent from Jordan was amusing, and the indian 999 part was hilarious.
Ouch ouch that hurts. If you don't stop stabbing me I will call the police. Wombede wombede wombede!
Emersius sings like Celine Dion...
being strangled.
Jun Wei sounds like a shaver.
Eusebio is just plain nuts.
Spammed songs after that. At The Beginning , Constipated and whatnot crap like Chun Jie and Gan Wen Lu Zai He Fang lah. Then they were suppose to lights out while Yang En, Alphonsus, Vincent and I went to Cheers to buy some drinks. As was suppose to be the plan.
Got really frustrated with Yang En at Cheers, and promptly emo'd and walked back to the chalet. Reached back and got a cup of ...Cup Noodles aka MSG. Was pretty delicious, which shows how hungry I was.
Speaking of hungry, I can smell the Macaroni soup that's for dinner. Yum, I say.
Woke up the next morning at 9.00 to the united shouts of the Sec 2s going 'PLEASE WAKE UP SENIORS!' They'd fallen in since 8.30 and I felt like super bad abourrit. Went to the staircase landing and wanted to like let them relax, but couldn't. Had to wait for Yang En anyway.
Cleaned-up and packed-up after that. We checked out fairly late, like half an hour after the slated time. Drank Root Beer and enjoyed the feeling of being a pseudo-drunkhobo. Vincent broke every single tab on the Root Beers and we had to like rip them open with a key.
Again, speaking of keys, I need to go Parkway tomorrow to ahem ahem the CO key.
Dismissed the Sec 2s with a lacklustre 3 Cheers which I didn't really want to nor did actually join in. I didn't feel we deserved it.
The camp itself...wasn't everything that I thought it would be. My COLTC camp was so much more fun, and I don't mean like pure fun. It was fun, and it was disciplined, and it was fun BECAUSE it was disciplined. Yes, the discipline level dropped and never went up during our camp, but we still had it and still showed it. This batch didn't. The first day was just downright abysmal. The second day post-scolding was good, third day amazing race so it dropped. The fourth day, I think they were all high, but that shouldn't be a reason for slacking in discipline. I mean, they managed to fall in for half an hour after all right?
I have this sinking feeling that we screwed up the camp. Yes, they might have learnt something from it and yes we might have pulled it through but I myself didn't feel as though we did everything we could. A lot of things could have been done better, a lot more planning should have been done and what not. We were arrogant and thought what little shit planning we did would suffice, and yet we did not see the final details being overlooked, little final details that cost us dearly.
[I originally had a few long paragraphs about me and a certain VSCOEXCO member. I typed everything out, and promptly deleted it because I've already talked to him about. And he's willing to change his shortcomings and I'm more than eager to change mine and we're both forgiving each other. So far be it from me to type it out here, because it's not fair to him.
Why did I even type this two paragraphs out then? I dunno. Just to clear my thoughts I suppose]
Through this camp, I think we've all learnt a lot. In fact, I dare say I learnt far more than any member did. Because I learnt a lot about my friends, myself and everyone as a whole. I've seen our strengths, I've noticed our weaknesses. There's so much we can do to improve, and I'm determined to get us to our goal.
But am I doing it by myself?
Hell no.
We're all together.
Neither, of course, do I think that the Sec 2s learnt nothing. 2 people in particular, stood out. Jing Qun and Benjamin. Jing Qun lived up to the other Comm's expectations and surpassed them. He didn't surpass mine, but we all (should) know the kind of expectations I have for someone of Jing Qun's caliber. He should easily surpass us, and be better than us, and we have to help him do it.
Benjamin was another individual who utterly surprised me. If you recall, like a million words back, I noted an incident where we pumped four people, two of which were Bryan and Wee Bian, the other two being Jun Wei and Wai Hong? Well, while the four were outside, I was inside with the remaining eight. And I asked who would think it's fair if the entire lot were punished instead?
Some people raised their hands.
I asked who would want to have the entire lot punished?
Three people raised their hands.
'For the three that have their hands raised, if you honestly and truly believe that by joining the four outside, you'll change them for the better, please step out and assume pumping position'
That was the final question I asked.
Benjamin and Chen Ee went out.
I expected Chen Ee to do it, so no surprise there because that's the kind of leader I see Chen Ee is. But I was honestly never expecting Benjamin to do it. And he went out first. I stepped out about a minute later, and found the four outside recovered with John standing nearby. Benjamin and Chen Ee were in pumping position, never looking up, never faltering.
For those who don't know, Benjamin is not exactly the gung-ho outspoken type. He's normally quite reserved in the ExCo group.
And yet he volunteered to pump himself. He didn't look at anyone else, he did it by himself.
I was so damn proud of him. And how he'd matured.
I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream at the four outside that if they screwed up, they have friends that would not only defend them, but punish themselves to help change them. Yes, it might only be pumping. But it's the attitude, and it's the mindset that so touched me. And it certainly sets the bar, and the benchmark for what this batch can achieve.
And I know they can achieve it. If they work together and have a SHARED VISION
I know they can.
I know they know they can.
2550 words
13874 characters
[Yes, I will be adding this at the bottom of every post to keep track. And I'll be starting labels from now on]
Labels: 10000 characters, 2000 words, Leadership, VSCOLTC