Friday, November 02, 2007



[7 A.M. Li Zhi's house]
Li Zhi - [DAMN LOUDLY] 'OH MY GOD I AM GOING TO BE SO FUCKING LATE!'
Danial, Musli, Me - [O.o]

The curtains have drawn closed on Victoria School's An Evening of Music and Drama, 2007, entitled A Simple Affair. In short summary, this event has had its fair share of ups and downs, joys and frustrations, a rather large share of vulgarities and cursing and lots lots lots of random spastic freakouts. And as a certain bigfatsmiler says:

But what's more super. Duper. Uuper. Like really awesome, for many many times is the process of doing everything. For so many events I have been preparing and preparing and preparing. And when it finally comes the time when I go and stage and finally do it. It's gone like the wind.

So yeah, I have come to a conclusion after many emcee stints. The fun of it is not the product, but rather, the process. Rather cliche, but there's a reason why cliches are cliches.

If I have one regret, it is that after all the trials and tribulations and the experiences,
it is that I did not take the time to fully enjoy everything. Every emotion came and went, but to say that I fully immersed myself, to submerge myself in the intoxications of each emotion would be to lie.

Because the truth is that there was, for the lack of a better phrase, no time. Caught up in this marvelous race of ours as we desperately battle against time to complete our tasks within our self-imposed time limits, we often forget to enjoy the process.

And once everything is over, it really is the process that counts more. EMD wasn't as good as I wanted it to be, but it's something that I am proud of, because of what all of us did for it. Every single contributing factor was important.

ChineseOrchestra. ConcertBand. Choir. Twelfth Night. Madman On The Roof. Crescent Girls. Hell, even Armchair Critics, even though their singing was akin to that of a cat being castrated with a blunt chain saw. The thing is that EMD wouldn't have been what it was, had it not been for all these. All the lucky breaks, all the inspirations, all the freakouts, all the frustrations...it all culminated in these ultimate product called EMD2007ASimpleAffair and I'm bloody proud of it.

And you know what else I'm even bloodier proud of?

I'm blarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrdy proud of my friends. For sticking it through to the end, through everything.

For Li Zhi for being such a SUPER UBER AWESOME BUDDY throughout this ENTIRE experience, being there with me to do stuff and bitch and whine and picking ourselves up and getting pseudo-revenge with D.T.S and basically for being a super friend.

For Danial for being a pillar of support from start to end, coming down to help with props and do the quintessential saikang work, and for doing ticketing on EMD itself.

For Glen for doing prop work, treats ( MOS ZOMG ) and your completely inspirational iPhone that surely motivated iMac'rs like Weng Keong to achieve their apple-ly best.

For John, Muslihuddin and Shervin, for saikang'ing and selflessly using their time to come down and help us out with props when we were severely short-handed, understaffed and overworked.

For Yang En, Alphonsus, Wen Jun and Vincent for being the absolutely uber CO'ians that I know and love and even though we fought a lot, after everything is said and done, I still love you guys to the core because you guys are there with me to guide and help me.

For Ms Koh and Mr Tan for being awesome teachers-in-charge and lending their expertise, especially Ms Koh and her uber general efficiency without which we'd be floundering.

And to everyone, in general, for being there to watch and support us in this episode of our lives. Major thanks to everyone who came down, I love all of you guys =3

EMD really holds a lot of special memories for me. I know that every memory is special in one way or another, since you can never have another exact same memory. But EMD has plenty of firsts.

First time I went Ajisen Ramen ( I hate it )
First time I stayed over at a friend's house ( Li Zhi's )
First time I completely freaked and lost it under pressure ( Sorry Vincent! )

And most importantly:
First time WE organized EMD.

It's the only EMD we're really in-charge of. And it's the only EMD we ever will be in-charge of.
And you know what? I'm bloody proud of it. Uh huh, yeah.

Through EMD, there's really a lot, a LOT to learn. Learning to appreciate the efforts of people and being more tactful. Learning to see past the mistake itself, to look at the intent, and for once, being able to pass the initial anger to appreciate the good intent behind the gesture.

On EMD performance itself, having CO suddenly pop-up downstairs because of 'initiative' really really both irritated and scared the hell out of me. But, for once, I really tried to bypass the irritation to talk to Yang En and Alphonsus, to point out that even though I honestly honestly would like to bring them up, that it was more or less impossible and unwise to accomodate them in the already-cramped Auditorium. And it really felt good.

I always wondered how it would play out. How to adequately communicate the intent and meaning, without being too relaxed to lose the firmness, or to be too overbearing to crush the meaning. And now, I realize that, at least for now, these fears are not so much of a priority. Because if absolutely nothing else, EMD taught me that your true friends will understand when you tell them something.

Why?
Because we're friends, of course.
And not just friends.
But we're damn. bloody. good. friends.

Li Zhi. Danial. Glen. Alphonsus. Yang En. John. Shervin. Muslihuddin.
I super uber truly and honestly love you guys to the core, for being simply awesome friends, and I hope we'll never part =)
Thanks.