Returned from a 3day 2 night camp from school on Sunday night, but since I was so tired, I decided to post it up today instead. This camp, was one I was looking forward to, yet nervous and afraid to attend due to various reasons(well, we'll see). This camp was one of 5 camps held and organised jointly by ROHEI(I still haven't got any idea what it stands for) and SDAR. Named the Leadership and Empowerment Camp, it was going to be a fabulously excellent camp, although the name stated otherwise.
Friday morning, I woke late, at 6.45, however, it seemed as though I was way too early when the doors to the Alumni Club House were locked! Before that, I saw two other campers(who would soon become my team mates if I'm not wrong) head for SIM. A guy, who I later came to know as Philip, found an oen door at 8, and together with 3 others, we went up to the function room on the second floor. We sat down, broke some ice and went back down to direct the others who might get stuck on the outside due to the locked front doors which could only be opened at 9.30. At 8.25, we went back up to find our teams, as by then, most of the 75 or so of us had already arrived.
As far as I knew, I had only one other camp mate(who I had never met) who was also my course mate. I was assigned to team 5. I went to the table right in front of me, and sat down silently. I sat down, and without taking a glance, I looked down. Less than a second later, a voice welcomed me to the team, and introduced himself. We introduced ourseles to each other, before I felt a little comfortable and took a quick glance around. Since I was loud on the inside and silent on the outside, I went into deep thought.
'No way! Are you sure? It can't be right?'
'Alright, I'll look somewhere else for 5 seconds, and after that, please tell me it was just me feeling sleepy.'
'Alright. So it was really true, or maybe not. You have seen, but you havent heard. So just sit back and relax.'
After a few more members arrived and sat down, we had a round of introduction. 'Ok, so it's more or less settled.' That, was the first camp I mentioned about myself being quiet. No idea why I said it, but inside, there was something, that said,'Don't waste it. This is the one where you will notice a great change in your life. Don't worry about anything else. Go with it.'
So, our team had a mentor, and 10 of us. Jorge, Jaemeng, Jalyn, Jessica, Rachel, Belinda, Faye, Angsiang, Lionel, Cardus, and I. We had our first game, and Rachel and I were picked by our first leader, Cardus. Oh my! It's only the first activity of the camp, and I'm already forced to open my mouth! It's just sooner or later, right? At first, I took a minute to prepare myself for the worst, before starting to let everything else fade away. Now, it's just the team, Rachel and I. I understood almost every single action they made, except for the one where Cardus pointed at his tag. 'What has his name got to do with the activity?' It was only after I saw the task that I finally knew what he meant.
So, the next activity. We had to come up with a team name, motto and a symbol. Afterward, we would put all that onto a cloak. In most camps, we would have flags and banners. However, in this one, we would be making a cloak. We came up with the team name which has an essence of irony. Shing-a-boomz! As for the motto and symbol, we derived those from the rad(ioactive) red rat. Live high, Play hard, I'mPossible. You'll see.
Camp's too boring? That might be the last time one would find the camp boring. After that, we had our first lunch together. The usual. Afterwhich, we began on the first session. Direct, Interactive, Supportive, Careful(DISC). That's a profiling based on our behaviours in a certain environment. Similar to the quizzes I take on facebook, I fall under the S category. That session, perhaps it was to accelerate the rate we got to know our team members while at the same time helping us to understand ourselves?
We went for a buffet dinner(it's nice), before going on to Session 2, Overcoming Adversities. This was one activity that I have never done in any camp before, since this activity carried a relatively high level of sensitivity and confidentiality. 'Ok, if it's your turn, share it with them. It will help you a great deal in your next 2 days. Trust me.' I did. To date, less than 15 others I know in this lifetime know about it. It was a great experience, to learn something about one another. Some teams had touching stories to share at the end, which gave lots of meaning to the Session we had that evening. There was also an interview with a cancer survivor, which was an excellent eye-opener! As long as we were alive, no adversity is too great for us to handle. I started to wonder how boring things would be, if I had attended the lectures and tutorials and head home only to enjoy my weekend in front of the computer screen.
M&M Session was the activity we had before closing off the day. Yes, you could say the M&M chocolates were involved as well, but it stands for Mentor and Mentee Session. I did not really share that much that night(which I felt was ok), although deep inside, I was dying to tell the world how great I felt on just the first day alone. I'm one who's loud and hyper on the inside, but lacked the courage to show it on the outside. Imagine a nuclear bomb exploding 10,000 feet underground.
Slept at the earliest time since school started, at 12am. 6am, I woke, and went back to sleep again. I remembered I dreamt about something, but I just could not recall what it was. Just before I woke, I 'saw' her again, for the ninth time. Why? Why was it that, the only thing I could remember is a short dream that lasts less than a minute, and it's always the same character? Was there some kind of meaning to it? Alright. It's been 9 times, and I might have found her. If it really is her, prove it to me. Today.
This morning, I had a dream, of which I could only remember one line."Look, at the rate you're going, you might fail the test." Once again, I laughed it off, though I kept thinking about how I was going to fail. 7.30, I woke, packed my stuff, got changed and went down to the driving centre for my test. I did pathetically badly for the warm-up, and even more so for the actual test. I went wide at 2 left turns, used the wrong gear twice and I even failed to slow down just before a turn! Best incident of the day? I nearly made a taxi kiss my ass! How great was that? Just what exactly was wrong with my form this morning? Those were the mistakes that I had never ever committed since I started my first driving lesson(except for the part on the usage of wrong gear). The verdict? With 28 demerit points(my new highscore) and 1 immediate failure, I failed the test, and won the right to drive with the red "L" plates in front of and behind the car for another 2 months. That's more than SGD2000 down the drain. Went home, had lunch, went back to school. At least things were slightly better, when we became the first team to receive our lecturer's stamp of approval for I&E. Good thing the stuff I learnt at the recent camp came in handy. It felt like a really bad heartbreak, but thanks to the quotes and stuff I learnt, I recovered in 2 hours. As long as I was up and breathing, no failure or adversity was too great to overcome.
I don't know what to say. It's been 9 times. Why can't we just let the 'sightings' end there? Alright, today's going to be the second day. If the 3rd carried an accuracy of 50%, I shall tell the guys in my team. But, if it carried an accuracy of 80%, I shall tell the whole team, and some other guys I'm close to.
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