Hey all. I'm back with a short post about two things that happened today which got me thinking.A lot.
First of all, wanna say a big big thank you to 0836 for the wonderfuly sweet and touching gesture. Thank you all for the great surprise, the nice card, the wonderful and indescribable feelings of warmth that followed, which I'll treasure for a long time to come. Thank you all for again and again expressing your gratitude for being the Level Camp Facil. I have to be honest. When I volunteered to sign up for this facilitating post, I didnt expect to get all this and to get the amount of gratitude that has followed. I'm humbled by all this, and quite frankly, I don't think I deserved all the gratitude and sweet gestures, for I didnt really have to do much during the camp. To be showered all this, I can only say a real big thank you for thinking that highly of me.
Second thing. Today, I went to Junction 8 with a few of the fellow 36ers, and we just reached Bishan. We were walking by happily joking when suddenly, our attention got diverted by this elderly man who slipped and fell and apparently broke his nose. For a while, we had our hearts in our mouths, as he apparently was unconscious for a while. He lost quite a lot of blood, and the image of him trying to get up, reeked of helplessness and solitude. I felt this deep sense of pity, and I thought. What if in 50 years time, I became that old man? What if I had no one to accompany me, no one to talk to, no one to make life worth living in my last days? The sight of blood pouring and no one helping, triggered many thoughts of mine.
Alright. I shall sign off for now. Till the next time, this is Dan.
Orientation 2 Reflections
Hey all. This has been a long time coming, but I've been kinda caught up in the past week with Orientation 2, Level Camp and all that. Now that it's the middle of the March holidays, I'm seriously having Orientation hangovers. So this post shall be a collection of random thoughts about the past week that impacted me in many ways.
Having been involved in both camps as an OGL/Facil, it really opened up many opportunities to be more involved in the bonding of my class. Orientation 2 was tiring physically, but we managed to nurture that fun spirit and the beginnings of class unity through the games. The cheering competition was hell, and through the ups and downs of losing the cheer competition, fearing the worst when an asthma attack struck down one of our dance finalists at the most inopportune time, to when we realised Louis was deservedly named Best OGL. I realised it didnt matter that we didnt win the overall best house award, cos we acheived more than we had hoped. We set out to be the best house, definitely, but we managed to instill something more special. We managed to instill that rare comraderie, that brotherhood/sisterhood among the OGLs, that unique bonding between the Apollo classes all in the midst of trying to win the one award that would symbolise all that we acheived. It isnt sour grapes, but having not gotten that symbol now, I realise that symbol wasnt all that important. We managed to instill this spirit that hopefully, most definitely will continue to live on long after this Orientation is over.
Level Camp Facilitating really started during the previous weekend when we went for the Facil training workshop. Granted, our programme flow was almost identical, but the Facil training bonded the Apollo facils together. We laughed together, cried together, complained together at times, but all that served to bond more than just the current 31st batch of NYJCian Facils, but also the generations of NYJCians gone by. We learnt more about each other in two days then we would in a normal environment in like,2 weeks. The facil training more or less allowed our ice to break with each other, and when the activities climaxed with the huge mass celebration with all the dancing and stuff, that's when I first had the inkling that we were really on to something bigger. That was when, I guess, that we were filled with so much hope and anticipation for the actual camp,wanting to spread the spirit and the unity to the rest of our classes and friends.
Which really was why the first day was so hard to swallow for all the facils, I guess. We started out Level Camp with major anticipation and enthusiasm, anxiously wanting to do our parts, but when met with the less than complimentary responses, hearts sank and tempers flared. I'll be the first to admit that I had it much easier with my group as compared to some others, and it's all thanks to them that it was possible. This group was so open, so communicative, so ready to delve deeper, ready to even conduct their own debriefs, that I really didnt have to do much to see results. Which at times made it hard for me to make life difficult for them during the mass activities. Whenever a person stood on the table, and the table shook cos they were afraid, whenever I fired a question and it was met with the silence that meant the person was really stumped, and at a loss to explain further, whenever I heard tears of passion/fear/enlightenment whilst people talked about their goals, I felt the impact a hundred times more inside. My heart ached and bled a little everytime I looked into someone's eyes, and his/her eyes communicated his/her hopelessness, and when I saw a person's goals not receiving any affirmation from the others in his/her group. Which was why, having seen the wholesome effort my group put in, I was sickened to hear the abrupt end to the proceedings of the first day. No one will deny that many tears were shed during the facils debrief session, that many hugs had to be given out, but I shed those tears for an entirely different reason. This group that I took were so open and so participative, that they did not deserve the abrupt ending at all.
The second day definitely touched me alot, starting from the first debrief session, when a few apologised for the previous day. Till now, it's still indescribable how touched I was to hear those short words. The second day had two major activities that were aimed at building teamwork, but I realised that the first one went a little deeper, and sparked off a little something called unity. It was a rather renewing experience to be the despatcher, and to look into the faller's eyes, though some were blindfolded. Especially when the person aint blindfolded, and I realise the person is rather afraid/nervous, and the instant I stand in front of the person, I make eye contact and the person looks back into my eyes. I got the feeling that the person was searching for assurance, so I tried to communicate reassurance through my eyes as well. And if the first activity sparked off the first flames of unity, the other activity definitely fanned the flames. It was very special for me to be that bystander, and observe how the entire class worked towards one goal, and seeing the development of the goals from the mere conceptual and supposed goal at the start, to the whole collective idea that it wasnt the number that mattered, but the journey travelled in that short hour. To hear such wise words, really made me take a step back. Yida and I were instructed to allow their morales to drop before giving advice/pep talks, but honestly, we never had to cos the entire class never allowed their heads to drop, and they gave the advice and delivered their own pep talks to the extent that me and Yida really didnt have to do much except stand around and observe.
To top off the special day, the facils were called to the centre with our classes surrounding us, and as we were told to close our eyes, we heard so many people, the same people that we facilitated in two days, come up to thank and affirm and acknowledge our efforts. It was really heartwarming and touching, to have been through two days and a myriad of emotions, to finally reach the end point of such emotional height. And I realised once again, that we acheived something special, something that occurs only once in a blue moon. Together as a class, we went deeper and were much more honest with each other then we ordinarily would. It would be idealistic to say that the future would be devoid of quarrels and disagreements, but I hope it would be a fair assumption, that this camp provided a strong foundation for the class, and no matter what may come away, it is my hope and prayer that we can retain and build on this unity in the next year or so.
Till the next time, this is Dan signing off.
