Student Leadership Camp '09 - 'Fear is nothing but a four-letter F word'Back to civilisation at long last! Already starting to feel the stress of modern world sinking into me again, the past few days at Pulau Ubin with no internet connection has given me a refreshing and stress-free episode, though definitely exhausting.
The experience I had at SLCamp '09 was definitely one never to be forgotten. Through this 4D3N camp, my perception of a leader has indeed changed alot. The camp did not directly tell us how to be a good one, but it exposed us to many activities which tested our strength, capabilities and perseverance, and also shaped qualities in us that a leader should possess. The theme of the camp was Fear, and many of the activities were crafted in such a way that demands us to step out of our comfort zone, face our fears and also at the same time, realise the meaning and importance of the word 'Teamwork' and 'Trust'. So cliche but so true.
I came to camp thinking I would get to know a bunch of new people, play games, tough it out in the woods.. But I was wrong, the people I've met, whom I've really grown to like are really very special and outstanding in their own ways. Very glad to know unique people like Jiamin, Jacie, MeiZhen, Paddy, Chor Hung and the list goes on..
It's almost impossible to sum up whatever I've taken from this experience into a single post, but I'll try. So alert, LONG POST AHEAD! I suggest you stop reading unless you're really interested on what I've been up to the last four days. This is just for me to recall my experience in the future. So here goes.DAY 1
Reached school early, received a hand-written letter from Jo before I left for camp. So sweet of her I love you jo :)
Walked to Sports Complex, heart full of anticipation and mind full of doubts, fully aware that I don't know anyone from my camp group. Walked up the gallery, saw a familiar face. Ow Yong Jian Yu!! Haha classmate, and now, teammate. I glanced to the bunch of girls, all donning Alpha Tees, then started of by introducing myself. Familiar faces but have never spoken before. From that moment,we grew from complete strangers to close groupmates who shared everything the next four days. When I say everything, I really mean everything. Meet Jiamin, Mei Zhen, Juliet and Jacie, the girls who experienced thick and thin with me the past few days.
Note: No photos this post, photos up next post!
The camp kickstarted with ice-breakers. Highlight would be the Pocky game where people had to pass pocky biscuit sticks to each other down the row, using their mouths. It was hilarious, some of them lost their First Kisses and the guys look horribly gay, grabbing each others faces and planting kisses. Really effective in breaking the ice :)
Next was the Amazing Race, Part 1. In which we had to use public transport to get to various game stations on different parts of Eastern Singapore. There were 7 stations, some of which tackled different fears. For example, we went to Pasir Ris Town Park to do a public speaking thingo where we had to approach strangers and come up with a ten-minute story to entertain them. Everyone had to have a go. I started off first and just blabbered nonsense about some ghost story. Totally unreal so I was just bullshitting throughout hahaha. Then my othe rteammates approached this old woman who was very evidently English-educated.
She's hilarious I swear. After all our group members have had a go at telling their story, the station masters, I think it was Anwar and Reuben, asked her to rate our skills. We asked he repeatedly and it was so funny 'cos she never once answered our question. She went a big round talking about how we teenagers should take things easy and also when we told her in our story that there's a girl who started stripping during an exam due to stress, she told us to visit her at IMH. LOL.
At about 10pm that night, we left for Old Changi Hospital which is supposedly haunted. However, due to insufficient time, we only did a walk through and it was pretty scary to most. I held hands with Jiamin and she was squeezing me the entire time. I must say, I was quite brave :)
Day 2
Off we go to Pulau Ubin! I had flu on one of the days and it was extremely exhausting to run around sunny Pulau Ubin for Amazing Race Part 2 with a dripping nose.
There was this game I would never forget. We had to sit on the burning hot concrete floor in Ubin, legs held by the person in front of you, in a line, and sort of have to use our butts to push us 5 metres across. Sounds easy, doesn't it? But it was extremely painful because the floor was scorching hot and we could not give up. That task really tested our strength and perseverance.
The conditions were so harsh that my teammate, Juliet, felt sick and suddenly her temperature rose to 39degrees celsius and she was sent home. Before she left, we sang her a song which really touched her heart and she burst out crying, in the middle of nowhere in Pulau Ubin. It was a really heartwarming moment, showed how bonded our team is :)
At night, we had an Outdoor Cooking Competition in which our group won among all 10 groups! Apart from facing setbacks such as filing to start a fire initially , we managed to cook an award-winning, tastebuds-tantalising dinner for the judges - Mr Alex Lo and the female teacher who coached us for TalenTime. I think it was really our enthusiasm and creativity when we introduced our dishes that won the judges over.
Our meal was called The HunksBabes Meal - A meal for the hunks and the babes.
We had the HunkBell soup (Campbell mushroom soup), Babes Beans (Baked beans), pan-fried Fish Luncheon, scrambled egg with mushroom in the shape of a smiley face, Thai Tom Yam Vemicelli as well as Jelly! Could tell the judges loved our food alot cos they ate it all up :)
Day 3
Woke up bright and early at 6am for our Rafting and Team-building games.
The first station for team-building game was really dangerous. We had to get each of our team members over a string that was tied between 2 trees, and the string was higher than us. I went first and it was pretty scary for me. 'Cos I'm kind of afraid of heights so when I stood on my teammate's shoulder, it was quite high up and I had to jump down. But thank God I landed safely. Jacie wasn't so lucky. That poor girl was wearing specs and she landed on her face, her spectacles digged straight into her skin and she started bleeding profusely, blood continuously flowing down her face, But miraculously, thank God once again, she didn't feel any pain at all. However, for the rest of the camp, she had a funny-looking Chinese character for the number 8 on her forehead.
Rafting was fun! Teamwork was key and we won third :) Very proud of our group!
Had campfire at night. I was supposed to pole dance as part of our group's campfire performance (as forfeit when I lost at Animal Concentration) but thank God I represented my group for Limbo so I was saved from poledancing.
It was a really heartwarming for all the TJCians to gather around the campfiring cheering, screaming, singing songs and all, I'd like to do it again. The Tj spirit was really evident and I'm happy to say, I'm proud to be in this school - It's like my home!
Then since it was our last night at camp, we didn't have a lights-out curfew so we stayed up and crashed the guys tent to chat and play TruthAndTruth. Stupid Jian Yu kept sleeping but he was a bit more awake soon after. Found out alot about each other and now JianYu knows something about me that very few peeople in 18/09 know! Mhmm but I made him promise not to tell anyone :) All our secrets are kept at Pulau Ubin!
Kk, it's been a long enough day and a long enough post, so I shall end here. To sum it up, SLCamp '09 was one great experience I would never forget. Pictures up next post. This weekend, I gotta choreograph my ass off. Don't worry G, I'll do as much as I can :) Shall aim at finishing 10 8's!
P.S. I need to meet Faith, Cher and my 18/09 buds A.S.A.P.
Pantry cleanup! Pantry's much cleaner now thanks Ms Tan, exco and Reuben!
Rachel's birthday!
Beautiful scenery from our tent in the morning
Truth&Truth
Brushing our teeth!
