2106'12

Thursday, June 21, 2012

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House Campaigns have officially started today. The online campaigns, that is.
Life has been... surrounding preparing for campaign stuff before this. 

I can't express how grateful I am to have my dear campaign team in my life, they actually sacrificed their entire Tuesday from 10am all the way till around later than 6.30pm to help me with my campaign prep, especially the campaign video, which is quite embarrassing, but I'm quite proud of it (: 

Here is my Facebook page! (: CLICK HERE If you would like to take a look/ conveniently like it, it would mean the world to me, thank you so very much. 

Holidays are ending soon which is really terrible but House Campaigning starts right from the first day of school, so that's really something to look forward to. No matter what, I'm really just going to give it my best shot and just enjoy the process. House really means the world to me, and I really hope to give back to it in the best way possible. 

I'm rather restless right now, apologies for this terrible update post! So I shall just insert some photographs of my campaign team (or a small part of them) eating. It seems like as if they just eat without doing any work. I would put photographs of them doing work, but I'm saving them for my Facebook page. 


Wang You and Sarah! 


Valerie, my campaign manager! 


The fries that are in our stomach/ passed out! They look really unappetizing here. 



McSpicy that apparently wasn't very spicy. 


Ice cream yay! 


More ice cream yay!

Yesterday was a pretty good day, went to school for Annual Assembly Prep session - it felt really good catching up with my dear Guides batchmates, they are still so amazing! Preparing for Annual Assembly makes me really quite excited for the day - next Saturday! Annual Assembly is really the highlight of Guides every year, and to me, it signifies that the graduating batch is probably leaving soon - which only means one thing - my batch will probably be stepping up really really soon! 

At the start of this year, during March Camp, I really didn't think that my batch would be able to step up and lead Guides, but we've really grown so much this year and have learnt a lot from the batch above us. I'm really quite excited at the prospect of my batch leading! Not only in Guides, but for the entire school. Everything feels so surreal.


I love this photo of Mae and Chris with myself! And look at my SOD bubble tea - it's 100% sugar! Plus, the flavour's caramel! I'm crazily unhealthy. 

This is such an awful blog post but to end this off, here's one of the memes I used for publicity purposes on Facebook. Thank you Ragini for the photograph - I don't think it's a posed photograph by the way (: 


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1406'12

Thursday, June 14, 2012

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Every girl deserves to feel like a princess, every person deserves to feel appreciated and special. 
(and yes if you were wondering, I took and edited that photo myself heh) 

I do realize that my blog posts have recently been based largely on inspirational themes, or some might even call them psuedo-inspirational but this June holidays have truly been enlightening in so many ways and I'm so happy that my mindset and outlook to life (or rather the little things that happen in my life) have changed quite a fair bit, and I'm glad to say that it's for the better. In the middle of Semester 1, I remember being really lost and I was really drowning. 

These few days, I have been feeling pretty good as a whole and I'm starting to feel much more comfortable with who I really am. I'm starting to feel so much more fortunate and appreciative of what I have because I am really such a lucky person, with so many wonderful people around me and I'm beginning to grow into my skin, for real. It's such a beautiful feeling, and I really hope that every person will be able to feel comfortable  with who they are because I know that there are so many people out there who don't feel this way. 

I have no idea what's got into me but, hold your head up, you deserve to feel good (:

Anyway yesterday, instead of just feeling good, I felt like a princess too! The closest we could get to a castle was the one at Universal Studios. Headed there with Gillian, Jie Lin, Angelia and Hui Min. It was my third time there, but every visit to USS was different because of the company with me. 

I shall leave the photographs to do the talking, there isn't much to write about this visit in particular (: The reason why Angelia and Hui Min aren't in the photos are because we split up for a while as the two of them sat on the Battlestar Galactica repeatedly, which I had no intention of going on and have no intention to take it in future. 

Alex's my favourite character from the Madagascar movie series, I don't really know why. 
To be honest, I think he's the least cute out of all the characters, but I guess he's the character which I can relate to the most, being headstrong and self-absorbed. 

Gillian's favourite penguins! (They have individual names, but I have no idea what they are sorry penguins!)
I actually really really like the penguins too, they are always so ingenious and witty. I feel a bit strange right now talking about cartoon characters like they are humans, but I have never ever outgrown the stage of believing that cartoon characters / plush toys have actual lives. 

And Gloria the hippo!
She's so sexy, curvy and confident despite her tummy, so much to be respected for! 

Met a performer who looked rather alike to Brendan Fraser - the guy who played Rick O' Connell in the Mummy movie series. 

Convenient photograph for comparison:
Looks quite alike in my opinion! 




No one has any idea how much this photograph means to me - yes this one of me with the Yellow M&M - my favourite out of all the M&M characters. 

I have always adored the Yellow one (yes, way before I was even in Waddle!) since really young, perhaps around nine or ten and I remember owning a small Yellow M&M plushy that had a keyring attached to it. I loved it, and it went with me everywhere I went and I'm not even exaggerating. It meant the world to me and  held many precious memories because of the many places I brought it to. I constantly recited this little poem (it's so embarrassing but I'm really proud of it at the same time):

I'm Yellow, 
the sweetest fellow
Trust in me, 
just in me.
Would you like to eat me? 

But then I lost it in Primary Five due to a loosened keyring and I was just terribly upset about it, and cried a lot because of that. Everyone thinks that I don't eat yellow M&Ms because of their relation to my House colour, but no - this is the real reason. 

Yes, I do realize that I sound terribly stupid and childish right now, re-telling my story about my Yellow M&M and it's just a character concocted out by a chocolate company - it doesn't even star in TV shows or movies yet I've established such a deep connection with it. Yellow M&M keyrings are now extremely common (back when I lost it, there weren't shops like Candylicious that sold such merchandise) but none of them look exactly like the one I used to have. The thing about the above photo is that the gigantic Yellow M&M Character looks exactly like that keyring - with it's half closed eyelids and looking all sleepy. That's why this photograph means so much to me - it's as if my Yellow M&M has grown up and I got to meet it again (':

No one is going to take me seriously but everything that I just wrote is true. I feel rather weird now. 

To end this off in a good note, I'm back to my peanut butter cups obsession which stopped for a while since last year, with me buying lots of Reese's. I absolutely can't wait for Halloween - peanut butter cups will be everywhere baby! 


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1206'12

Monday, June 11, 2012

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Life has been pretty mundane recently and things haven't been going the way I thought, or planned. 

But I try, and I try, to really just make the best of what I have and to appreciate the things that I have. I mean, there really isn't anything we can do when things don't go the way we want to and sometimes we get angry and aggravated but think about it, will that really change anything? Letting our emotions control us will just make us feel worse. Could we perhaps just remain calm and make the best of what we have and be happy about it?

I know, I know, it all seems so perfect in theory but it's absolutely difficult to put it into practice in real life. I mean, who can resist being upset when things don't go as planned? Who can stop themselves from feeling disappointed when well, they are indeed disappointed? No lie, I can't do it either. I just hope that every time something like that happens, I will be able to pick myself up and move from there. Yes I do realize that what I'm typing right now seems terribly cheesy, but I'm really trying to adjust myself to this sort of mindset, and feel free to take all these however you like. 

It's 3.19AM right now and I'm still rather energetic, thanks to the nap I had from 8PM to 11.30PM last night. Did I mention that George Watsky released his new mixtape yesterday? It is not unusually amazing (':  George Watsky is truly an inspiration to me (this is definitely not my first time raving about him but still.) His outlook to life is really something that I aspire to adopt - to have that immense passion and pleasure for what you do and not care about what people think or the monetary gains that you risk not having. He might not be the best looking guy around (to me, he is!), but he sure is someone to be respected. 


Many laugh at and possibly even judge my strange taste in music and to be honest, I never used to like the genre of rap music. That is, until Watsky came along. He didn't rap about women, beer and raunchy stuff like that. Rap was an avenue for him to express how he felt about things and boy are his views inspiring. What really makes him attractive is how real and true he is. Did I ever mention that he is a poet? Brownie points for that! :D If you'd like to be inspired, click here. Read into the lyrics (:

Oh and Sunday wasn't too bad a day! Went out with my dear Youth Assembly C (from Hwa Chong's Student Leaders' Convention) and it was such an entertaining afternoon and evening. Thank you all for that! We caught Madagascar 3 which was pretty good in terms of the balance of comedic content and meaning to it. I know I have a terrible habit of being all preachy, but the animation really touched me, in the sense that it brought across the message of having passion for the things you do (which if you can't tell by now, is the most important value that I have been believing for some time now), to choose to go in the right direction and to never, never, ever give up. Afterwards, we headed to book an entertainment room to catch another movie - Ghost Protocol (Mission Impossible 3) but I was too tired to really watch the movie, instead simply enjoying the fast action it provided. We proceeded to have dinner before playing a few short rounds of Double Dare. I'm so fortunate to have met this group of funny people (: 

Alright, it's 3.51AM as I type this. I should head to my bed despite not having the urge or need to. 

Before I end though, I'd just like to mention how much the latest two tags on my tagbox have made my day. It's really nice to know that someone appreciates my smile (I hope that my understanding of "cut like a comet" is actually right), thank you for telling me that (: And it's an amazing feeling to know that someone enjoys reading my blog, thank you :D 

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0706'12

Thursday, June 7, 2012

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Things have been changing recently. 
In fact, things have been changing a lot, and I'm really hoping that these changes are for the better. Somehow, these changes don't feel like good changes but rather pretty negative ones. 

Sigh I'm so sorry guys I'm having a terrible writer's block right now. I have been starring at the above image for the past three hours (alright not really, I have been switching tabs to and fro, but you get the drift) and although I have so much to talk about it, I really have no idea where to start from. Although I absolutely hate messy and all-over-the-place blog posts, this is going to be one of those days. 

I usually try to publish only the best blog posts I can offer to my small readership (the number of draft posts that  I have that never ever get published are enormously high) but I really have to post this even though it's one of the more horrible and cluttered posts because this period of time means quite a lot to me and if I don't post this, it might just become lost in my memories and I absolutely do not want that to happen. 

Campaigning preparation period this year seems so... different. It has changed. I'm not entirely sure why though. I'd like to think that perhaps it's because we are given much more time to prep (around an entire month!) compared  to last year when it's much more rushed and we didn't really have time to think about the little little details. However, I highly doubt that is the real reason. I personally feel that what makes this year's campaigning prep period so different is that we have all grown, and that we have changed. 

Thou shall not touch so much about such sensitive issues but it's honestly up to your own interpretation. I hope to believe that we have all changed for the better (: And that what's happening now's really for the betterment of House 2013.

I really hope that through all these, I will just stay true to my beliefs and really be myself.
I have so much to say, but it's getting late and this post has been horrendous so far. I'm still going to post it, apologies for that! Hopefully, my thoughts will be pretty much sorted by tomorrow.  

I can't wait for Sunday and next Wednesday.
It's going to be exciting! 

Oh yes, and did I mention that Mr Desmond Choo replied to my tweet and even followed me? In addition, his account is also locked but he allowed me to follow him (: Plus my tweet did not even mention his twitter name, in the sense that it didn't have an "@". That is absolutely an honour and it really made my Sunday so special. My tweet was rather frivolous though. I would never have expected him to actually see it and it's a tad bit awkward and embarrassing but it's alright. 


And yes, if you are wondering, that really is his real account as it's tied to his real Facebook profile. I know it's really quite silly of me to derive happiness from such incidents, but Mr Desmond Choo is really someone who inspires me, especially his commitment and drive towards the community despite having to deal with quite a lot of setbacks. 

I'm not sure if I'll be able to handle setbacks like he does. But I hope that I will be able to, especially if the time comes and calls for it. 

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0206'12

Saturday, June 2, 2012

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The18th Student Leaders' Convention organized by Hwa Chong, together with Nanyang, was an amazing experience. It was beyond wonderful. 

To be honest, before I attended the convention, I was quite reluctant as I kept thinking that it would probably be a rather dry experience and I could perhaps use that four days (29 May - 1 June) to do more meaningful and productive tasks. Boy was I wrong. 

The Convention was a burst of various elements that really made the entire event a huge success. New friends, old friends, wonderful memories created and reminisced. In hope to retain these beautiful memories, I shall organize this blog post into one of a day to day schedule, so that it would also be easier for me to refer to if I have to give a presentation on my experience. SLC was truly amazing. 

Day 1
Day 1 started rather awkwardly as my dad sent me to Hwa Chong a wee bit too early and I ended up standing alone at the steps of their clock tower, unsure of what to do and waiting for Jaclyn so that I wouldn't need to register on my own. After we registered, we proceeded to the Auditorium where we were greeted by the Chairperson of the entire convention, followed by an introduction to the concept of the SLC. I thought that the concept was rather interesting and fresh, it was unlike anything that I've attended (perhaps I rarely attend such events, but still). 

In a nutshell, SLC was basically to instill a common drive in us, to serve our schools and our society. What we did during the convention was to think about pertinent problems, reflect about them, before brainstorming for solutions and lastly, to present our findings. There were two activities, the school-based one and the community-based activity. We were also split into Youth Faculties, with mine being the amazing amazing Stolzide. Three Youth Faculties were under a Youth Assembly and I was lucky enough to be in Youth Assembly C, which was headed by the one and only Gary Lim! (< Haha yes, one of my best primary school friends. It was so good to see him again. 

After the various briefings, we went to our faculty homeroom where we played ice breakers and did y'know, stuff you do when you first meet new people (: Our first activity was to draw something that represented us. This was what I came up with: 


I thought it represented me quite well. Crazy, fat and a brace face. I thought that the activity was quite cool as we would be seeing how everyone opens from their little shells and as we get to know each other more. My faculty probably saw how I morphed from a sane person to that crazy monster in a short duration of 4 days. One thing worth mentioning was that Gary drew that Gary the snail from Spongebob as himself because from what I remember, Emily and I were the ones who gave him that nickname and it felt wonderful knowing that he has kept it. Our faculty played many other games, which started out quite awkwardly but we slowly warmed up towards each other. Much faster than I had expected actually. 

Afterwards, we had a painting activity where all the faculties had to paint some boxes. The atmosphere was really good, with everyone going crazy and painting one another instead. Then we had lunch before starting Orientation Games at Resorts World Sentosa. 


YAC! 

Orientation Games were quite fun, but they were really really tiring. I thought that the station games were rather effective in helping our faculty to bond. We got so much closer after the OGs, in my opinion. Did I mention that I saw Shu Hui, Amanda and Vernise? SLC was kind of like a primary school meet up opportunity as well! Sheila was in my Youth Assembly and I saw Bibiana and Leonard too (: 

Sheila and me! (: She's still so pretty!

To be honest, Day 1 was the day of the convention I least enjoyed as we didn't really do anything that made us learn anything, but rather it was all bonding (which was also important, but still!) activities. When I heard that Day 1 and Day 4 were the best days, I felt a bit restless and sort of wondered what I had gotten myself into. But really, Day 2 - Day 4 were the days that I really enjoyed. 

Day 2
Learnt my lesson from Day 1 and didn't arrive as early, but it was still rather early. Brought a book this time, so that was an improvement (:

When everyone was there, we had an activity where we were required to draw our highest and lowest points of leadership. The activity really made me think, and I realized that I had many high points rather than low points, which made me feel a lot better about who I was. We didn't have time to share our experiences and had to proceed to the Auditorium for many hours of talks. 

We were honoured enough to have Mdm Halimah Yacob (Minister of State, Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports) come talk to us about youth leadership. I thought the dialogue session was genuinely useful, despite being really tired myself. She mentioned how the society was really changing rapidly and the need for us youths to really keep up with the times. I felt quite inspired about how we youths can actually initiate solutions for the community and connect with them. Also, one particular topic I felt quite inclined to was one regarding CIP. Sometimes, I do wonder actually. Do people do CIP just to fulfill the 100 hours or do we do it willingly, because we truly want to serve? To be honest, I don't even have the answer to that myself. I guess the next time I do CIP, I should probably choose a cause that I'm really interested in serving, so that I will be passionate and put my heart into it, which is really what the core and motivation of CIP is all about. 

Afterwards, we had another speaker from the National Youth Council come speak to us and that was rather enriching as well, with me feeling rather empowered after the talk. Youths can do so much, we have the platform and capability to do big things, really. 
Then, we proceeded to our Faculty homerooms and we started our School based activity (: We identified some problems commonly seen within our schools and came up with some solutions, before voting on the problem that our Faculty would focus on. Finally, the issue of discipline was the one that most of us felt the most important, the most pressing. To be more exact, the use of vulgarities by students. This problem isn't rather evident in my own school, but I can see how this is an issue, especially in all-boys schools. 

We spent quite a lot of time writing the proposal to tackle this issue before proceeding for a Youth Assembly meeting to share our ideas with Youth Assembly C and to gather feedback to further improve our proposal. The Youth Assembly meeting was a fresh and new experience for myself as the setting was extremely formal and the third party address had to be used, which really stumbled me when I asked another faculty a question during the meeting. It was just one question but it was quite awkward to phrase, I really applaud the presenters! Our Faculty had to field the most questions, but I'm so happy for our wonderful team spirit (:

After the Youth Assembly meeting, we had to quickly edit our proposals before submitting it to SLC OT for judging. The sense of urgency was so realistic, just like what we experience when planning for events, so I thought that was a job well done. 

We had debrief before heading home after a long day. 

Day 3
I'm one who really learns from my mistakes (; Reached Hwa Chong at a relatively perfect timing, not too early nor too late. Day 3 was our Community- based activity day!

The day started out with a briefing in the Auditorium once again, before breaking into our Faculty homerooms for our Community Based Activity discussion. I was the leader for this activity and Stolzide made it so easy for me, with everyone being so on and enthusiastic about it. They are such amazing people, and even though it was only my third day of knowing them, I feel like I've known them for an awfully long time (': 

The concept for the CBA was similar to the School based activity, except that instead of having a Youth Assembly meeting to share our ideas and solutions, we had to set up a Faculty booth for an exhibition at the end of the day. 

We were assigned the topic of "Abuse of Technology", and our chosen subtopic was "Internet Frauds and Scams". Guoyue came up with an extremely ingenious idea to publicize our booth during the exhibition, which was to scam everyone into thinking we had free candy, by flashing a powerpoint and making announcements. But when people came to our booth, we will give them a tip sheet, on how to avoid Internet scams. Stolzide really worked so well together (': We completed the proposal really fast and we worked on our booth really well too. Look at our pretty booth!


During the little snippets of time that we had, we practiced our dance performance for the Grand Finale, together with the other Faculties, making up Youth Assembly C. I really enjoyed everything. Although we might not be the best, we have really put in our all, and I really feel that we are such an amazing group of people.

We also had phototaking that day! :D
The sane.

And the wonderful crazy, which I very much prefer.


Day 4
Really the best day of the entire SLC (': Reached earlier to practice our dance performance for the Grand Finale. We had our closing ceremony and all that in the morning, followed by Fringe activities, which was quite terrible and I shall not elaborate on that, but I really like to thank Stolzide for being so wonderful (not to mention, being the Faculty with the highest morales and integrity)!

Then, we took polaroids (: It was really really fun taking 10 polaroid shots at one go.


Then, we had the highlight of the entire convention - the GRAND FINALE (:
The atmosphere was amazing, the company was amazing, everything was amazing. I felt like I was clubbing in Hwa Chong's Auditorium. Everyone was so high, everyone was just standing up and dancing and clapping along. I don't think this sort of atmosphere can ever be planned or imitated. All it really needs is a bunch of wonderful, passionate student leaders and I'm so honoured to be involved in this.


YAC's performance went so well, I'm so proud of all of us! Oh yes, and Stolzide got first runners up for our Orientation Games, and our prize was wonderfully delicious popcorn from  Cornery. It felt great to be part of this wonderful team.

When the Grand Finale ended, we had debrief, which was quite emotional, although there were no tears involved (': I really hope that I will be given the oppotunity to see these wonderful people again my my life. They have gone through a journey that I will never forget with me.

Yu Tong, Megan, Camellia, Kartini, Saloni, Yoyo, Guoyue, Ryan, Jia Qi, not forgetting An Lin, Gary and Su Yue, from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for these four days. It has been  beyond my imagination and truly memorable.

WHO ARE WE ARE WE ARE WE?
18, 18, SLC! 


(credits to all the photographers of the photos featured in this post)
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