♥ Monday, July 6, 2009

20090706 MOE Scholars Leadership Development Programme One People

Early in the morning, I took cab down to Toa Payoh Lorong 1 for a leadership programme. The taxi driver talked so much that he missed a turn. Guess what he said? "See lah! I miss a turn. Have to go by this way liao."
I was like "!? my fault ar?" [but i didn't say it out lah.] I was keeping quiet for almost the whole journey. In fact, I half wanted to msg someone to tell him/her I was on the way to TPY, on a taxi with a weird uncle in case I got abducted somehow. Well, I reached there eventually. Met Jovi and Basia before walking to One People [building] together.
Jasmine briefed us outside the building and shortly after we set up the place in the Multi Purpose Hall, the students came, led by Leovine and Michelle.
Anyway, the programme started...and at 11am, the students are led into another room and the rest of us went to do the Excellence Lunch for them. It was my second time doing it and seriously, it was much much better than the first. Firstly, there was planning done beforehand. Secondly, the people had more initiatives because most of us have done it before. Thirdly, not much logistics were needed because most of them were bought beforehand. Only items like ice cubes and water were needed because they did not have a water dispenser at the building. GG.

Well, the students came and I took the role of serving the drinks and boy, was I screwed up!? I accidentally spilled the drink over a student's plate and Nic was like at the back helping me to hold the tray of cups. Double OMG. Suddenly my fingers became very buttery today! Anyway, this experience just reminded me of the days where I used to work at Waraku restaurant [strike] [Pay is pathetic for the amount of workload and welfare.] [/strike]

But anyway, we had fun. the students had fun =] and it was a greaattt experience!! =D And I must say, the MOE scholars are very intelligent and creative! Maybe because they are at JC level. They are friendly and fun-loving. Obedient. It was a joy being their facilitator ^^ Esp during the Cross the Moat game. I was the 'Crocodile' and I had to blow the whistle each time they make a mistake during the game. I thought they must have hated me for keep blowing the whistle! =P But I must say, I was pretty amazed and impressed by their creativity for coming up with a timing for the game! I've played it before in TK but we've never come up with timing before! [probably cos we didn't have the luxury of going group by group] Very impressive team of people, I must say!

I really must take time off to consolidate my learning points from all the camp/programmes/workshops.

Volunteers present: Bhovita (new girl), Audrey, Michelle, Lewis, Leovine
Trainers present: Jasmine, Jovita, Basia
Special guest: Nicholas Lee

3sa impacted lives at 4:22 AM

♥ Wednesday, June 24, 2009

20090625 ACS(B) Induction

Went for Induction at ACS (Barker) last night. I must say, the school facilities were pretty impressive! What they lack was just lighting problems along the hall areas. I could barely see anything when walking out!
Also, after I've settled down in school, Henzy(I think), told me that the 6th floor is the quarantined area. I was like "OMG...!!!"
After the induction, Ryan's sister and I were trying to find our way out. Then, we saw this girl talking to two other girls and what separated them was this glass wall. So I was wondering, must be cos the girl don have the security pass, that's why cannot get through to them. But I soon realised that the girl DID have the pass so I asked her to help us tap so we could get through the door. She told us with a puzzled look on her face,"Er..you can't go in there... It's the containment room."

"Containment? ... OH." Containment for the H1N1 virus, I realised. =\ She showed us the way out and off we went. haha. What a close shave!

Anyway, for induction, we talked about the Trybe mission,values and structure. It's a little similar to the Rojak Session at Subway actually. Also, some of the full-timers shared about their experiences,reason for joining Trybe and also words of encouragement to the campers. Although I've heard it a few times, but somehow the stories just managed to captivate my attention =)

And I've also realised that I'm not the only one who's blur about university stuff. Merryn is worse than me =P She hasn't even read the book yet!! I wonder who else.. Hmm...

3sa impacted lives at 8:33 PM

♥ Friday, June 12, 2009

20090610-20090612 CTSS LDC

I was asked by 2 persons to give a wake-up call to them - Dy and Basia. I woke up at around 5.30am and I thought I'd be out of the bathroom by 5.50am to give Dy a wakeup call. In the end, I came out at 5.58am and faster gave Dy a call. [he hung up on me...maybe he thought it was alarm clock? or he just donwan me to hear his sleepy voice.] soon after, i received his sms telling me that he was awake. haha. then, I also gave Basia a wake up call. heard her sleepy voice. so funny =P

Anyway, met up with Dy at Cheers, bought paos as breakfast for the facilitators and off we go to...CLEMENTI TOWN SECONDARY SCHOOL!

We were late. First time go late for Trybe events. rawrz!
Almost all the volunteers were in school already and everyone helped to carry all the logistics from Dy's car to 1D1, which was our logistic room. then, we gathered round for a short briefing before proceeding to the hall to meet the students! =) they are indeed a lively and happy bunch of people, as mentioned by Jaime during the briefing last week. I love the way they responded when someone asked,"Are you ready?" They would respond with a cheer which is SOOOO COOL! anyways, I was the facilitator of Group 3,together with Hidayat.
Guess what? There was this girl whose name is Naw Paw Paw. SO CUTE RITE!? omg!
The rest of the group consisted of Indra, Gretel, Gerald, Gladys, Yu Qi and Thiam Woon.

The team building games were organised and executed by the ACJC facilitators. The games mainly consisted of starch and soapy water. (Trust them to think of this!!) I didn't intend to get myself wet and soapy till the second station whereby we had to 'dive' in to grab Zhi Hao's ~~hairy~~ legs. After the 4 stations, we proceeded to play another game. the 4 teams were supposed to attack each other and 'kill' each other by pulling off a handkerchief that was hanging from their side pockets. I saw great teamwork between Gladys and Gerald once when Gerald and another guy were trying to pull the handkerchief from each other, then Gladys came from the back and stole the handkerchief from the guy. Super hilarious! =D

Anyway, we had lunch together and after lunch, the facilitators had a briefing...and here came the bad news. Dy said that Yong Ming and I were to switch group. So I had to go take the juniors while Yong Ming would take the seniors. It was a confusing moment firstly because I did not know anything about the activities the juniors would take, also, I did not know the reason of the switch. Was it my fault? Did I do something wrong? I asked Dy but he told me it was internal reason and would tell me later. That further affirmed my thinking that yes, i did something wrong but had no idea what it was. So I spent the day worrying and feeling very sian about the switch.

After lunch, I went with the juniors to a workshop in the AVA room. Stephanie(ACJC) was the other facilitator. Half the time, I wasn't really listening to Nic because I was still quite upset about the switch. haha. But I've decided to be more focussed since the decision had been made already.

Day 2, we went to Botanic Garden which was led by an organisation called TAP (The all-adventure programme (or project.i forgot)). Patience was our leader. She is 22 this year, studying in SIM. It was her first time as a trainer and I thought she did a pretty good job for a newbie! But her hints were pretty obvious to me, not sure if they were to my group members. eg. we were supposed to find a place(a lake) as seen on the photo provided. When we've reached the place, we were on the other side of the lake so we couldn't see the little pavillion/bridge. We were about to go to another lake (there were 3 lakes in total) when she said,"you all wanna go over there and see? Maybe it's this one leh??" haha. kinda funny. And stupid Tembusu tree. Why got so many species (cousins) one!? We thought we've found the right Tembusu tree (as seen in the $5 note) but noooooooooo.... it was the wrong one!! *grr*

Anyway, after that, we played Flipper's Ball! A few of us - Alison, Ee Rong, Hameed and I didnt enter the pool for some reason. Still, we had fun cheering for the White Teams (our group and another group)!! =D After the competition between groups, there was another competition - Facilitators vs the winner group! Haha..the facilitators lost. aww~~ Well, we've tried our best! furthermore, many of us dont belong to any sports club or whatsoever. So it's alright if we lose to them, many of whom are in volleyball, basketball etc etc. (just finding excuses for them)
One thing that I'd request to improve on would be the condition of the pool. perhaps TAP could look into the safety issue before renting the place for students to come. At the bottom of the pool, some of the tiles are very sharp and at least 2 of our students were injured during the Flipper's Ball game!! One of which is Gregory, a scout boy in my team. It hurts me to see the blood flowing from the sole of his feet. T_T I could almost feel his pain.

[im taking an awfully long time to blog this. rawrz!!]

umm.. yeah. actually juniors' camp is a bit sian. a lot of theory stuff.. but on the third day morning, Stephanie and I decided to apologise to our group for taking over the lead instead of letting someone in the group to take the lead cos we realised that we're the ones contributing to the ideas instead of them. I was glad that they forgave us and we became a happy family again! ^^ I guess I really should learn how to be a good facilitator. I know Vivien and Bing Rong are very good in facilitating and perhaps I should learn from them. Don't be so serious. If things go wrong, there'll be a learning point as well. Perhaps Im just too anxious and tend to rush into things... Mustn't behave this way!!!!

As for the Excellence Lunch, haha. It was quite disturbing and relieved for me to see Nic, Jasmine, Jovita and Dy coming to help my team to set up the hall. disturbing cos could tell Nic was rather frustrated while setting up the divider. (Dy was helping him) Relieved cos...well, what can i say? I was thankful ........

okay. i just realised something. my team got materials from Trybe..but there were no receipts!!! Maybe that's why we were short of $7! T_T grr.. well, yeah..there was a discrephancy in the accounts. So Steph and I chipped in $3.50 each so the accounts can tally. stupid rite? haha.

bah..whatever. haha.

Anyway, before the camp breaks, the facilitators n Trybe staff gave a performance item - SINGING!! We sang the song "I believe I can fly" =) Bing Rong, Vivien and I were supposed to sing the first 2 lines of the verses. then the rest joined in. ^^ After that, there was a ceremony whereby each of them will hold a candle. then the teachers will light their candles then help to light the seniors' candles. Then, the seniors will light the juniors' candles. It's kinda like passing the leadership to the juniors. =)

After that, it was a handing out of T-shirts and evaluation forms to the students...=) There was a short debrief done about the Excellence Lunch and I wasn't surprised for me to hear "More planning shuld be done before execution of projects." Im glad they learnt this in school, and not in the working society.

Had dinner with Dy, Susin, Gladys, Wan, Yong Ming, Bran-ment (donno how to spell. but it's pronounced in that way), Gerald (*edited. Gerald complained that I didn't mention him. he wasn't v satisfied with the answer 'oh. u are under 'a few others') and a few others at KFC at City Vibes. Dy drove me there while the rest walked there. In the car, Dy asked me about the camp and told me the reason of the switch. then he asked how i felt about the camp. I replied,"tiring." He asked,"Physically?" I replied," physically and mentally...." cant really remember how the conversation went but i told him that i wasn't very happy with the switch cos i didn't know the reason of it and both Yong Ming and I were feeling rather lousy for the whole of Day One. Well, he apologised and after we've reached KFC, he told Yong Ming about it too. haha. =)
After dinner, Dy drove me to the polyclinic (like how he always do) before driving home himself.

Bahhs..okay. i shall end here. donno what to write oredi. sorry so wordy. =)
but really, thanks CTSS for the experience. ^^ It was my first Trybe camp and indeed, it was quite an experience. =) Hope to keep in contact with both the volunteers and students! ^^

3sa impacted lives at 10:32 PM

♥ Tuesday, June 9, 2009

20090609 - GVSS Leadership Development Programme

Wow! I really did not expect to see so little students cos all these time, I've been taking care of CLASSES. Anyway, this time round, there were only 2 Trybe staff and 2 volunteers, namely Jasmine, Mirabel, Audrey and I. The target group was the Sec3 Exco members and Sec2 Acting Exco members.

Firstly, we played the what I called the territorial game whereby the way to attack or defend is through Scissors-Paper-Stone (what an ingenious game!) Then, we played the Longest Challenge followed by the Tallest Challenge. We had presentation time and we even invited Dick Su, a mediacorp actor/theatrical performer, to be the judge of the presentation! Other than him, Audrey and I were the judges too. Once, Jaron, one of the sec2 exco members, commented that he liked music but he didn't like Hannah Montana songs etc. So I was like 'WHAT THE!?" and immediately displayed to him an unhappy face. then we had a fun time trying to provoke each other about Miley Cyrus after that. The students were: Athira, Felicia, Jun Jie, Abigail, Kevin, Jaron, Gabriel, Shaquilla, Shafiq, Suhaidah and Jia Wei (president of council. Girl.) I really looovveee Abby's voiceee! She sounds soooo CUTE!! =D that was why I gave her such high marks.LOL. *biased* For Felicia, I felt that she could have done much better if she were to really treat us as her friends because I know that she wasn't this quiet when she was with her friends. She was the more talkative kind than the guai guai quiet kind. And I must say, Dick Su realllyyyy talks a lot! I can't believe he actually got so much things to say sia.. Haha.

This was the first time I'm doing leadership programme with Trybe and really, a lot of things that I was taught in secondary school were different. Trybe is more gentle and they really encourage us to love and spur and support each other. Their intention is really to build leaders instead of followers. However, in Secondary School, the vendor that my school hired actually taught us that it doesnt matter if u're lonely or whatsoever, cos that is what a leader would go through sometimes so just find something (an item preferably) to motivate you and that's it. So since sec sch days, I was quite domineering and did not build leaders in my CCA or in Council cos we didnt give the juniors or even others a chance to shine and rise up as leaders because we have the power and control over them. That mentality is being ingrained in my memory such that right now, im still trying to replace that thinking with Trybe's which I thought is more correct.

After the session, Jasmine and I went back to office for briefing about the CTSS which would be held this coming Wed-Fri! (which means I cannot go for Pastor William's talk le :( )
Finally met Kaiyun today! =) She was quite friendly and could talk to her quite easily. Can see why Dy was attracted to her. hahahhaha!! During the briefing, Jaime passed the volunteers' files to each of us and guess what? After the briefing, I lost it. (Great job, 3sa) Was going round the centre and asking everyone," have you taken my file..? Where's my file..? is that my file??" and everyone was kinda surprised that i lost my file so quickly. Well, it turned out to be with Jaime cos she jus swept everything off the table and placed them on her table. haha.

Dy fetched me home after that. FIRST TIME LEH! muhaha. so I really treasure it and then smsed him to thank him again. hehs.

Today made two new friends: Kaiyun and Michelle Tan, our new intern for the month! Today was her first day! She's gg year 3 in NUS FASS- History.

3sa impacted lives at 7:23 AM

♥ Sunday, June 7, 2009

Randy Pausch Inspires Graduates

WHEN a dying professor's last speech was posted on the internet it became a worldwide phenomenon and a No. 1 best-selling book, as millions took to heart his advice about living life and dreams.

PAINTED ON THE WALL OF A CHILD’S bedroom in the US state of Maryland is a little hand-drawn rocket ship complete with a fiery blast of rocket fuel. It sits amid sketches of a submarine, a quadratic equation and the outline of an elevator, and is headed where all little kids’ rocket ships should be headed – straight to the stars and beyond.

The artist was eight-year-old Randy Pausch, a little boy with a list of big dreams.

These included authoring a World Book Encyclopedia entry, being Captain Kirk, playing in the NFL, winning a stuffed animal, becoming a Disney imagineer and floating in zero gravity.

Over the years, he has found a way to achieve them all, in part or in whole – from getting a cameo in the next Star Trek movie to riding on NASA’s zero-gravity “vomit comet” plane.

And, as a computer-science professor and virtual-reality pioneer, Randy Pausch has also taught new generations to dream. The brightest future innovators and animators would sit in his class at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, absorbing his high-octane enthusiasm, irrepressible grin and penetrating stare.

With Jim Carrey looks and humour, plus a twist of Yoda wisdom and a healthy hint of nerd, Pausch earned a reputation as a showman, thanks in part to beating working VCRs with a sledgehammer to teach his new students not to create things that will frustrate users.
But that’s the Randy Pausch of yesterday. Today the 47-year-old is a different man. Thinner. Greyer. Dying.

In late 2006, Pausch was diagnosed with one of the most deadly diseases, pancreatic cancer. He did not have long to live. In an instant his whole world was kicked off its axis.

First came the shock, pain and tears, as he and wife, Jai, dealt with the awful loss of knowing he would not grow old with her nor see their three little children grow up.

“It pains me to think that when they’re older they won’t have a father,” Pausch says. “When I cry in the shower, I’m not usually thinking ‘I won’t get to see them do this’, or ‘I won’t get to see them do that’. I am thinking about the kids not having a father. That’s what chews me up inside when I let it.”

After the tears, the professor decided on a plan. He would approach his impending death like any engineering problem – albeit a problem with an imperfect outcome and few resources to fix it. He would put his energies into helping his family cope after his death.

“The metaphor I’ve used is that someone’s going to push my family off a cliff real soon and I won’t be there to catch them and that breaks my heart,” Pausch told US TV journalist Diane Sawyer. “But I have some time to sew some nets to cushion the fall and that seems the best use of my time. So I can curl up in a ball and cry or I can get to work on the nets.”

Those nets included finding a way for his two little sons and baby daughter to remember and learn from him long after he’s gone.

So when he was asked to give a Last Lecture – a series by professors at Carnegie Mellon where they pass on their wisdom as if it really was their final talk – he agreed, keen for the chance to pass on his inspirations and passions. He called it “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”.

“I have lived out my dreams in great measure because of things I was taught by all sorts of extraordinary people along the way,” Pausch says. “If I was able to tell my story with a
passion, I felt my lecture might help others find a path to fulfilling their own dreams.”

Jeffrey Zaslow, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, got wind of the lecture and gave him a call. “He was very funny on the phone – he was engaging,” Zaslow recalls. “He was driving and I said ‘Randy, you wanna pull over? You might get into an accident’. He said ‘Well, if I get into an accident and die, what’s the difference?’.”

Zaslow decided to drive the five hours from Detroit to see Pausch speak.

“I am so glad I did – it was amazing being there. It was electric,” he says.

The Last Lecture was on September 18, 2007, and covered everything from Pausch’s boyhood dreams and his life advice, to how to handle adversity. He showed images of his tumour-filled scans to get the “elephant in the room” out of the way and dropped his lanky frame to the floor to do a few robust push-ups, should anyone think of pitying “the dying guy”.

For 76 minutes, in a speech never intended for public viewing, he offered his truths with humour, stories of the heroes and villains in his life and his inspirations and exasperations.
Pausch urged parents to enable their children’s dreams, to let them, as he was allowed, to paint spaceships and equations on their bedroom walls if they want.

He told the crowd of more than 400 friends, colleagues and students to put what matters first. And then, his eyes red-rimmed, he had a birthday cake wheeled out for his wife and asked the crowd to sing to her.

Jai hugged him fiercely and whispered two words into his ear: “Don’t die.”

“The speech was painful and wonderful all at the same time for everyone in the room,” Zaslow says. “We knew we’d seen something incredibly special. I said goodbye to him on the sidewalk outside afterwards and he was planning to go home and spend whatever time he had left with his kids. To him, that was it.”

Zaslow drove home, wrote up his Wall Street Journal column, and posted a short video clip from the speech with it. To everyone’s surprise it became an instant sensation. Email after email flooded into the newspaper.

Then a full video of the speech went up on YouTube and it became a phenomenon – well over six million people viewed it in its various online incarnations, popularity which continues to this day.

“The phenomenon is unabated,” says Professor Gabriel Robins, a friend and colleague who was mentored by Pausch at the University of Virginia in the 1990s. “I put one of the clips on the web, and one of them is getting close to 100,000 hits a day and growing.”

But the question many are asking is why.

“The speech was a perfect storm of several things – one is the pathos and gravitas of the situation – the man is dying,” Professor Robins says. “But even if you remove the fact of the impending demise from it all, it would still be entertaining.

“It’s incredible. His legacy is that he’s making people think and re-evaluate their own lives and priorities and relationships with other people. He’s a catalyst.”

So strong was the interest in the lecture that publishers got into a bidding war for Pausch’s story, reportedly paying up to an astonishing $US6.7 million for it.

Zaslow co-wrote the book with Pausch, interviewing him 53 times for an hour at a time as Pausch cycled about for exercise.

“He thought he wasn’t going to see a word of it,” Zaslow says. “He thought he’d be done (dead) by January. So he would get off that bike and say ‘OK, gotta go’, as soon as he got back to the house, even if we were in the middle of talking about something. We just picked it up next day, because he needed to get back to his kids.”

The book on The Last Lecture, which bears the same title, shot to No. 1 on The New York Times bestseller list this month.

All the fuss came as a huge surprise for the man at the centre of it.

“He didn’t expect any of this,” Zaslow says with a laugh. “Now he’s sort of used to being famous, but in the early days he was befuddled almost. You know he’s very smart and he’s very self-assured – but he still was surprised.”

Zaslow believes Pausch’s approach to death contributed to his fame.

“It’s like watching a man dying and living simultaneously,” he says. “We don’t think of death like that. When you think of a dying person they’re laying in bed dying. They’re not doing push-ups and telling jokes.

“And so that just resonated with people and it became a sharing thing. It was people sharing it with each other – that’s how it got started. People feel like they found him and created him and they really did.”

Professor Robins says the speech made many who saw it look at their own mortality.

“In some sense he is not saying anything new,” he says. “He’s just putting it into focus and bringing attention to it and forcing people to kind of think about their own lives through his situation.

“If you think about it, his situation isn’t that different to any of ours. We’re all going to die, we all know it. We’re all terminal cases. He’s forcing us to look at that and think about it and ask, if we only had months, not years, what would you do? Would you still do your job tomorrow, next week, next month, if you only had six months left? Or would you do something different? Would you just pick up and go and live your dreams or gather your loved ones around you?

“He makes us prioritise. That’s why it’s so intriguing because everyone’s beginning to think like that. He’s gotten tens of thousands of emails – people have written to him saying ‘After I heard your lecture I changed my life and left my abusive relationship’ or some people have said to him ‘I contemplated suicide. After I heard your lecture, I called it off and now I’m OK’. And on and on and on.

“So he’s become a catalyst in thousands of people’s lives which are changing dramatically.”
Other changes were not so dramatic. When Oprah Winfrey did a follow-up to an earlier story on Pausch, she showed family after family inspired to allow their children to paint on their bedroom walls, Pausch style.

Yet amid all the outpourings of positive emails also came the hate mail. It has forced Pausch to unlist his phone number and hide his email and home address.

“Religious fanatics say to him ‘Why didn’t you mention Jesus Christ our Lord?’,” Professor Robins says.

“They say ‘You’re going to burn in hell and your kids are going to burn in hell too, and their flesh is going to be burnt off their body’.

“Strangely enough, these religious fanatics think they’re doing the Lord’s work. It’s very hard to argue with these people.”

As for Pausch, he is on borrowed time now. Eight months ago, doctors gave him just three to six months of good health. He has undergone chemotherapy and is trying to rest so he can begin an experimental vaccine, details of which he updates friends and fans with regularly on his website, along with his latest health news.

“He’s not doing great, you know,” Zaslow says softly. “He’s got heart and kidney failure issues. I saw him 3½ weeks ago. He’s slower. He’s not the guy doing push-ups any more. He’s not the guy on the bike, pedalling, either. It’s sad.

“In recent weeks he’s spent up to 20 hours a day in bed, sometimes. The world is going to remember him from that push-up scene, but that’s not who he is any more. So he’s got to rest, and that’s brought on by the chemo.

“While he’s resting the tumours are growing. If, in three or four weeks he can have this new treatment he’ll do it, but he’s a realist, so . . .” Zaslow trails off.

Which brings us back to Pausch’s tricky engineering problem. His imperfect solutions with limited resources are being put in place now, piece by piece.

He has spoken to others who have lost parents young to learn what made a difference in helping them cope.

He will leave his children a bagload of letters and emails from those uplifted by him. And of course they will have his book and a visual record of his most famous lecture.

“That lecture was in some sense a time capsule, a way to bottle himself for posterity for his children so one day when they’re old enough they can listen to the lecture,” Professor Robins says.

“And he told his publisher he doesn’t really care about any but the first three copies of his book – the first three copies will go to his children: ‘If other people want to read it and get something out of it, then more power to them, but that’s not why I’m doing it’.”

In an article for Brown Alumni Magazine at Brown University, Rhode Island, Pausch reveals he’s been making plans for his wife, too. “Jai loves to have fresh flowers in the house,” he says. So he’s arranged for weekly deliveries for a year after he dies.

The 52nd bouquet will come with a note attached: “Now it’s time for a new guy.”

For the man who began life with so many big dreams of his own, it seems almost obvious what Pausch’s final dream would be.

“Probably that his children will lead productive and meaningful lives and achieve their own dreams. Everything he has done has been working towards that goal,” says Professor Robins.

“But he’s very careful not to pigeonhole them into telling them what their dreams should be.

“He’s said himself that the worst thing a parent can do is force their kids to live the parent’s own dreams for them to be a doctor or lawyer or whatever.

“Being a professor, he sees in his office on a daily basis the train wrecks of children who desperately are trying to please their own parents and he doesn’t want to do that for his own children.”

So his last dream would be that his children have the freedom to pursue their own dreams? To point their own rocket ships to the stars?

“Yes,” Professor Robins says. “To follow their dreams, whatever they may be.”

3sa impacted lives at 5:58 AM

♥ Saturday, June 6, 2009

SLC - Student Leaders' Camp 2009
YISS 20090605

Today was a wonderful day at YISS. I was the facilitator for Group 3! I realised that if you zi high a bit, the rest will also follow you. it's only today that I find that I should really 'deny myself' at these schools cos...really...no one knows the real you in these schools. So just pretend that you're super outgoing and excited so as to keep the spirit going in them. When you are having fun, they will have fun too! I'm really glad that I was able to talk to them (only for 40seconds actually..haha..but they listened lah. that's the main thing.) But I must say, I'm still not able to deny myself and find that my brain just refuses to cooperate with me to say intelligent and wise things or probing/rheoterical questions.

Today, during the last session, there was an interview with Apple Ng (a guy) and Nicholas Lee. I really must say, although Apple was only a few years older than me, he's a really vocal person and through this, he gained a lot of respect from the students who really look up to him as an individual and role mode. Im really surprised and amazed at how he can think of so much things to say!! like..seriously! he doesn't even have any scripts with him lor. hahha... Must really applaud him for that =)

Okay.. I had a long day today. the time now is 2.48am. I should really go to sleep now... I gotta wake up at 8am tomorrow...*yawns* Good night everyone! =)

PS: Finally met Audrey Katrina from TKSS 4A! She's also a volunteer at Trybe. today was her 2nd time volunteering =)
Thanks Stephanie's dad for driving us to YISS! We were the first the reach the school...everyone came at 8am. rawrz.

3sa impacted lives at 12:09 AM

♥ Thursday, June 4, 2009

As I was on the bus to Trybe centre, there was a sudden urge for me to.... GO TOILET!! So i was praying hard that Nic was in the office already, since he was usually the first to reach. To my horror, NO ONE was at office! DIE!! HOW!? Where's the nearest toilet from here?? nono..i should wait in case someone comes office!
Then, I heard some footsteps behind me and I spun around, exhilarated to find Bing Rong walking to the door with the keys. THANK GOD! HE HAS THE KEYS!! (The last time I waited, Ming Xiu came along and he didn't have the keys. so we stood outside Trybe Centre like two students kenna punished to stand outside classroom liddat.)
haha. So began to thank him - my saviour of the day =P

Today, Raffy came in with an evil look. After he put down his bag, he came and stood next to me,"so....you and henzy dating ar?"

wah lau. thanks lor. I dont regard playing lan as a date lor. Then he began to fire questions at me, like "u and him alone?", "what game u all play?" and even after hearing my explanations, he still referred to henzy as my 'boyfriend'. I guess I'll have a hard time tomorrow at YISS, since both of them are gonna be present. grr..

Seems that Trybe people like to have scandals too.. Like mirabel and raffy.. then, Nic tried to pair himself with me too (after a guy called Stanley asked who i am and what relationship do i have with Nic -.-). Nic actually said,"Oh! I asked her to be my girlfriend before but she rejected." I raised an eyebrow at him. For your information, he said this in front of Jasmine, Stanley, a couple whom Stanley has brought in, Basia, Bing Rong and Mirabel. (come to think of it, im not sure if stanley's name is 'stanley'. but from my impression, that IS his name!)

Anyways, Dy taught me to do report today! It was super tedious and make me wanna dont touch it ever again. Well, it's probably cos im not used to it. He spent about 15minutes teaching me. Then, he left office at 10am for me to do till 12pm. Before he went off with Basia to an ITE, he saw me typing to figure out the spreadsheet and he actually said,"eh, theresa, don't stress hor!" hahahha! To be honest, I WAS pretty stressed out because I wanted to do the best for him =) He came back at 12pm and was kinda surprised that I wasn't done yet. Soon, he realised, I did the longer way. rawrz. I shall not elaborate for it will spoil my night. well, in a nutshell, i've wasted 2 hours doing nothing. So I redid everything after lunch. Then after i was done with it (i was typing the report for the whole day. since 10am till 6.20pm. gees!),

Dy asked me,"You wanna try doing other schools' report?"
me: ..................................maybe can take a break first lah.......
Dy: okay. Got Springfield, MOE scholars, etc etc
me: okay...can try....
Dy: yeah la..try lor. Anyway, this report will be different from the one that you did
me: [phew!]
Dy: it will be more tedious.
me: !?!?!
Dy: The one you did quite straightforward rite?
me: errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..................

Yeah, he said that the one that I have to do will be more analytical kind. Like H2 Econs Essay paper lah, in other words. have to write essay that kind. Well, if I can get an A for my Econs, im sure i'll be able to do this!! (an angel is telling me now that the A is God-given. there was no way I could have gotten that A on my own!)

Ah well~ I'll just have to try my best. Hope I wont take the whole day this time! =)

3sa impacted lives at 7:52 AM