Thursday, September 11, 2008
As I sit here on my desk with my laptop in front of me. I starting thinking real hard like what I should be doing other than sitting here doing almost nothing. I once told someone that I feel like one day I will stand out amongst the crowd doing something great. But look at me now, does it look like I am capable of such achievement?
I always wonder why are there much arrogant people out there unwilling to share their greatness with their peers. Isn't it a pity to look at how such people live? They live with no friends or rather I wonder how their friends endure such atrocious behavior. I wonder if it's pure mutual love between them or is it just pure pity that their friends have for such people.
I always question myself. Where do I stand. How much respect do people have for me. Or even better, am I even worth to be respected? We always hear people saying come on put more trust in yourself. But the question is, are we even doing the right thing?
We all need reassurance. It's always good to be reassured. Even when we know that we are doing a good job, it is always better to hear it coming out from the mouth of others. We all want nothing but the truth, for only hatred will grow within lies.
Be truthful to others and more importantly, in ourselves.
Honesty is the best policy.
Saturday, September 06, 2008
2 - 5 September was a great way to end all my workload previously. It was Leaders of Tomorrow's Camp, LTC 2008. Yes it's a leadership camp but it's all fun and enjoyable, more importantly it was at Pulau Sibu where you free yourself of any worries on mainland.
So day one came and I met another Aaron. We had to put a sticker on our shirts with our names on it. So I differentiate mine and he's with a smiley face on mine which eventually I was nicknamed, Smiley. Coming back to the point. he is friendly and..I was sociable and almost instantaneously we just clicked in mere seconds. So at some point of time we had to load up the bags onto space for holding bags, we helped out everyone to load the bags up.
After reaching at the jetty my tribe, Tribe 2, board the boat and off we head towards Pulau Sibu. For a moment on the boat I looked at everyone and told myself, "they are the ones that I will make friends with during this 4 days 3 nights." There was this silence on the boat which I decided to break it. So I started telling jokes and people followed after me. Here came Pulau Sibu and off the boat we started our journey.
We gathered and brainstormed for cheers for our tribe name, Ooga. We created stupid yet new cheers which we didn't use them much throughout the camp. After which we checked into our bunks and went off to our first activity, snorkeling. First we had to walk this uber long trek like for 10-15mins? We literally walked across the island just for our snorkeling. It was my first time snorkeling and I had to say that I really get to feel how to relax myself by just floating on the water (was wearing life jacket) and just see what I have around me. Had corals, fishes, sea urchins, Nemo, Dory haha, You name it.
We had dinner after snorkeling and played a very interesting game. The name of the game is, Find the tree. Apparently it sounds super stupid to just find a tree. But here's the catch, all the team must be in contact physically and blind folded. So the objective of the game was to reach from our starting tree to our ending tree which was about 100m in distance. I came up with an idea and the rest just followed, they all just trusted me to do my job in locating the waypoints I had in mind. I bashed through plants, knocked into trees and kicked upon certain things that hurt my legs but in the end we all reached the endpoint. With that I had my second nickname, Tarzan.
Day two arrived and we had our second activity, sand castle building. I started digging for crabs on the beach but ended up digging a gigantic hole that fits 3 people in. While digging we chanced upon two crabs which bit Amron, how unlucky. We had 3 people in our "sand village" of which includes me, Jean and Amron. We had sand up until our necks and we are the live buildings of the village, the guardians of the village. *By the way that was just pure bullshit*
Next up we have cliff abseiling. It was nothing new to me but I've got to say that the sightseeing that we had was amazing. The different rock formations, sea water creatures, crabs, the sea, the horizon. Everything was great. Had our firm butt joke when Amron was telling Jean that he thinks that she needs an S size harness but she thought he talked about her ass. We also had a funny joke on the rock and cliff thing. If we have loose rocks dropping from above we have to shout rock! But what if we shout cliff!
After cliff abseiling we had a short survival training. During this session I was bewowed by the trainer. There was just this specfic fact that he told us that amazed me. He said that we could cook rice with just our shirts and a fire. How do you do it? Wrap your shirt with the rice and then bury it under the sand and build the fire above. Although the rice wouldn't be fantastically cooked but at least we will get to eat something.
Night time came and we had to build a water tower with very limited resources. My tribe built the highest tower that could stand but didn't win because it could hold little water. The tribe that won had could hold a water bottle full of water in it. Oh well, we had our fair share of fun =)
Here comes day three which everyone really enjoyed themselves. We all went to Stingray Island for our survival simulation. We were given riddles to solve before we could find our resources hidden on the island. There was four of us that went round the island looking for the resources and came back with everything. We even had two live chickens to slaughter. This is truly a livestock. When we all came back everything was great, each and everyone of us had a task to do. We all split our workload to work towards a common goal, to build our shelter, cook, catch fish. It was really great to see everyone working together and achieve great results. There was a time during this activity that I felt so tired that I don't want to do anything but I had to push myself with a little help from Amron.
During the night all the tribes had to put up a performance. We created a totally random performance which we had lots of ideas coming from everyone. We even had Yong Hui to impersonate Uncle David. Eventually we won the prize of having the best performance for the night. That night we stayed up and gathered in the girl's bunk and chit chat away. Started off telling ghost stories. Ended up introducing ourselves like what kind of hobbies, philosophy in life.
So it was the last day, time passed as quickly as ever. It was time that we bid goodbye but those were friends that we made in just mere 4 days. We all had a great time at the camp.
Hi guys if you're reading this, I wanna say that I really enjoyed myself at the camp. It wouldn't be fantastic if not for everyone. Thanks everyone for being there.
Every ending is just the start of a new beginning.
Monday, September 01, 2008
Tomorrow early in the morning I'll be off for a camp known as LTC, Leaders of Tomorrow Camp. Basically it's a camp for appointment holders in clubs to attend. I hope I'll learn something out of this camp. For now I don't really see something that I can learn from but hopefully it doesn't turn out like how I see.
I am totally not excited for this camp. I just finished drowning myself in working for a big project ran by Scouts HQ. I just want a day off whereby I do whatever I want to do. It seems like this day will only come on next week.
Anyway recently I picked up a book titled "Powerful leadership". I believe my bro bought it and have read finished. So I read this book now to further enhance myself to be a better leader. There are total 7 essential needs to change/have in order for my leadership to be powerful. As of my position right now I can really relate to the book better than anything else. I am excited to put this 7 essential needs into practice and see how it goes. I want to excel. I want to make a difference. It's either I make it or break it. Therefore I want to make it.
Earlier today I had my LTC briefing and there are two speakers for the day. One the SP principal and a very familiar face to every one, Steven Chia, news reporter for channels news asia Prime time morning.
The two of them gave a very heart-warming speech to me. Because I can really relate to what they are saying. I can truly understand what they are saying. One lesson I learn today, to be a great leader first it must come from within the heart.
I realise that after reading the book I become more focused on what I want to achieve as the President of SP Rover. I want to make damn sure that I am doing the right and good thing. I want to fully ultilize my people and maximise their potiential. I want them to make a difference together with me.
This is what management is all about. The excitement of what comes tomorrow. The excitement of what you want to make of tomorrow. The excitement of what can make your people excited for tomorrow.
Either we make it or break it.
