ProEd Leadership Camp ----------> DAY 1 Part 3: SoloNite

Finally! The most exciting part of the camp, and the last event of the day, SoloNite.

Basically, SoloNite is an event where we participants have to pit ourselves into a test of ultimate courage and guts. Do we have the courage to explore the deep depths of our school (well not really)? Do we have the guts to walk into the silent corners of doom? Do we have the determination to press on to the end?

Ghost stories. That is how the event was kicked off with. Rather standard, but a good way nonetheless. I would tell the stories, I really would, but I forgot... I was not really concentrating on the stories... One at a time, groups of two left the lecture theatre. One at a time, the queue shortened. One at a time, the seconds ticked away as both me and my partner's dooms were about to be sealed...

Our first destination: The hall. Our task: to walk backstage and back. Actually, it is rather hard for me to make this sound scary because of the simple fact that this is not scary at all. So I shall continue to try and make this as scary as possible... As we entered the hall, darkness enveloped us. The surrounding darkness wrapped us in its deathly arms, blinding us, trapping us, forcing us to see nothing save its dark black shadows. Every step we took echoed for for eternity, and time seemed nonexistent in the pitch dark hall. Light did not exist, and we felt around in the dark, blind and lost. As we kept on walking ahead of us, after what seemed to be like eternity, my foot hit the step to the stairs that led backstage. Making our way up the steps, we saw naught but lights that lit up two flights of stairs. The stairs were locked, yet the lights were the only ones in the hall. It was eerie. Pure black terror. We dashed out of the stage and headed for the entrance, with a million hurried footsteps crashing in our wake. As we breathed the cool air outside the hall, it was relief I felt. One down, more to go.

Our second destination: The Tan Kah Kee statue. This is............ not scary at all. All we had to do was to go 4 rounds around the statue and... that's it. Not much to talk about here so we will move on.

Our third destination: The library. This would have been a terrifying destination, that is, if the station master had done a better job. When we arrived, the library, like the hall, was pitch black, door slightly ajar, the place dead silent. When we entered, the darkness seemed to close in. Every corner we passed seemed to have a shadow lurking. Terror, pure terror. We turned. We saw. A window, a round window at the top of the library, with dim yellow light spilling out of it. The moon. That was what it symbolised. A shadow at the stairs caught my eye... It turned... slowly... looked at us... then I realised that it was just my dear councilor. It would have been creepy if he could get serious once we arrived but sigh... Still lots more to the night, but I think I have enough for day 1...

ProEd Leadership Camp ----------> DAY 1 Part 2: Project Flyway

Well, after that long break... CONTINUE!

Next up on the day's worth of fun activities was Project Flyway, also known as the test of wits (Don't ask me why). Our task was to design and create a cape that represents our group. This would be slightly easier if we did not have to get our own craft materials. Yes, we have to get out own craft materials like paint, cloth etc. With $15 budget, we could purchase the materials anywhere, so long as we got back to the school on time. We have 1 hour.

Coronation plaza. Too little stuff. Anywhere else. Not sure where and too lazy to find out. After quite a while, we decided to purchase the materials at Beauty World. We could have gotten back in 1 hour, that is if the communication between our group and its members were a little better. Things started to go a little off hand when we started out with 3 of our members going on the wrong bus (we were not supposed to take 74, it turns at King Albert Park, but we need a bus service that moves straight on). Well, it was partially our fault, we forgot to tell them what they could not take. So basically, they were on a road to Singapore Polytechnic. However, we managed to get them to get down the bus after the next few stops. Geez... what a way to start an activity don't you think?

From this event, we can already tell that communication is extremely important, and without good communication between oneself and the group, as bad communication within the group would cause the team to separate, and when the team is separated, well, it would not really be called a team anymore, and this defeats the purpose of trying to work to be a leader, as a leader is nothing without a team to follow him.

Due to a few events that took quite a long time (looking for our lost team members, calling them down, waiting for the bus etc.), we finally reached our destination (Please note: other teams already bought and left the shopping centre). We were sort of at a dilemma when it came to what to buy with the remaining money after purchasing the cloth. That was a small matter, as we solved it quickly and went back to school.

Making the cape was a much harder task than buying the materials needed to make it (I think this is rather obvious). We started out by trying to design the cape, and the first step was to think of the motto for our group first (we are group 4). There were many ideas, but none of them sounded right, as the mottos seemed to be the kind where you thought of on the spot. While thinking of it, we decided to start on the cape first. The cape we had in mind was that of a hand that has its thumb closed down, showing a four. We filled the white space in the hand with our hand prints (which also had our thumbs down) and started filling up the spaces (or what you would call spamming). In the middle of the palm however, was our school loge. By then, we have already thought of a motto, and it is ...... "Hand in Hand, 4...." (Yes its 4 dots at the back).The motto means that with teamwork and friendship, we can do anything that is impossible with the power of a group of one. The multiple colours on the cape shows that with teamwork, our lives are much more colourful and lively (although the bright colours started to dull after time). Quite a success really... We got first out of the four groups for this cape.

After this activity, we had a movie screening, a movie called "Pursuit of Happyness (not a typo)". I could talk about what it is about but that would take all day and would be boring so I would skip the talk about it. Well, that is pretty much what happened the whole day. However, the real fun begins only at night...

ProEd Leadership Camp ----------> DAY 1 Part 1: Team building and Mini-Amazing Race

On the 14-16 March, I participated in the ProEd leadership camp. It was probably the most enjoyable camp I ever had.

Everyone gathered at the ProEd Room at 8am in the morning and after the briefing, we were assigned to our classrooms. We started out with cleaning up the ENTIRE class (you would not believe it but the floor was extremely dusty...mind you we had to sleep on it...). Clean up -->hard work. The day's activities started with the regular usual icebreakers so as to know our group members even better. I was excited (probably not at the icebreakers but I try to look as if I did) and was extremely enthusiastic about it. Though the icebreakers were the usual ones (you know... imagine...you would find out soon enough...) they managed to break the surface of ice and unfriendliness and transform it into a bond of friendship.

In my opinion, this bond of friendship is extremely important. To be a true leader, one must be able to lead and be the stepping stone for others to follow, and only when others are able to follow, can there be a true bond between leader and follower. If a leader is just leading for the sake of leading, and not to be someone who leads for the sake of others, he is not a true leader. However, for someone to be called a leader, that particular someone must have followers, and to have followers, one must have a bond of friendship and teamwork between both leader and follower so as to work together and strive towards victory. Without the icebreakers, it would hence be harder for us to be true leaders, as it would be slightly harder to break the initial layer of ice.

After the icebreakers, there was...... a mini amazing race! It consists of 5 stations for us to complete in a given amount of time. It is a test of teamwork and courage, as one must work as a team so as to be able to complete the tasks (that is why it is called a leadership camp). Although we have already broken the initial layer of ice, the team was not really complete yet, as we lacked trying to do activities together as a team, and hence, there was a slight miscommunication on which station we were supposed to start on first. In the end, we managed to head to our destination. The station is called "Mission Impossible (though honestly speaking it was totally possible)". The situation then was that the ground was extremely polluted and acidic, and we were not allowed to step into a specified zone as we would get incinerated. There is a pail of water in the middle of the zone, and given two long poles and a piece of string (they could not cut the string...), we were supposed to retrieve the pail of water from the zone as it was our water supply. After thinking as a group, we decided to tie the string to one end of each pole, and like a lasso, pulled the pail out of the zone. We failed once, as the string caught at the top of the pail, spilling the water, but it worked to our advantage, as it made the floor slippery, which made our next attempt waaaay easier.

The next station was known as "Aboard, let's flip". We all stood on a spread out piece of poncho and while standing on it, we had to flip the poncho over. Well, it was rather hard as we had about 8-9 people on the same poncho and it was rather squeezy...but we managed to flip it over in the end, due to the fact that one of our group members have already done the activity before. A piece of cake!!!

Next up, was "Prey and Predator". A simple game really, that tests more of your reaction speed and agility. Everyone would be given a number tag and it is to be pasted on the participants' backs. When the station master calls out, e.g "5 chases 6", then the participants would have to chase another participant according to what the station master said and try to remove the tag. The station master can reverse the order at any point in time. It was rather fun, until we realised something, and that was that the tags couldn't be stuck on out t-shirts! Sigh...had to make do with trying to stuff part of the tags into the shirt...

Following that was "Newspaper bridge". Another simple task. With the help of our team mates, we were tasked to build a tower (has to stand upright of course) out of newspapers. We made use of the fallen tower from the previous group and started working on it, making it stronger by reinforcing its foundations. It is also a task that strengthens our foundations as a group, just like the foundations of the newspaper tower itself!

And finally...It is ...uhh...I forgot the name of the station but here goes...We were given a packet of cheese rings and we were supposed to pass the rings down our group, which is arranged in a row...With straws and no hands used! Only with great patience and extreme teamwork can this be fufilled...Pass it on...Pass on the cheese ring...YES! One more...Almost there...YES AGAIN! etc...........................and we got a total of 4... not a lot but still a representation of our hard work and team spirit!!! GO! GO! GO!

Urgh...fingers aching...urgh...more in part 2...

If I were magicked into TKAM, who would I make friends with?

If I were magicked into TKAM, I would make friends with Atticus.

Atticus is portrayed in the novel as someone with a strong sense of right and wrong. He is humble and does not brag and does not want others to speak of how good he is in front of Jem and Scout as he does not want them to brag to others either. I would want to make friends with Atticus as he would be able to lead me on the right route of right or wrong and hence, I would be able to learn how to tell right from wrong. It is also known in the novel that Atticus would rather put justice over Family. In my opinion, I find this extremely noble, as one's family is ones flesh and bones, and without family, one would be extremely lonely. If he has an extremely strong sense of justice, he would even put family below justice. Hence, I would be able to learn about what is justice and view Maycomb in a different way, as I can hence see what the people of Maycomb are really like. Only then by being able to see Maycomb in a different view would I hence be able to judge a person for who he or she really is.

Poem (musical)

Here is a poem that I have wrote to describe the feelings that Tom Robinson feels at his trial:

I looked around,

they looked at me.

They towered over me,

with eyes burning,

with rage,

with prejudice,

with no pity.

I hid in their silhouettes,

I flinched under their glare,

yet in my chest,

the beast of rage purred,

the shadow of guilt vanished,

the air of innocence reigned,

the feeling of sorrow rivaled.

In their eyes, I was nothing.

Nothing but something as black as the ink they used to write my death.

Multi intelligence test

I feel that the multi intelligence test is extremely useful as it is able to tell how a intelligent a person is in an aspect of intelligence. We can hence be able to learn more efficiently as we can concentrate on the few aspects that we are more intelligent in and brush up on the other aspects of intelligence, hence making us more efficient. However, the test may not be entirely accurate as a person may only think that he is good in a certain aspect, but that may not actually be true in reality. The test also requires one to give truthful and accurate answers.

Multi intelligence test

Here's the result for my multi intelligence test: