This post is way overdue.

I attended Module 2 of the YouthsLead program on the 16-18 July (which is right after the windsurfing camp). The camp was titled Serving with Passion and most of the activities were targeted at understanding "what drives us to volunteer?"

We first started out with a talk on the K&P model of leadership and went through our results based on the surveys we given to our co-workers, managers and direct reports. This is based on the principle of 360 degree feedback to understand our own leadership behaviors from the different perspectives. I will share my results personally if you are interested to know more.

Anyway, the second day of the camp started off with our presentation of the various Cs groups in the PA network, eg. CDC, CCC, CMCC, IAEC etc. We then had a discussion panel with some of the directors of the Youth Division in PA. This was followed by another discussion panel with some of the grassroot leaders and volunteer leaders at night.

Before the day ended, we also had to organise a "Kopitalk" and dialogue session with Dr Maliki bin Osman and other senior directors on our last day. Unfortunately, I decided to take on a personal challenge and took up the role of chief faciliator of the event.

It was quite an interesting experience now that I look back at it. If I didn't take that plunge, I would never have known what it is like to be an emcee of the talk and moderator of the dialogue session. haha

I now offically *heart NACLI =)

The busy week is finally over!

Come to think of it, I can't believe I managed to survive 2 consecutive camps in a week (including a 20% mid term + 20% presentation + 15% essay submission).

Windsurf Camp No. 5 went quite smoothly I think. It's a good feeling to see how much the committee have grown since it first started in Sept last year. I could still vividly remembered the challenge to bond the comm members and guide them with their job scope while trying to pull my cap at the same time.

There are lots of sacrifices made in the end, but the results justified the amount of effort put in. This is the first camp I didn't have to micro-manage. Everyone knew what they had to do, and helped each other out. I particularly have to thank xiaojie for organizing the team well.

It's heartening to see how your own actions can generate the interest to windsurf in others. One year ago, most of the seniors are still in their first year. They were struggling to keep themselves above the board, up-hauling all the time and never really got to surf. I remembered telling them this "Windsurfing is not an easy sport, you have to put in effort and practice to see results. As long as you keep trying, I promise 1 year later you guys will be a better windsurfer."

To see how they have transformed since then was quite emotional for me. I am glad I didn't give up when I was in year 1 as well. Otherwise all this will never have been possible.

As I gear myself to the last year of school life, I find myself saying the same things again to the new batch of freshmen. I am confident that the new generations will be ready in time to come =)

As promised, I decided to take a break and blog about the balloon incident that is so popular in my facebook.

The entire incident happened like this. It was the second day of the Project Excellence Camp, and one of the activity was an "amazing race" inside vivocity. As the facilitator I had to run all around with the entire shopping mall with the kids to complete the different tasks.

Everything ended successfully (Our team came in top!) and we were taking a break at level 1 near the entrance. While we were waiting, some of the kids and I saw this person dressed in all white going into the mall with a big bunch of balloons. It appears that there is a wedding proposal going on and it was meant to be a surprise for the bride-to-be.

A while later, the same guy was carrying this blindfolded lady (which I presume to be the bride) with the balloons. As he approached the entrance, he suddenly passed me the entire bunch of balloons on the way out. I was with the kids then, and in a flash everyone wanted a balloon from me.

The security guard appeared at this time and thought I was giving away the balloons and ask me to do some crowd control. Being the inexperienced balloon-giver, I was shocked then. With a big bunch of kids chasing after the balloons, I had to run out of the mall to give.

And as the kids come to get the balloons, the parents of other kids joined in the fight (members of the public at the mall). Apparently they must have thought there is free balloon to be given out. Fortunately Zhenyou shared some of my burden, otherwise I doubt I could survive that scene.

The parents are super violent, my fingers got stuck to the balloon strings and they still continue to fight over it. Even if the strings are tangled, they just pull and made things worse (with my fingers in it). It was one crazy day to remember.

And my string-burnt hands can testify to it.

I thought it might be a good thing to change my blog layout to something more organised and easier to read.

And terror struck. I forgot to backup the links and the tagboard. Will update again soon when I fix the problem.

I need to ask everyone some questions.

1) How do you tell if a person is rude towards you at work/school?

2) Why do you think people are rude to others at work/school?

3) What do you usually do if people are rude to you at work/school?

4) How do you try to reduce the rude behavior in the other person, or can it be reduced?

Please give me some advice on the following. Otherwise I can never sleep well.

My THESIS PLEDGE

I know this is not an easy path,

I know there are many obstacles ahead,

I know I will experience stress, fustration and disappointment,

I know I might fail somehow,

I know this is one lonely journey to take,

I know it will make or break me,

But I also know CP is one who doesn't give up without a fight.

I don't want to be someone who is afraid to try, and yet regret not trying in the end.

Instead I want to be a survivor...

And I know I will be.

The journey of 12,000 words begins.

**Let this pledge be the constant reminder to stay motivated and focused all the way. Till the date 8th April 2011**

Totally busy with the Project Excellence camp the past week. Extremely exhausted by I'm loving it =)

Now its back to school once again!

p.s I will blog about the balloon incident pretty soon (when I managed to find time to do so)

I'm back from module 1 of the PA YouthsLead program! It was definitely an enriching session at OBS, even though the duration is rather short (2D2N). Still I got to know new friends and learnt more about myself.

But the most important thing I received from this was I found back the very fire I had for volunteerism in the first place. Come to think of it, time does pass very quickly. Before I know it, I'm almost nearing the "3 year itch" of volunteering.

I have to agree that my passion is no longer as strong as when I first started. Perhaps it is because I got so much more other commitments at hand now than in the past. I feel that I am no longer putting 100% as much as I would like to. Volunteering can be hard work at times.

But during my time in OBS, I reflected a lot. I got to this realization that though I can no longer contribute as much as in the past, but the very little act of contributing itself is enough. I was so particularly inspired by the interaction with the other volunteers. To hear how volunteering changed their lives, no matter how small is enough to rekindle my fire.

I am now committed to making volunteering a part of my life =)

I'm back from taiwan~! yay

Tons of updates to do here, but I will post up the travel entry pretty soon. Looks like I'm going to be staying in sch for another year =)

CACTUS 2010 was a blast!

Attended the first school performance in my 3 years of university life, and I was treated to a fusion of music, voices and dance. It was a display of dances/singing from the various sub clubs like social & ballroom dance, d'hoppers, Jazzitude, BBoys, Resonance, Voices etc.

What an Amazing night!

Time sure flies. At the blink of an eye, I'm already approaching weekends.

It's about time to start doing my readings, but somehow I can't seem to find the motivation to do it. Especially when it is so alluring to watch movies, eat good food, shop around etc. I basically spent my Monday & Tuesday watching 2 very good movies - Schindler's List and Amadeus. Wednesday was outing to eat potatofarmland (omg good stuff!), Friday attending the YouthsLEAD launch dinner.

I can't wait for the OBS module 1. I seriously need some adventure in the wild.

Should I continue with the PA YouthsLead 2010 programme?

While I am extremely happy to be selected for this, I don't know whether I have time to do a good job in it. After all, there are no clashes currently (since the special semester timetable is not out yet), but I am not exactly sure if I can handle doing windsurf camp, special semester and this YouthsLead activities (3 camps + 1 GRO attachment project) on top of doing research for thesis.

In a Dilemma.

Attended several inspiring talk by the various speakers working in the different fields of psychology in Singapore. There were topics on working as a counselor, educational psychologist, forensic psychologist, clinical psychologist, industrial/organizational psychologist as well as being a psycho-entrepreneur.

We also learnt about how to get into graduate school in psychology and the best of all panel discussion with some of the more distinguished leaders in the local field (for example our own Prof George Bishop!). Had a great time knowing more about the field where my passion lies =)

Crazy mambo night out with the windsurfers (char, jocene, xingyan, yew ming and jeron)!

Drank alcohol as though it was dirt cheap (which is true in a way), and I couldn't even walk in a straight line, nor count multiples of seven even before we went into phuture. It's interesting to see the people you usually see behaving in all kinds of weird manner yesterday. haha

Anyway, psychology talk tomorrow and saturday. Followed by dinner with lost-long friend penguin and Project Excellence volunteering. Sunday's up for windsurfing.

I foresee a busy week ahead, yet satisfying at the same time =)

Sunflower!

Thanks for the Iron Man 2 movie treat~!!! Such a pleasant surprise (totally gave me a big shock in fact). Though I am still sad over the news, but nevertheless there will definitely be a solution to the problem.

Don't ever lose faith, for the battle has only just begun.

Been neglecting this place for sometime. A few reasons, one - no time to blog, two -no inspiration, hence the lack of "proper" posts these past few weeks.

Now that I am finally done with all the papers, perhaps I can have more time to re-indulge in some philosophical pondering and get inspiration for the blog posts.

On a side note, I really hope to find a good supervisor for HT. Dr Sandy is good, but I still have a lot of persuasion to do in order to find a co-supervisor, otherwise all the effort so far will go to waste =(

Or maybe I should just stick to doing other topics or modules?

"I'm famous for my motivational skills. Everyone always says they have to work a lot harder when I'm around." - Homer

Hope that gives everyone enough motivation to study~! cos Homer will be watching you =P

"If success is determined by the number of steps you have taken, just look down and you will be surprised by how much you achieved. But there are many more steps in front (CP,2010)"

The Spelling Bee Competition for the P5/6 is fantastic. Some of the kids really amazed me when they can spell words that I didn't expect them to (after all I got the words straight from the dictionary). Either that or maybe I underestimated their abilities. oops.

Inspiration from Akeelah and the Bee. Wow!

Sometimes I wonder whether I should leave the situation as it is and don't bother making my life that miserable. Since the problem has been stuck for so long and there is still no solution in sight. Such a awkard situation yesterday, I don't even know why she can behave like nothing happen when I am trying to avoid her.

That one entire year of "friendship" gone just like that. Maybe that one year when I thought the times was happy and it meant something to everyone doesn't mean anything at all.

Perhaps pretending to be strangers could be a way out eventually. And I should stop thinking about it and focus my attention on the others who have supported me all this time.

Nevertheless, I'm glad there are angels who are still disguised all around me, even after the situation threatened to push us apart. Thanks people =)