Camp YCM @ NACLI
lessee here yar....I went for this day camp... it's training for the Young Change Makers that's part of NYC...
yeps... held at this camp called NACLI...
yesterday... what happened yesterdaaay.....
Well, I thought I was late for HBD prac, but turned out that I was one of the early arrivers for the first time. *collective gasps*
you see, i was NEVER once early for practicals. NOT for HBD anyway.
i think chooi and shailu are SO good to me. they really are. =D
ANYWAY, then Ms June Loh from PA (or rather, NYC) gave me a call:
"Hello?? Angeline? Why are you not at NACLI for training!?!?"
Me: eerrr... you didn't send me any mail, so I thought I wasn't included in it. i mean, mich sent me the mail, but yea..
"Oh... okay.. is it okay that you come down asap for training? it's today through till sunday.."
Me: WHAT?
"yeah, i know."
Me: hahahaha... umm.. okay, tell you what, I'll come down as soon as I settle some stuff in school first...
"Ok!! we'll see ya later then"
Me: yeah! bye!
*phone convo ends*
Me: *profanity ensues*
So I had to excuse myself from meeting, which I wanted to go so that I can complete that stupid IM project. (i wanted to say "screw matthew" but well, it's a subjective term, so it isn't gonna be on this blog besides this explanation of sorts)
Fed my fish (without really feeding them), got freaked out by this dead fish stuck to the black paper in front of me, grinded fish food, watched the year 1's wash the tanks, got past year inorg chem papers, called dad to ask for directions to NACLI before he called back 3 times and telling me "stay where you are, i'll come down in an hour's time, i've still got some more balls to whack". [heh!! i like it when dad says "some more balls to whack" in the most matter of fact way. it's so... cool.]
Well, I can't help it but say that the training was like WHOA!
I could only keep thinking, 'am i in the right training group? this is like shiat man!'
it was SOOO eye-poppingly "WOW." Everyone there either runs a social entrepreneurship of some sort, or have such a STRONG stoic cause for something that they really had solid ground beliefs in.
They've done SO much more, and I felt so much like a rookie in a professional's world!
Coz allll I could think of was: 'Sleep. i need sleep. work. there's still work to be done. what're they discussing about now in meeting? oh right, the 3 ccps. shit. shit shit shit. i don't WANT to be here. wait? what did keshia say? oh. right, i don't get it. personal paradise. okay. haccp. is that my paradise? wait. that isn't. that's the IM project. ARGH!!'
Sooooo.. yeah.. so half the time while trying to think of what's important to me in my paradise future, i'm still stuck in year 2005, thinking about what CCP's there are after the ones we went through on thursday..
Then we had to discuss about our paradise future with the partner that's allocated to us. Soooo, I was put next to this OLD guy (he's 24 and looks like a skinny arnold gay. sorry andrew if you're reading this, but you reminded me of the un-buffed arnold gay. heh...) called, well, he's called Andrew. 24, a business guy from NUS. and he's all about living by the sea when he's 40 and conserving nature and kampong lifestyles.
So, 5 minutes before that actual discussion event began, we were told to write down our paradise future. EVERYTHING about it. since i was close to being dysfunctional, I just answered the questions I saw on the paper given to me.
so, I had a vision of white (prepare for cliched-ness but here it comes!), and I had this HUGE big house (more like a villa), a lake near by my place, friends and my family all around and we're having a picnic at the backyard in the open. and yadda yadda yadda.. all the material possessions i HAVE it all...
and then he's like having this "OH. it's the typical female" look on his face, so I just had this stupid grin on my face and i asked him what's his vision of 'white'.. he tells me all that stuff i said earlier (about living by the sea and all that).. and some how or rather, we discussed about taman negara and my trip there and how modern facilities actually fused in with the traditional ways they have there and yeah. pretty crappy, but i felt like a fool for those 10 minutes. hahas!
then, we had to do this drawing as to what concerns us now to help us take that step into fulfilling what we hope to achieve in paradise future, and it reminded me why I joined MB in the first place. Out of sheer want to be in the service of helping others, I wanted to become a medical specialist.. since I couldn't be a doctor, so I decided to be a medical specialist. It would satisfy me as much as to be an ER doctor..
Annnnd whatever happened next I couldn't remember, coz after that my brain just switched off.. hahas.. that's what happens when you're deprived of caffiene.
Anyway, today, I went to school for inorganic chem rememdials... hahas.. dr xu gave LOADS of tips. hopefully I get to pass this time...
but some idiotic kids with like A's and B's actually TURNED up just to get those tips.. but whatever man.. whatever.
After remedials, I rushed allllll the way down to 70 south buona vista road, to NACLI.. that's the place I went to yesterday.. it's actually quite near 1 north buona vista (aka Biopolis). it is SOOO cool just looking at that place.
Anyway, yesterday's training reminded me of my greater cause and reinforced the need for me to stay with whatever i'm doing now...
today's training reminded me that even though how much we try to change the mindsets of the older generations in this country, there are specific red tapes that will always be out of bounds for all of us. Just so that the country remains a safe place to live in. So it's really okay to go out dressed like a freak, or dressed like a hooker... you could even fight for the freedom of speech in singapore and it's happening though at a really slow pace, you can call for censorship to be lowered and that's happening too...
you know, whatever makes you happy.
but there will always be the ground rules that whatever happens, it happens for a reason, and there's only one thing we MUST never forget and constantly remind ourselves:
that we are asians, we have a cultural heritage that's SO rich, SO traditional, it's full of rules that have so many loopholes. But we must always ground and anchor ourselves down to our roots and not move too far away from it.
Maybe you think "what the fuck? I'm only a teen/kid/working adult!!! I don't have to trouble MYSELF with ALL that SHIT!!"
well, then go ahead.
and when the time comes when you're being threatened at gun point right here in singapore by some ah beng and not the police.. you tell me what you have to trouble yourself worrying about.
Having adults who are as rigid as 10,000 bamboo sticks put together is great, I feel. It shows that they're really anchored down to their roots.
but on the other hand, my team mates, ling, alan and i (ling's this girl from NUS, majoring in sociology. she scares the crap outta me coz she knows TOO much information on anything sociology-based. but other than that, she's great. she started up the awareness of child abuse in homes) decided to do something really straight to the hearts of many and it was pretty radical at the same time.
We decided to rough out and change the mindset of parents planning the life path of their kids when they're only 3.
We did this poster-ad thing.. that's really quite gruesome really.. here's how it goes:
In the foreground of the poster stands a man, who's deep in thought, about what move to make his kid take next and all that..
and in the back ground, a lone spotlight shines down on this little 9 year-old kid in a graduation gown (let's take it to be a little boy) who's trying to commit suicide by hanging himself.. he's standing on this HUGE pile of books and tomes (i'll explain in a bit) and there're little stickmen/people encircling him, carrying place cards that have words screaming on it. Words like "A levels" "Masters with honours" "Marriage" "high paying career" and stuff like that..
and for the catch phrase, it was something like "Is this the future of your child?"
and the other phase would be "Change mindsets before it's too late".
now, about the kid standing on the HUGE pile of books and tomes simply... well, not because he's using it as a platform. Rather, the significance behind it was that he's being piled up with academic expectations, and work, and all the information overload at his young age of 9.. there's not a minute of play time for him and all he does is follow his dad's orders to study study study. Driven all the way to his own death on his books..
anyway, our main concept was to change that mindset about parents always making their kids go through the boring paper chase, and depriving them of a lively childhood.. (yes, deprived childhoods!)
Soooo.. yes.. that's how my day at NACLI went...
walked out with a bunch of us.. andrew, cris and yida... our muslim friends walked with us till the mosque and we bid them bye coz they had prayer session to fulfil...
hahas... so fun man today....
anyway, tomorrow will be the last day of this training day camp...
so yeah....
hahhas... hopefully i get to do the first batch..
hahas....
yeps, gotta go study now!
posted by anj @ 23:13
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