Building a Ship

NOTE: HAVEN'T READ THE OTHER 2 PAD POST? READ IT FIRST.

I'm sorry, its not that good to spam 3 post in one day, but i have no choice. so Prefect Annual Dinner 1 is about before the event. Prefects Annual Dinner 2 is about the event itself. So being a man that cannot run away from lessons, I write Prefects Annual Dinner 3 to express my feelings throughout this journey. Please note that names will be used and this what i feel, so even if you feel offended, sorry then.

I think the one thing I have learn, is that when you sincerely cry out to God, I believe he will come to your rescue. There were some sleepless nights when i was overwhelmed by the amount of work that i have to do, the planning that has to be done and the pressure that I have to carry. During those nights, I would cry literally, out to God and was  really begging for his help to give me peace and calmness. All I remember, is that every morning, I woke up as if a new day has dawn, but that day usually brings it down and at night, I would cry out to Him again and again.

Saturday night, I totally surended and asked God, "Does this really have to happen?" seriously, this was not how i expected it to be, but many would say that God wants to show that he can work when nothing seems to work. But I believe that there is more to it than that, but I have yet to know. All I know was that without God present at that dinner yesterday, it could not have been how it was. And I also believe that if I did not seek God for help, I would not have gotten it. So yes, God will help when you cry out to Him.

I think one of the many things that i want to say was that facing authority is very hard, especially for a person like me, who usually is in the position of it. But I took it as something i needed to learn and did my best to inform them. The thing was, from informing, it became a total control over the event. But they kinda failed, cause our plans were more or less set. So during the whole course of this journey, it was pretty hard, as we faced issues with the event and at the same time issues with the top. Now I don't say this as one person, at least half of the team weren't happy with it.

Aside from that, I realized that there are 3 kinds of people. One who nags but never helps, another who helps but doesn't ask you first, and the other who helps but asks for permission to do so. So, I already arranged it in order of which is better, from the least, to the best. So out of the three types, where do you think you are?

I don't know why, but when I went back home, I just wanted to watch a movie, despite how tiring I was, and I ended up watching Marley and Me. Basically a story about a notorious dog , maybe even worse named Marley and its owners who were a couple. Many who watch it i think would say that it is boring? To me it was a bit, just a bit. But sometimes it was really frustrating, like Why can't the dog be good? Can't it just sit still and obey? What kind of dog is this? It was wildly wild. But as I expected, at the end of the show, the dog died because of some health issues. But what struck me was the wife, also a mum of the main family, took out her necklace and said to her kids "Your dad bought this for me when our family just started, but, the thing was, our family had already started with Marley" Then she placed her necklace over Marley's dead body. Struck me there and then, that no matter how many issues we face in the board of prefects, how frustrating how irritating it may be, we are still ONE FAMILY. And that is why I love the title of the movie, because its Marley and ME. Me makes it personal, its ownership. And Marley could be anything, in this case, the Board of Prefects and ME. I don't need to be a head prefect to say its MY board, I don't need to be a head prefect to say its MY prefects, because why? Its still MY FAMILY. Just like how you wouldn't say that our brother is your dad's family, you would say he's my family. So likewise, its still my board, my prefects, my friends, my team.

An AJK biasa, but not biasa,
Wai Leem

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PLEASE READ THE EARLIER POST FIRST IF YOU HAVEN"T

So on the 23rd of August 2009, this is the day.

Tian Yoon, though not part of the AJK biasa team, offered her help and we accepted it gratefully. She was there since 10 am, and I reached there at around 11 am, followed by Ley Kuan. I went to negotiate a room for all those who are coming earlier to take bath. After much negotiation they agreed and gave me a room to shower.

So preparation of the tables were all underway. But I had to go church to help out somebody, so I went and only came back at 3.30 pm. At that time only a few more were there and the tables were almost done, dice also equal or almost done. Prepared for the opening ceremony, with rehearsals starting at the same time, as Tian Yoon preparing the guest book, the sorting of gifts and lucky draw were also done by some others. I cannot remember all the details but moving on, at 6 pm, we starting our briefing, to be clear on who's doing what and when what things are running.

by 7, teachers were already here, with prefects starting to camwhore, or sincerely taking memorable photos, we started to get people going in except teachers and seniors. When everyone was seated, we stood again and invited the teachers to come in while everyone clapped, followed by the seniors. When everyone was at their seats, we started the day with a simple speech by Pn Lee and En Tham. Then the opening ceremony was that they were suppose to pull down a cloth to show the words "PREFECTS ANNUAL DINNER 2009" But Ray Aun and Jin Yee were behind the cloth as planned. So when they pulled the cloth and revealed the both of them, the mc-s, Nicholas and I pretended not to know about it and were expressing our shock, fake shock. And everyone was laughing at the whole act. After a duet speech, was a small slideshow to get people ready and then teachers were invited to go first and take their food, followed by seniors and then the rest of the prefects.

Everyone was given a time 1 hour to eat, then the performances started as soon as possible. So we started with a simple photo slideshow done by Nicholas followed by the Form 2's lucky draw and performance by the form 2's which were spectacular and wonderful. Then we played a game called "Who's  Baby?" Everyone said it was easy, so i stopped giving out prizes to the correct answers but yet everyone somehow still managed to have fun playing it.

After that the Form 3's were ready for their performance, which is a band called KTFB, which is comprised of their english names, I think, or in other words, Kiss The Floor Baby. They sang 21 guns which got a huge response from the crowd, and were asked to do an encore, but they didn't, sadly. Then we moved on with Form 3's lucky draw, but surprisingly they all disappeared. So we gave a 5 minutes toilet break and after that, we continued the program. After the lucky draw was the giving out of souvenirs, which everyone doesn't like but still, we had to do it.

I needed a break, so I told Nicholas to call a 10 minutes break for everyone to continue eating and taking photos. When I was ready to get up and running again, we proceeded with the form 4's lucky draw and to clear up our stock, we straight away headed to the Form 5's lucky draw. Sadly, we ran out of time and had to cancel it. We straight away moved on towards the final performance, the form 4's. Whom i tell you, was simply amazing. Almost all of them went up, I was tempted to, but I didn't cause i wanted to reflect on the whole day. So their singing, was well enjoyed by everyone, every single person had fun at the end, especially the teachers went they started to do the chicken dance. Well where was I? Standing at the back, smiling with utter joy, gladness, an indescribable happiness.

We concluded the night with a photoshoot. And I realized that i said these few words "THANK YOU and HOPE YOU HAVE HAD A GREAT NIGHT, GOODNIGHT" as closing, with utter regret, because tonight was indeed a happy, it was a GREAT night! I could see that the organizing team's faces were filled with joy because everything that was done, was not done in vein. But there was so much more we did not do because of time, but the night had just ended.

So after everything, we packed up and left, and when i reached home, put down my stuff, my brother suddenly sang the song "Tonight's going to be a good night!" It strucked me there and then, that indeed it was going to be a good night. Now as I write this, I feel like I could have done so much more yesterday, but its over, the AJK biasa's first ever project was done with succeess, and I believe there is more to come.

An AJK biasa
Wai Leem

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Its been a year already! CLICK HERE to see what i wrote for last years Prefects Annual Dinner (PAD). This year, it was held yesterday, 23 of August 2009.

The difference between last year and this, is that last year, we were spectators, not we are organizers.

During the Prefect Board's Annual General Meeting (AGM), a couple of people nominated me to certain post. But knowing that I will not be able to perform to my fullest, I declined everyone. Because of that, naturally I would become an AJK biasa which is just a normal committee member.

The thing was, I did not know, that this year, with new leadership, they placed the normal committee members in charge of everything besides those concerning duties, which would be like telematches, cool activities, camps, year end trips, and not to mention, this Prefects Annual Dinner.

So at first, it was like, well, okay.. I can do this, and have done it before, shouldn't be much of a problem. Things went on as usual, until in late July or early August, I was informed that the Prefects Annual Dinner is suppose to be SOON, aka this month. Shocked? OF COURSE! So here was the first problem. We don't even have scratch and we got to come up with something in the next 3 weeks. Which led to the second problem, which is, the dinner is for the seniors, but i never liked them, so why should I do it? But in the end, I made a promise that seniors are seniors, and no matter what, we got to respect them, and so I did it anyway. And so the third issue arose, people started to nag us for updates, and yea, irritance led us not to tell them everything.

Starting from scratch, the first protocol would usually be finding a place to hold the event. To cut a long story short, there were so many complications, then I think it took 2 weeks to even settle the place, and remember, we only had 3 weeks to do this. See how wonderful that is?

But not to worry, we also started planning the activities and such already. People volunteered to perform and we came up with lucky draw and some fun-filled games. Just that, to cut a long story even shorter, on Saturday, the day before the event, we honestly, weren't fully prepared.

During this point in time, this whole little journey already had some bureaucracy issues with the top fellas. And to handle stress, irritance, ignorance and utter frustration all at the same time, it surely wasn't easy. But what could we do? the top is the top, that's what they do anyway.

So just hours behind, we were practically unprepared.

So, DID WE MAKE IT?

read the next post.

An AJK biasa,
Wai leem

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No, either it will never be, or it is on its way to be.

Not long ago, during the march holidays, the annual prefect camp was once again held, in Nur Lembah Pangsun, on the 16th till 18th of March. And as i promised earlier that i will write about the camp, here it is people!

Besides the constant bombarding on my "stupidity" for going for the camp by Mr T*m*t*y, I still felt that it indeed a camp worth going for after all. Yes, it rained badly, everything was went and muddy, so and so, etc, but to me, brought back old times when i used to go camping with my family when i was just 3 or 4 years old. This to me is a great remembering of the past, and what my family did at that time, though i didn't exactly remember everything as i was too little at that time.

Anyway, back to the camp, first day started off with rain, heavy rain. Made frantic seniors, go even more crazy, and yes, it was rather fun to watch them stressed just by rain. Despite the rain, somehow everything still somehow fell into place, and we continued the program with some obstacle courses, canopy walking and not to mention, the flying fox. But it was more than that, rather the relationship built within the team and getting to know one another, especially juniors, was indeed something worthwhile. Then came the night where we had to protect eggs and plan our sketch. This ended the first day.

So, the second day started off rather well, with the wonderfully prepared amazing race. I thought they could have named it something better, but oh well, it was an event that they really prepared extremely well. Clues made were spectacular and overall they really put in superb amount of effort, good job seniors. Then the typical talk by HELP UC, not that it was bad, but in fact, i rather liked it, and the way they conducted it was great, not to mention the project they gave us. Yet seniors had to spoil the day with their deep analyzing and such, not that i complain because my team was last, but the comments they gave was just very irrational. That day ended with a night jungle walk which i didn't go, due to so badly irritated emotionally, just didn't have the mood to go anymore. So i stayed behind and talked to friends, which i felt was really nice, it was really enjoyable, knowing that its not all the time that i get to talk to them for such long times. Relationships were indeed strengthen and built upon that night.

Finally, the third day, started off normally, without marching. *phew* Then came the abseiling part which was quite interesting though some people thought it was boring. And lastly, the closing ceremony that was held before we packed and left the site.

Overall, i would say that this camp was great. It has indeed surpassed my expectations, yet at one point, they had to do the norm and either bring or pull us down. For green team, the wasabi warriors, congragulations, you guys did well, and sometimes it is hard to see the fair side of things once you win, but its good that you all put effort and stayed together no matter what. Someone's got to win, knowing that someone's also got to lose. So brown team, let it go, for as i said before we started, nothing counts, as long as we had fun. Which i believe we all did, at least i had, and if you didn't, than i'm sorry, you missed it.

Why did i entitle this post "Perfect Prefect Camp"? To be honest, this year i have seen effort and hard work for this camp to go by, and if my batch can, not just keep it up, instead bring it to another level, then i believe that we indeed in for a change. Surely it isn't the perfect prefect camp, but i do believe it is getting somewhere other than the total norm of the past. Times has changed, time for us to change.

Lastly, like what Lily said and shared, if you want the camp to be good, if you want the camp to be bad, it just depends on your thinking. If all you can think of is bad reports, the only thing you can see is bad stuff, if you want to think of good reports, then you will be able to see the good things in camp. Indeed, just like how this guy puts it, into something called the "lost generation", which was also shared in camp.

Lost Generation

I wonder how camp will be like next year.

Love,
Wai Leem

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Tomorrow is Kidzone's once in every 2 years, KBC! aka Kidzone Boot Camp! So i'm just getting myself hyped up for it is going to be exhausting and maybe, just maybe stressing. Adding on to that, i still have a meeting later this afternoon followed by a worship practise, see? my workload and tiredness has already started to build up, plus! i still have to pack for the camp. *GOSH*!

Nonetheless, i feel that this camp is going to be worth it all, its going to be great, but most of all, the kids life will change, i hope mine will too.

Speaking of which, i pray that when we come back, it will be the dawn of a new life, a life that will wholeheartedly serve God and love Him.

Which makes me think of the very reason why i'm still in the prefect board. I've told you'll that i'm there because i want to touch and change lives, but there's a lot of hindrances, currently. The battle between the good and the evil, which no one really knows who is who, on the big issue of de-merit system.

Obviously, most would agree with me that many are doing their duties just to escape from the *terror* of that irritating system. There is just no sense of, responsibility. I thought *badan beruniform-s* were meant to train that. What are we to do?

*Dawn of a new... ... ... ... system.*

That's my plan whether i get to the top or not, a new system will dawn, one which is not focusing not duties and duties, but one which is plainly, to change lives.

the saying says "Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, Teach a man to fish and he'll eat for life"
Its true, but mine is like this "Ask a man to follow rules and he'll follow for one day, Teach a man the reason for obeying rules and he'll learn for life"

PREFECTS! are you ready for one awesome year of change?

I agree with Obama's campaign statement, and i will run with it too "We Need Change"

Surely we need.

Loving,
Wai Leem

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