To those who were present at the meeting yesterday and heard me blabber about commitment for our team’s cause, let me apologise for the incoherent crap that I spouted yday morning. Honestly, my barely-awake brain (though still capable of engaging in verbal sparring with SQ as always) had to scramble to find words after being arrowed to speak. Lest people misconstrue that as an attempt to apportion blame, let me clarify that it wasn’t.
Of course at this point, the people whom I had privately spoke to would think that I’ve been itching for the chance to voice my frustrations. To be honest, I had no such intention coming into this meeting, mainly because I reflected on this whole fundraising exercise after its conclusion. Frustrated I was, but blinkered, I am not. Whilst it would have been easy for me to deliver a scathing assessment of this manpower issue during those fundraising moments when I’m tired and hungry (which is not too rare), but when all has been said and done, I also realize that the entire team’s priorities/objectives could just as easily overlap as they could deviate from each other, just as SQ pointed out. [And this marks one of the few moments that we see eye to eye with each other..haha] As for me, I was more motivated by fear than anything else when I did my shifts for the team’s fundraising…the fear that we wouldn’t have enough funds for the trip, the fear that all the initial enthusiasm and excitement about this YEP will turn out to be a damp squib, which is not exactly a remote possibility, given our many abortive attempts to go on a team outing…
On one of the carwashing days when Vincent and I spoke about this issue, as adamant as I was that some of us were getting the short end of the stick, Vincent rightly reminded me that this fundraising is but a component of the entire YEP endeavour… that there is more to look forward to and work for (i.e. the actual trip and also the post-trip stuff). Very right. And that brings me to my next point. We have now drawn a line under the fundraising madness and all our sore limbs have recovered (and so have the, ahem… abrasions). Looking back, it’s been one hell of a ride with many priceless and amusing moments like JR’s double sniping on YH, broken slippers and their super chio(!) replacements from the Cheers in NUS, a “wardrobe malfunction” and last but not least, 2 classic nicknames…(pretty sure I will smell some blood when the nicknames’ owners read this..LOL!!!)
By and large, we should be really proud and take heart that we have come through this brilliantly. Another thing to add is the timely exercise of writing ourselves a letter during the meeting. Come the end of this sem’s exams, each and every one of us must recall our original objectives for joining this YEP and stick to it wholeheartedly. Meanwhile, now’s the time for another round of mugging and mental diarrhea before we close ranks and work together towards Cambodia.
Happy mugging everyone,
Terence
Project Baray 08 ! 