Stories of Summer: Incredible Ventures, Extraordinary Characters

IVEC (29th May - 6th June 2016) really stands for Inter-Varsity Entrepreneurship Competition, but I think the title really captures the essence of it, at least to me. I agonised long and hard over whether or not to join and commit a solid 9 days to something I (at that point) had no inkling about. So, every decision has its consequences. I've suffered some, but overall, this was a decision I believe I made right :) Here's roughly why.

The Experience
It was downright exhausting. Especially because I'm an introvert, these things are really draining. But experiences with challenges and trials are the ones which provide the best lessons. No doubt the competition bit was intense, and for my team it was an exponentially increasing kind of intense. We learnt to chiong when the way was clear, to siam once we hit walls, and to just enjoy the whole process. Beer and talk cock on top of ADM included xD Oh yes, and I think my knowledge on FinTech has increased by 500%.

The People
The ones with whom I braved the challenge, the ones I chattered and laughed with at all those random times, and the ones who made it all possible. Can't totally recall what I expected when I signed up, but I remember clearly that one of my hopes was to make friends. I definitely left with more friends and more ties from places more unlikely than I'd ever imagined.

When you throw together a bunch of people from across the world, who have never talked to each other, what are the odds that all of them click? Thank you, Team 9. I never imagined that I could be so comfortable around people so different. <Inserts group picture>

Sometimes objectives aren't met, but the outcome might not necessarily be a disappointment. If we were to be honest, the strongest friendships were formed intra-uni rather than inter-. REP needs to step up its inter-batch bonding game, but IVEC is a really really good avenue! While I don't claim that we're suddenly all best friends, I do feel like I got to know people better. All relationships require effort to maintain, but I have this notion that these ties will remain strong. Coz it's not always about how long you know a person, the quality of the interactions also count. tl;dr - Bintan was fun ;)

Good times. Credits: Adeline's Facebook.

The Everything Else
Expenses covered = great time to be a tourist (mostly in my own country). There were places I'd never been, sights I'd rarely seen, and I'm glad most of the best experiences were freeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ^^ [yes i know someone else is paying for it]

I barely slept 5 hours each night. Always nodding off just before lights out, then voilà, wide awake when head hit pillow. It's like the hall pillow was caffeine-imbued.

Thanks cockroach, for the visit just before bedtime. And also for loitering along the corridor and scaring other people.

Food was exceptional.

I take lessons from whomever/whatever can offer them. Just my personal thoughts but no one is really ever too old to learn something new, just too arrogant. So for those 9 days, I turned on sponge mode. Happily absorbing, quietly observing all those lighthearted/funny/serious/triumphant/sneaky/frustrating/irritating/unforgettable times. Good experiences you learn from and emulate, bad ones you remind yourself never to follow. 

Stories of Summer: Facing Walls

Summer's been eventful so far. There's been the planned and the impromptu, the fun, the meaningful, and the tiring. The only thing there's been too little of is rest... which is also my excuse for not writing. I thought I'd start with something I really like doing, but which I've had mixed feelings about lately. Other reflections will come in due time (if ever), meanwhile they're just a bunch of thoughts floating around in a cloudy space.

Yes so, climbing.

Climbing 1.0, where I improve myself and try to be effective in competitions, hasn't been going so well. At best I'm a B+ climber in my category, which really means I'm not going anywhere. Sighs, everything comes back to bite - time sacrifices and the worsening wrist. But the worst part is that the fire sort of went out. I'm always nervous (to varying degrees) before comps, but never before have I felt sian. Not until PF last week anyway, and it just got worse after the climb. Every time I know that had I trained hard, the results would definitely have been better. But good enough to get into finals? I've never been confident of that. I dunno. Compound everything and I felt like simply stopping.

Climbing 2.0, where I lure non-climbing friends to try climbing, has been better. It's mainly been within REP so far, but objectives have been met :D When we began last Dec (at the suggestion/request of a friend), I thought it was going to be a fun one-time intro kinda thing. Who knew that these people wanted more! The enthusiastic ones have really amazed me, and the talent is real. But that's more of a really nice cherry on top. What I truly wanted was for people from different batches to interact and make friends. So it might be a really small group, but I think it's working. Recre climbing is more like 50% actual climbing and 50% sitting and talking anyway haha, and then going for meals at super odd times. Through this small venture of mine, I've also found something else that's fulfilling to me. Sometimes, when appropriate challenges are set for people, and they accomplish it after many failures with the support of people around them, their confidence and ability grows. I enjoy coercing people to reach their potential xD As long as my friends go home aching badly, but feeling happy about it, it's all good.

One thing I really like about climbing is that there is ample opportunity to feel happy for others. Positive feels ==> positive energy. After watching my friend stroll to the top of 6 routes in BA just now (and thereby finally promoting to inter), I felt a small flame ignite again.