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.
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.
Not progressing well with my presentation slides, so I decided to distract myself. How does one present a year's work in 15 minutes? One starts by re-examining the journey. The contents page of my report was starting to look very much like a quest line from LOTRO (which I've gotten back to playing since my early end of exams ^^), so why not. Maybe a few people will be able to fully understand this, those few who were on the journey with me.
Presenting, Volume III, Book X: The FYP Epic (probably, I just made up the numericals).
[1] Foreword: A New Adventure
[1] Chapter 1: Discerning the Ancient Papers
[1] Chapter 2: The Scroll of Encompassing Knowledge
[2] Chapter 3: Journey to Hall 7
[2] Chapter 3: Hidden Architectures
[2] Chapter 3: Density of Destiny
[2] Chapter 3: Forging Anew (optional)
[4] Chapter 4: Traversing the Spines
[4] Chapter 4: Discover Materials Laboratory the First
[4] Chapter 4: Lens of Inconvenience - Small Fellowship
[5] Chapter 5: Microscopic Revelations
[8] Chapter 6: Tokens of Sacrifice
[8] Chapter 6: Taking Stock
[8] Chapter 6: Small and Numerous
[8] Chapter 6: Recovering the Shine
[8] Chapter 6: Purging Ancient Dirt
[8] Chapter 6: Ceremonial Naming
[11] Chapter 7: Crush of Finality - Fellowship
[12] Chapter 8: The Scroll of Adventures
[12] Chapter 8: Pain of the Past
[12] Chapter 8: Pain of the Present
[15] Chapter 9: The Final Defence - Solo only
Instance: The Final Defence - Solo only
[15] Epilogue: Revisiting The Scroll
So I think I'm at level 14 now. Gotta level up before Monday.
Came across this nugget while aimlessly swiping on my phone this morning:
Strange gender specification aside, I saw a goal of mine within the definition. I think (from the examples) this word applies to both speaking and writing and I definitely skew towards the latter. [Between my sis and I: she's glib, but writes like a lost grandmother; I tend to stutter, but at least I write clearly.]
But the point is not the medium, it's all about the story.
I think it's pretty cool to actually bring a story to life and deliver it in a way that enraptures, and ultimately makes people believe in it. I've found that weaving a story does help when trying to convince people of new ideas or my own opinions. Anecdotes are even better (even if they're not completely referring to the same thing), coz "tried-and-tested-in-real-life".
Through the years, people have told me that I write "well". That's nice coz it's something I enjoy. But I guess that's coz its my favourite medium to tell stories that hopefully bring some smiles (sniggers are even better) to some people. That right there is what I truly enjoy doing.
If people think I'm good at it, well, that makes me the happy one :)
I don't keep a journal, but today was special enough to warrant a same-night post.
Sometime earlier this year (I can't remember exactly when), I got jio-ed by a certain bovine to take part in a case challenge. At that point I had no idea what the idea was, or even what competition we were taking part in. But since I was pretty free in that half of the sem, I simply said yes.
We began to conceptualize and my belief in the idea started to grow and grow and grow. The machine we dreamed up was eventually christened DriF4st, for its ability to spin-dry swimsuits effectively and efficiently. All you need, really, is ~4 seconds and a bit of quick legwork. We actually tried it out on a stand-in spinning (mop) machine and on that night, my conviction was sealed.
For all the help we've received, I'm extremely grateful. Team dynamics were on-point as well. FYI, the whole original team of people I first worked with in REP (expo writing, 2012) was in this team, as was my FYP buddy. So, not my usual table mates, but there was no difficulty bouncing ideas and suggestions off each other. No hard feelings or anything to hinder the drive for perfection.
I'm not sure if we presented the way we did because of REP-training, but the correlation seems to hold true. REP swept the top 2 positions :D We were so happy!! In no way did my team speak as gracefully as the NBS teams, but I guess impact has other ways of showing itself. We definitely, definitely had substance.
I celebrate small victories in life. Today, I had my very first taste of being a grand champion, and I must say, I would do it again and again, sleepless nights and all. It doesn't hurt that I'm now a bit richer as well. ;)
2 months into 2016 now, and I've been thinking of the stuff I've been doing this whole time. Thoughts get misplaced so I put them down in words. They don't usually link in chronological order and so, the reasoning behind the numbering is known only to the dusty corners of my mind.
This is what I've been thinking of on this night.
1) This week I've had more stuff to be happy about, and the latest is to do with FYP. I know everyone's moaning and "FYP" sometimes comes out like a swear word, but things come in stages. Today, after months of work on my dear samples (blowing, grinding... scanning electron microscopy), I've finally crushed the last of them and obtained a beautiful set of data. I guess (aside from the report and maybe some minor side work), this is kind of the end point. My FYP has been physically exhausting and literally painful, and I'm extremely grateful for the help I've received. There's still repayment to be done on my part, but I'm all the more happy to do so because even experiences like FYP become nicer when shared.
2) Speaking of sharing experiences, it's awesome when people want to try climbing. It's even more awesome when they want to try it again even though it makes new fingers raw and painful. I might not be the best person to be promoting this sport, but I do my best for whoever wants to try. Sometimes I wish I could do more/better, but there's time and place for everything.
3) I haven't actually been climbing much though, mainly due to the ankle D:< (and other stuff that's been taking up my weekends). Good thing the injury is receding and I'm becoming able to try hard again, past the mental barrier as well as the too-long-never-train cui-ness.
4) Something else partly related - the regular climbing group is different from before. It's definitely fun and comfortable but sometimes I stop to think: "didn't I use to do this/feel this way with other people?" And the thing is, it's not just climbing... The feelings of absence and change seem to have become a tad more prominent lately. Circumstance is the culprit as always; people are going out into the working world and others have taken on responsibilities/enthusiasms etc. The good thing is that not all of it is permanent and some things will probably go back to how they used to be (except work). But I've seen change in people lately, and I realise how circumstance can be damaging. [Lemonade made purely out of lemons is still sour. I should keep sugar in my pockets.] I happen to be a very adaptable person. I guess that's why I flow into new comfort zones without feeling much drag. Then once I'm "here", I realise things are different, and sometimes I feel a little sad.
5) A roomie makes a single room smaller. But I do like small spaces and it's nice to have someone to talk with at night. She's moving out soon :/
6) Ok too emo alr. Tbh only a fraction of change is undesirable la. Case in point: this one group of friends that I treasure in particular. I've known them since the guiding years. So for 10 years-ish we've never failed to talk about the same old funny things but in recent times, the conversations have totally shifted in favour of quarter-life crises i.e. work. This shift didn't go unnoticed and we took it further by predicting each decade's conversations up till the age of 80. But in all honesty, our meetings still keep their light and we tend to
laugh till our throats our sore. Hahaha, I'm still trying to figure out how we
did that over quarter-life crises. I hope with all my heart that this will never change.
7) My sis recently ranted to me about something. Although in my head I was like "ohplz you lousy thing" I remembered that I was probably the same during my teenage years xD So I tried my hand at diplomacy.
8) CNY was quiet this year. One grandma was hapz and the other had to take care of an aunt who caught dengue fever D: So there were literally no family visits on 初一 and 二. My gosh it was damn sian. But my parents seemed nonchalant about it, and they kept saying how it was nice and peaceful. I look forward to CNY every year. I was especially looking forward to this one, since I was away last year and had to make do with a Skype visit, so this was an extreme downer. I guess the fun starts to wear off when you start to have to give out hongbaos. Things got better though, and CNY is 15 days long anyway.
9) Grandma's (dad's side) 80th was a blast (at least for me, my sis, and certain uncles/cousins). It was the first time in years we had dinner in a room equipped with a K system. I was very young at the last time so I must stress the surprise I felt on realising how well my family members can sing. It was great fun! I knew and was singing along to many of the old/new/mandarin/english songs, so my poor dinner got sidelined. My uncle even pointed to my neglected glass of beer and said that mosquitoes were starting to breed in there HAHA. I'm a fun-loving person really, but only a small portion of people who know me actually get to see that. Most of them happen to be family :)
10) The weekend stuff was interesting as well. Notably, there's been archery tag where I learnt to aim fairly well after observing others. Managed to hit quite a few targets/people >:D That same night we went to cow's place where I tried CNY gambling for maybe the second time in my life. Balked after losing $1.50 and chickened out of the table. I think I'm not generally scared of losing, but if I lose I rather it be by lack of skill rather than by complete chance.
11) On the topic of money... I recently made two big ticket purchases. One was a 2 TB hard drive. Quite a timely purchase considering that the high speed videos from my FYP took up 160 GB of space! Little grainy 5 minute videos of things being crushed are somehow worth more space than HD movies. The other purchase was literally a ticket. A ticket to the JAY CHOU CONCERT <3 Every time he came to Singapore I would dream of going, but because (1) I never considered spending >$100 (2) I never considered asking friends to spend >$100 with me, I never went. Now, thanks to my roomie, I have 6 months to be excited for my first ever concert :D Of course... it's a good thing there's been recent hongbao income to tide over the sudden spike in spending.
12) Another thing there has been a surge of recently is the number of people asking me about my relationship status/goals. Like, what's going on?? Why the sudden interest in this (missing) aspect of my life, I wonder. "What do you like in a guy" is not an easy question to answer, and aside from some vague mumbling, I didn't have a proper answer by the 2nd or 3rd time I was asked. So I did a bit of thinking. Different girls have different needs or paradoxes or whatever one calls them. I think I kinda distilled mine down into a few definite words: I don't know how to like people. I guess it's because I'm not exactly a needy person, so I see guys as equals. [Like we know how to take care of ourselves better than some princesses.] BUT the thing is in a relationship, much more than want, I need someone who can take care of me. I need someone to support. So maybe I'm actually looking, but I'm looking for someone stronger. Maybe that's why I'm searching, but not much has been appearing on my radar. I don't have big dreams but I do think I would like to "settle down" someday. Unfortunately I don't think I can lower this expectation of mine, I'd rather stay single.
It's only 21 days into 2016 and I've sprained my ankle (major) for the second time. For my own future reference (although it's not likely I'm gonna forget anytime soon): I missed on a sideways dyno, fell, contacted the mat first with my right ankle which promptly decided to roll inwards. Under the pumping music I believe I was the only one to hear the sound that followed (crack-crush-crack) - a clear indication of damage. Aside from the lightning pain of course.
Then I did the usual foetal position grimacing in agony kind of thing on the mat that one normally does after the above occurrences. And was caught doing that on the live stream.
So even before I gingerly picked my way back to my bag after application of a cold, numbing spray onto the offending spot, there were some concerned messages from concerned people waiting to be read in my message box. I know it doesn't take injury to show this (and I could do without it, totally), but it still nice to know that I'm cared about :)
Yes, I was walking normally with pain, but I'm now not walking normally. Still with pain.
It's a 2 out of 2 for getting injured at Gravical so maybe I won't make it 3 or more...
On the other hand, cool routes, (slightly) overestimated target audience. But at least I got one cool video for my efforts haha!
