Finally, finally done with all 5 reflections needed to pass REAL and graduate from REP haha. Wrote about 3 journeys and 2 encounters, all extremely different. Pretty weird to have to cookie-cut my thoughts into the leadership framework though. Likely won't have the time to read any comments from the faculty before the second session starts, so I welcome any high support that anyone else wants to give me :)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7rtL5tAI-XpRmdHV0xrX3dPTEk
Saturday, 30 July 2016
Thursday, 14 July 2016
Stories of Summer: Flow + Affinity = New Friends Found
Time flies, and you know it when one month passes by in a week (or so it feels like). Case in point: the newest Attack on Titan chapter came out and I was like wa so good ah, I thought the previous chapter just came out last week (it's a monthly serialisation). Turns out my feel was horrendously off and I was genuinely shocked at having 3 weeks less of summer than I'd originally thought.
Clearly I've been busy, but not entirely aware of how much time I've been investing in things. It might be coz I never had a fixed schedule and so was able to take on any worthwhile activity as I went along. It's nice to have such flexibility, and a series of "ok!"s and "can!"s later, I was left with no time to collect dust at home anyway. Fits my style!
So... what goodies has Flow brought me? Personal development aside, getting out and about has led to lots of interactions with many different people. I have seen each of my usual friends like maybe once this whole time, so most of the time has been spent getting to know new people, or getting to know people I was already aware of better. This sounds trivial but when I think about the usual school days, the opposite is more likely to be true. A large proportion of normal school time is spent with usual friends, and any interaction with people outside cliques within the course/CCA is rather fleeting/perfunctory. Even then, I hardly get to stretch beyond "friends of friends" before retreating back to the usual comfortable circles.
This summer's been very different - when Flow and Affinity collide, magic happens. Something like "there are no strangers, only friends you have not yet met." Err wait no, not exactly. Some strangers, even after they cease to be strangers, do not ascend to the rank of friend (I detest whiny guys). But what is more true is that among strangers, there exists friends waiting to meet.
So most of my last week was taken up by facilitating a camp and preparing for it. I liken signing up for this to jumping into a black hole (paid to do so). I have no affiliation with the camp organiser and the participating organisation - I just knew someone who asked if I was free to help. With the initial "setting" being as random as such, I was really starting to wonder what I'd gotten myself into. [At Ubin + cannot bathe = omg lucky 2 nights only] The camp works on the philosophy that when humans are deprived of their basic needs (like home comforts for us pampered sg kids), they turn to those around them for survival. In this process, bonds are created as everyone strives to survive together.
If I were to take the theory a little further and add this extra icing called Affinity, that's when a handful of good friends start to rise up out of the sea of bonds. Affinity led me to find someone I knew from the one-year exchange, and also another climber!!
It's kinda amazing when you meet someone for a few hours and then you're suddenly talking like 一千年的好朋友. Let's give a context. I've probably seen the same climber at previous climbing competitions, but back then she was just another face in the crowd. In a familiar setting, you're not likely to go up to random people from other schools and just start talking. It seems that a random, unfamiliar setting can be the catalyst to bond people who have inherent similarities or connections. [It also helps that most climbers are friendly ppl hahaha]. And that other person I knew? Well, I saw her and she saw me, and we were pretty excited to be meeting again! Right there on Ubin! This camp's not the first time I've experienced this, where good friends just burst from unexpected places. It's like seeing those same juniors most days in the RPR but never saying even a "hi". Until an unusual thing like IVEC came along for us to bond over hard times and a little bit of bitching haha.
Just to summarise and make sure I'm clear of my own thoughts: as we take random paths in life, beyond our usual circles and comfort zones, we meet people that we likely have met before/will meet under more familiar circumstances, but only in this new unknown circumstance are they likely to become lasting friends.
If I was slightly unnerved at my final choice not to force out an internship at the end of the last sem, I think I can rest easy now. My top strength according to Gallup is adaptability, which means I go with the Flow and make the best out of each moment I live in. This summer's been an awesome mix of experiences which I don't think I would be happy trading for one single internship hahaha. The last stretch of summer is packed with quite a bit of traveling, but I ain't gonna neglect making time for all these new friends I've made since the start :)
[There really is a book called Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, which I'm currently reading (koped off Sean's goodreads). I'm not very far into it but already I've run into lots of quotable lines, one of them being: "the best moments occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile." Exactly my philosophy for RE7088 >:)]
Clearly I've been busy, but not entirely aware of how much time I've been investing in things. It might be coz I never had a fixed schedule and so was able to take on any worthwhile activity as I went along. It's nice to have such flexibility, and a series of "ok!"s and "can!"s later, I was left with no time to collect dust at home anyway. Fits my style!
So... what goodies has Flow brought me? Personal development aside, getting out and about has led to lots of interactions with many different people. I have seen each of my usual friends like maybe once this whole time, so most of the time has been spent getting to know new people, or getting to know people I was already aware of better. This sounds trivial but when I think about the usual school days, the opposite is more likely to be true. A large proportion of normal school time is spent with usual friends, and any interaction with people outside cliques within the course/CCA is rather fleeting/perfunctory. Even then, I hardly get to stretch beyond "friends of friends" before retreating back to the usual comfortable circles.
This summer's been very different - when Flow and Affinity collide, magic happens. Something like "there are no strangers, only friends you have not yet met." Err wait no, not exactly. Some strangers, even after they cease to be strangers, do not ascend to the rank of friend (I detest whiny guys). But what is more true is that among strangers, there exists friends waiting to meet.
So most of my last week was taken up by facilitating a camp and preparing for it. I liken signing up for this to jumping into a black hole (paid to do so). I have no affiliation with the camp organiser and the participating organisation - I just knew someone who asked if I was free to help. With the initial "setting" being as random as such, I was really starting to wonder what I'd gotten myself into. [At Ubin + cannot bathe = omg lucky 2 nights only] The camp works on the philosophy that when humans are deprived of their basic needs (like home comforts for us pampered sg kids), they turn to those around them for survival. In this process, bonds are created as everyone strives to survive together.
If I were to take the theory a little further and add this extra icing called Affinity, that's when a handful of good friends start to rise up out of the sea of bonds. Affinity led me to find someone I knew from the one-year exchange, and also another climber!!
It's kinda amazing when you meet someone for a few hours and then you're suddenly talking like 一千年的好朋友. Let's give a context. I've probably seen the same climber at previous climbing competitions, but back then she was just another face in the crowd. In a familiar setting, you're not likely to go up to random people from other schools and just start talking. It seems that a random, unfamiliar setting can be the catalyst to bond people who have inherent similarities or connections. [It also helps that most climbers are friendly ppl hahaha]. And that other person I knew? Well, I saw her and she saw me, and we were pretty excited to be meeting again! Right there on Ubin! This camp's not the first time I've experienced this, where good friends just burst from unexpected places. It's like seeing those same juniors most days in the RPR but never saying even a "hi". Until an unusual thing like IVEC came along for us to bond over hard times and a little bit of bitching haha.
Just to summarise and make sure I'm clear of my own thoughts: as we take random paths in life, beyond our usual circles and comfort zones, we meet people that we likely have met before/will meet under more familiar circumstances, but only in this new unknown circumstance are they likely to become lasting friends.
If I was slightly unnerved at my final choice not to force out an internship at the end of the last sem, I think I can rest easy now. My top strength according to Gallup is adaptability, which means I go with the Flow and make the best out of each moment I live in. This summer's been an awesome mix of experiences which I don't think I would be happy trading for one single internship hahaha. The last stretch of summer is packed with quite a bit of traveling, but I ain't gonna neglect making time for all these new friends I've made since the start :)
[There really is a book called Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, which I'm currently reading (koped off Sean's goodreads). I'm not very far into it but already I've run into lots of quotable lines, one of them being: "the best moments occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile." Exactly my philosophy for RE7088 >:)]
Wednesday, 22 June 2016
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 ;)
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.
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.
Friday, 17 June 2016
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.
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.
Saturday, 7 May 2016
If my FYP were an MMORPG Quest
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).
So I think I'm at level 14 now. Gotta level up before Monday.
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.
Saturday, 9 April 2016
To be a raconteuse
Came across this nugget while aimlessly swiping on my phone this morning:
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 :)
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 :)
Tuesday, 15 March 2016
Thoughts of a Happy Zombie - SSS 2016
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. ;)
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. ;)
 |
| We did it girls!!! :D |
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