my scouting life thus far

since today is such a boring day, i shall blog about my scout life since i joined in sec 1, 2006. ive been wanting to do this for quite a while, and this post is inspired by a senior =) have fun guessing who. oh and if you are a non scout reading this, good luck trying to understand most of it.

when we were told to choose our ccas in sec 1, my first 3 choices were sports (something like softball rugby judo i think). and my 4th and 5th choice i contemplated between putting 01 and 02, somehow 4th choice was 01 and im thankful it was 01. so my sports applications were rejected, and yea i was put in 01. remember it was a 4th choice, so i wasn't exactly very happy about it at that time.

the first ever moment i remember was sitting at a table in the shaw foundation ceremonial hall. then-stls hiokhong and alvinyong were there, along with ms goh and the rest of 01-06. ms goh asked us to say what we thought scouting was about, and i remembered saying something generic like outdoors, camping etc. (and i also remember sup saying guns and all of us laughing at his answer. typical sup =D)

i got posted to falcon, and i was in falcon all the way through till sec 3. my first impressions of my patrol were pretty good. koala and hq were just so hilarious in anything they do, and qianwei and benhong were exactly what i thought a senior should have been. first part of sec 1 was fun, just going for act every wednesday, pump a bit, laugh a lot, lala here and there. friday patrol meetings were non existent for falcon, it was just go den, take attendance, and zhao off. and the first part of sec 1 ended with SUTC.

SUTC was really a diferent camp from my idea of camps last time. sec 1 it was at balestier hill primary if i remember correctly, and my patrol was juggerknot (theme was dota). my fitness increased dramatically, my mental strength improved by leaps and bounds. but 01-06 still wasnt solid. i remember being more attached to the then-sec 2s, somehow always drifting to them rather than 01-06.

next major thing that came up was GTC. absolutely tiring, totally exhausting, but extremely rewarding. people keep saying GTC is life changing, and yea i totally agree with that. some memorable things were 1. hotel ubin 2. 6 loafs of bread 3. frickin long hikes 4. THAT night call 5. big petty jug

number 4 will be something i remember for as long as i can remember hopefully. its such a special moment that really kickstarted our batch bonding, and since its so special it cant be expressed in words.

and the last part of sec 1 was group celes. all i can remember was jianliang saying something like "i hope i have done a good job with the gc next year".

sec 2 went by in a blur. somehow i dont remember much except batch project. the endless hours we spent in the library tying our knots, the fun moments (how to save a life!) we had stoning in the project room once again, tying knots. and it was really rewarding to see our stuff being sold at AVSW, to know that we have actually helped the group.

oh another thing i remember about sec 2 is SUTC. the last part of SUTC was really cool, where we formed 01 while in pushup position. and the j1s were really fantastic to give each and every one of us cards with feedback on them. i still keep mine =)

gtc was painful, as always. just that this year was more painful than last year. the sense of relief upon reaching back to RI was just amazing, and the blisters and abraisions i had were just sooo disgusting. and the night call at west coast park...still remember how dam loud leonard shouted, how much it echoed throughout the night. and the crowding in the pavillion when it rained was just so fun, and ms goh calling us mother hens or something like that.

moving on to the more recent sec 3. being patrol leader was fairly stressful at times, especially at the start of the year when i was not used to it yet, and also during AC period where its just pure mentally tiring. i wished i had been a more fun person like how koala and haoqin were, but i guess its just how my personality is. sometimes i regret being too strict with the patrol on stuff, and wished i could be more like eagle where they just whatever everything and everyone has fun.

getting 1st for AC was a pleasant surprise, and it was made possible due to every single member in falcon. no one slacked, everyone worked hard, and yea the effort paid off. it made all the preparation seem so worth it.

and i have no idea why my sec 3 life seems so uneventful at this point in time. weren't we supposed to learn the most in sec 3?

and lastly, venturing is just awesome. having a chance to do something different from the past 3 years is nice, but having a chance to do something different WITH your best friends is just amazing. and im just hoping this year never ends, cos when we get to j1 its inevitable we will split up into those who get into gc and those who dont, and i really wish it doesnt happen. im so not looking forward to end of this year =(

and of course looking ahead, theres still gc to go, where it will be a lot of stress yet very rewarding as well.

im so thankful i got my 4th choice