a story worth remembering\\we skip the goodbyes *sometimes its hard to express in words*

welcome back!! after a week of hectic exam schedule that nearly killed me, finally some rest. This week seem to pass by very fast; especially when we just follow a regular polymer of -wake up, go school, take exam, study, sleep-. A typical life of a student. Our timetable was so "nicely" packed that we had three different days to do different stuff. Monday was the writing papers with a total timespan of 6 hours writing. Wednesday was the thinking papers with a total timespan of 4 hours thinking and analysing. Today's paper was more of doing. 3 hours in the hall. It just felt like prelims was over when i stepped out of the exam hall today. I've been thinking. Ziyi said something that kind of made sense on our way to the bus-stop. He said something like,"we will get to study after prelims math paper 1 if we don't study now". Re-phrasing that sentence means we don't dip our feet in the same river twice. Everything's changing around us. The world, the environment, the people around us. Maybe we should cherish the time we have left in this school. Maybe we should really cherish the time we have left before A's. Maybe we should see each day as a new beginning, not the same typical day that we use to have. Maybe its really all about perception. Recently someone told me its not optimism that keeps us going but its more about perception. One's perception may really change the situation and turn the tide around. Maybe i should really see things in a different light next time. Realised i have said to much of "maybes" already. I am uncertain of many things; my life, my future, my goal. Ahh.. forget it. When i can't come up with a long term goal, i will go for the short-term one. A's.

Yuda at 8:24 PM

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

today was the most mental tiring day i ever experienced. Woke up at 0500 to take a train to Pasir ris for the vocational assessment. Quite a lot of people were there too, approximately 120? there were buses to ferry us to the campsite for our tests. As usual, there was the general briefing for everyone before we move off in our different groups to the various stations. The first station for my group was the 2-3 hour written tests which contained IQ test, personality test and psychological test. Very straining to sit in the freezing LT to do the tests for like 2 hours before we go for lunch at the staff canteen. The canteen was rather small but the food was okay! After that was the physical assessment which required to do our max no. of push-ups in a min, standing broad jump (which we didn't had to jump), sit-ups and pull ups. These tests were still not as straining as waiting for your turn to go the next station. The transition time was like so long until a lot of people fell asleep. The next test was some weird named test, like so jap name. Anyway, we had to do a lot of physically tiring stuff which all of us just simply exerted our max trying to do them. The last part was the interview where we had to wait for everyone to finish before we can leave. It was more a chit-chat session rather than an interview though where we asked various questions on the life of a commando.

Army life certainly look more appealing than studies; at least there are little or no formulas you have to memorise, no thick textbooks to read, no 10-year series to do. Bad news for us though; our batch are going to enter NS in january = no long holidays. Prelims is in 13 days time. I am counting down the number of hours left to study, the number of mins left to do and the number of times i would fall asleep doing the questions. HOW!! its all going to be over soon. 2 more weeks!! press on

Yuda at 9:04 PM

Sunday, August 05, 2007

just came back from mr lam's farewell party. It was quite well done i must say. All the decorations, the efforts that they put in for this party - great. What can i say about today? it was simply a loss to our school, to our club, to our family. We HAD hated him for his harsh words before, his long debriefs, etc. But thinking back on how all those aspects has helped us become a better person, a better leader. It really seem like yesterday when we all said our first "good morning mr lam" to him and how he told us to be mentally prepared on what odac has installed for us. The siiting through of long debriefs and scoldings he gave us in J1s. Especially recalling the times in Ophir and Krabi where he made our trip not as fun as planned. How he made us laugh when we played soccer with him in the morning in Krabi and scolded us and told us how disappointed he was in us on the same day. It all seem so close. The memories of him with us. Odac will definitely not be the same without him. We played soccer with him today and it all brought back memories of the times in krabi, just that today's "debrief" was not different. It had the same tone of sadness but it was a different type of sadness. Sad that he is leaving us, sad that he will no longer be in SA. But the last debrief was also the most meaningful one i heard and i agreed. What is the ultimate goal of being in odac? the answer is sweet and simple. To see that a family of odacers bond together after all that we have been through as a family. Not just odac but all my friends, i just want to say a big thank you for being part of my life. Friendship are most important in the life of a stressed Singaporean student who is studying in JC. They are the ones that give you the strength to carry on no matter what; supporting you till the very end. Wise but simple words from him, i guess he is also quite happy to see that he has achieved his goal, at least for our batch. Having said so much, just to wish him the best in his future endeavours and career!! Thank you so much Mr Lam!! For all that you have done for us - SAINTSODAC0607!! the group pics are all uploaded here [http://picasaweb.google.com/torturous1989/SAINTSODAC0607GroupPics]

All we want to say is thank you and not goodbye

Our mentor - Mr Dennis Lam Boon Seng

Yuda at 12:32 AM