MINing of Life

Friday, 21 March 2008

Student CouncilY

Finally, the 4 days of campaigning is over and the 5 of us (I mean the candidates) can take a break. It's now up to the student body and the teachers to get busy; for voting day is this coming Monday, the students and teachers will have to decide and cross out the candidate of their choice on the voting slip, and some teachers will have to count the votes.

What's our theme all about? Let's summarize them...

Vote for...
SooHan: Care; Siddharth: Progress; Sharmane: Leader; ChiawMin: Support; Ryan: Improvement.

I gave my speech yesterday. It was my first time giving a formal speech in front of more than 1500 people aged 12 and above. It was really frightening when I stood at the podium alone and when I lifted my head, all I saw was a white sea with black creatures popping out on my left, right and front, and a colourful uneven wave at the extreme back of the sea, and there was complete silence and all eyes were on me. I got the attention, and that was scary enough because never once in TK, anyone actually really want to hear what the speaker would be delivering. However, this year, people were asking what was there that we've planned and why they should vote for us even during normal conversations.

I was supposed to be confident and give an impact while saying my first paragraph.

"I have a dream - a TK united and strong. I have a dream of a TK where I stand fighting for your cause. I have a dream of a TK where the unheard among you are blessed with a fearless voice."

Somehow, all that I'd practiced was of no use; that stage fright was traumatising. Once I said "I have a dream", I knew everything would turn out differently as expected. I forgot what was after that. I kept referring to my que-card. My voice was wobbly. Then when I got to the middle, it somehow became quite comfortable though the little stage fright was still present.

When I ended, the crowd clapped. That was yet another first experience in my life. Never once had any crowd ever clapped for ME (just me alone) for performing (a speech is considered a formal performance right?) That moment was really relieving.

Comments from the crowd: energy not there; didn't sound confident at the beginning; sorry, couldn't hear you; referred to your que-card too often.

If given a second chance, I believe I'd have done a better job. Seriously, we were not given the chance to test the microphone (like at least know how loudly we should speak into the mic) or even know how how it feels to stand in front of a 1500 crowd of super-attentive peers.

You've heard my speech, you've seen my poster, you've got my leaflets and lollies, now is your chance to make a wise decision. Regardless of who you pick, as long as you think he or she will be able to represent you (the sudent body), your choice is wise.

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Youth Congress Presentation

Last Saturday was our judging day. Due to our packed curriculum schedule and CCA meetings/ practises, we only finalised our presentation that morning, just a few hours before our turn to face the penal of 3.
There were a lot of crazy happenings, as usual. We presented our presentation in the Deal or No Deal way, which was o relevence to our project as we played this game during the Character Education lesson we conducted on our own. So we had 3 briefcases and each of the *aahem* "hunks" are in-charge of 1 of them. If you could visualise, our presentation was split into 3, presenting: background work, Anti-Bullying Day, and visit to the Children's Club.

I felt that we did a good job, good enough to impress the judges, but not as well-prepared as the other teams of the 11 other schools. This was mainly because of our time constraints. Though we had a week of "holidays" to prepare, most of us were out for CCA camps/trainings/competitions and the last 2 days of Council Camp was really for us to focus on our election campaigning preparations (4 out of 9 of us are the election candidates). Gosh, the more one is involved in school happenings, the more busy one can be. I've got nothing more to say.

The results were out and sad to say, TKteam did not stand a chance to squeeze into the top 3. Nevertheless, we're very satisfied with all that we've done and I believe the 8 others will agree with me that this 7-month-long project had definitely brought us closer together, from acquaintances we used to be to close peers whom we look forward to meet every day. We work hard and play hard together and even came up with nonsense to make everyone's day. We came up with a clap for everyone, and after realising that I don't have an English name, they even made up 1 for me... guess what, I'm : Cha Cha Pang Chiaw Min... -.-''' lame right? Also, we learn a lot from one another's strength and weaknesses. I've never seen any group of people so committed in a project like this before. This fruitful project may be coming to an end, but the sense of belonging in us will last forever. Well, as least we've already leave a legacy for the school!

Student council is really more than just being the thinkers and leaders of the school, but it's the skills we learn, the spirit we build up and the friendship we enhance that encourages me to see every day as a brighter day for me to add colours to.

10:59 am;

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