this is a copy of the speech we delivered (or were supposed to deliver in full; we being kieran and myself the two fantastic [in our minds at least =P] heads of comm).

The objective of PSGM was to allow you, the Secondary 1s, to interact with the PSLs in an informal atmosphere while at the same time learning about the Rafflesian way of life. This was achieved through the weekly sessions you had with your PSLs, and the topics which were covered in these sessions, such as CCA, House, and the values we PSLs hoped to impart to you.

As you gradually become more involved in the Rafflesian community around you, you will realise that all of the topics we have covered will be useful to you in some way or another. We hope that you have learned the importance of participating in school activities with utmost passion through the House PSGM. We hope that you will become more enthusiastic and committed to your CCAs after going through the CCA PSGM. We hope that you understand the importance of managing and dividing time between your schoolwork, CCA, House and other commitments after the Academic Life PSGM.

Perhaps most importantly, we hope you remember and strive towards the three values the PSLs have dedicated entire sessions to – respect and sensitivity, humility, and unity in passion. Indeed, it has been our mission over the last 3 months to impart them to you, and we hope that if there is one thing you would remember from the PSGM sessions, it is these three values.

Let us now cast our minds back to January 2, 2008. It doesn’t seem very long ago now, does it? Do you still remember when you took your first step into the grounds of Raffles Institution, not knowing what the future had in store for you? We PSLs did not know as well, but like you, we have developed fond memories of the entire orientation journey, from the Registration day in December up till today, the PSGM Finale. It has been just as enriching and unforgettable for us as much as you, Secondary 1s, and we can even say that we have grown and matured just as much as you have. In all, the journey for the PSLs together with you has been incredible, and mere words fail to do this wonderful experience justice.

And now we are nearing the end of that journey. Having nurtured you for the past 3 months, it is almost time for us PSLs to let go of your hands, and to let you walk alone through your Rafflesian journey – but only officially. We will still be there for you, even if we may not have any more time for PSGMs, and be assured that you need only ask, and we will help you to the best of our ability. Even if this is the official end of the Orientation experience, the PSLs will still be in school, ready to help you if you need it.

Of course, we must give thanks where they are due. Thank you, Mrs. Tan, for gracing this very special occasion today; thank you, Mrs. Maas and Form Teachers, for guiding the PSLs when they needed help as well, and for your constant encouragement throughout this journey; thank you to our tireless AV and other admin support backstage; a big thank you to all you PSLs, who have worked for the last 5 months to make this Orientation truly special and one we can all be proud of; and thank you, Secondary 1s. You have grown from the first day of school right until now, and have constantly shown the potential to become a fantastic batch. We PSLs hope that in your years in RI, you will never forget to let the Rafflesian flame burn brightly in you.

Lasair, Secondary 1s. Flame On.

______________

i know speech writing skills (and getting people to emo over the course of a speech) is not my strong suit, so hopefully you will forgive the essay sounding rather strained.

but still it's undeniable that -

our batch of psls are quite unbelievable.

we're quite an amazing bunch really. when it's business time, we deliver what we have to; when it's time for us to relax, we make it fun and memorable.

honestly. look at the things we did for orientation.

1st day: stayed in school for a stunningly long (and ultimately necessary) briefing for the main camp the next day. it really felt like school never ended; it didn't feel like a new year of school at all. we were just reaching our climax. we had been planning for it for 2 months, and we'd been in school so much (meetings and all) it really felt like we'd never left. a sort of ownership of the school really. more on that later.

main camp: this was quite a bonding session, not just with the sec 1s but also with fellow psls. and oh boy did we do our share of things. half of the psls stayed up the first night till 2am, and on the second night, more stayed up till around 3 (some till 4!).

it felt really good for some reason though. and because my english fails me i simply cannot articulate this feeling. it's quite a convoluted one to be honest.

this arrangement allowed me to get a grand total of 6 hours of sleep during the whole camp (ok 6 and 1/2, since i fell asleep for around 1/2 an hour during the third morning. i really couldnt stay awake any longer). so i had 6 hours of rest in the past 60 planning and organising...

finale: i didnt, and still really dont know what to feel for this event. something tells me it was a success, but then again i feel it could have been so much better. yes we almost messed it up all right, but we got our act together, and did it. the batch song at the end was particularly "emo" (as described by avinash) and really capped off a finale and an orientation we could be proud of.

jric: oh this was absolutely uninhibited madness and craziness and laughter all around. this was a highlight, most definitely.

now people who have been to jrics before know that it is very much a formal ceremony, where the junior rafflesians are recognised as part of the rafflesian community.

of course it went well...

until mrs maas decided to do this:

mrs maas: good evening... (long list of important people). good evening, secondary 1s.

sec 1s: *silence*

mrs maas: (in a more forceful tone) good evening, secondary 1s!

sec 1s: good evening, mrs maas... (reluctantly almost)

we committee i/cs were busily rushing off to change into our lasair shirts (by the way, thanks to biquan and his mum! the package is great. =D) when this happened. i felt a little lost for words. since that wasn't exactly in the plan.

oh but never mind the speech (i didn't hear too much of it anyway). what happened next as we went to do cheers was THE BOMB.

in chronological order now:

shanzhi stepped backwards while doing "spirit". i stepped forwards. i was right behind shanzhi. shanzhi's knee had just been injured.

result: shanzhi having to brave the pain and do the rest of the cheer.

when we all went backstage shanzhi couldnt really stand up straight anymore, so we (being the helpful i/cs we are) decided to help him. poor zongyi got the short end of the stick though.

he had to take off shanzhi's shoe and massage his foot for him.

no offence boss, but i really cant forget the smell.

and we of course didn't believe zongyi when he said how smell-ful it was (full of smell indeed), so we decided to smell.

thank god we didn't feel any effects, because the show was just getting started.

i have no idea how the i/cs got back out on stage. when we did, the sec 1s and a lot of parents were still around.

then my favourite moment of the whole orientation started.

we started off some of the less well known cheers (samba, jam, ichiban, kemama) - everything we taught them came out.

oh that wasn't enough.

for the uninitiated, "please don't stop the music" is not a song suitable for parents to hear their children listening to really.

much less dancing to it.

but our av guys had kindly departed from the control room, so we (for some unknown reason again) decided to unleash it on the parents through the mic on stage.

so we committee i/cs tried desperately to dance (and of course jingyuan led the way. more on him later) to the music (kangjie was holding the handphone to the mic. lucky him).

after that was done, we wanted more. the sec 1s wanted more too - they had seen jingyuan in action before, and they wanted something from him.

so he went freestyle dancing to the same tune.

oh course we i/cs had no chance of keeping up, so we simply stood by. and did crazy actions.

and at the chorus comes the absolute BOMB part of the whole orientation. best moment ever.

the committee i/cs all formed a ring around jingyuan while he was dancing and kowtowed to him.

it was unbelievable. so funny that jingyuan stopped dancing and just laughed.

we all went crazy. the sec 1s and psls all must have enjoyed themselves.

the parents im not too sure.

in hindsight we sort of realised that we shouldnt have done it in front of 500 parents.

but the next thought?

what the heck. =)

that 15 minutes of deviating from the norm really showed everything about our psls.

we were spontaneous. willing to change. we shared an unspeakable bond and connection. we were fun, yet serious when we had to be. we could change on short notice and get things done well. we enjoyed ourselves. we weren't rigid, but neither were we radical (ok maybe slightly).

it was an incredible moment for me, at least.

i don't know about other orientations, but i'd be inclined to rank this one among the top 3. i think mrs chua said it herself. it might even be the best of the lot.

psgm: well it was rather low on excitement value overall, but i guess we did what we had to do and taught the sec 1s about the rafflesian way of life. one particular thing stood out though (other than the psgm finale).

during one of the sessions (i think it was session 6):

(with 10 minutes to go) - jaryl comes into my class. he tells me douglas has decided to have a cheering session outside the classes in 5 minutes, and the word is already with all the classes. what am i to do?

lead the cheers. and i cannot refuse can i?

so off we went.

and oh boy were we good.

we rocked the junior block for 10 minutes. all the people who passed through the block were quite amazed.

and of course i, not knowing exactly how to save my voice, ended up with a "zhao sia" voice for the rest of the day (i think just saying this sentence i would have zhao sia'ed at least 5 times).

it was fun, and it came at a cost.

but what the heck.

again, it was in the same vein as the jric events.

being a psl was really meaningful.

i got to see my class mature from being young, unknowing boys at the start of the year, to one of the best in the level (well done 1m! sorry though if i've let you down or been too strict. ><). i could have done more for my class, definitely, and done it in a better way too, but what's done is done, and i'm glad they have grown as they have.

i don't know about the others, but i really felt a sense of ownership. like i was a truly active stakeholder of ri. we psls were shaping the future batch of rafflesians, after all, and we were the seniors - we sort of own the school somehow. it's hard to put into words, but that feeling puts you on a high, like you can do no wrong, like you have unlimited self-confidence. it was wonderful doing what we did.

i've been wanting to say this for a long time.

and i will now.

i honestly believe:

OUR BATCH OF PSLS OWNS BALLS.

we really can't say that anything was a failure (if anything it was psgm which was a letdown), and we're really nice people to work with.

and i've really gotten to know my fellow psls better through this journey.

i remember the day i reached home from orientation camp. i realised after trawling through facebook that i knew about 50 more sec 4s.

and i didn't care that my tuition work was undone for the next day.

so it was time for a rest after the camp - i went to bed at 11pm and woke up at 2pm. 15 hours of sleep. it felt lovely.

and it was deserved.

every psl really worked hard for the orientation. many thanks to them for that.

i doubt i'll ever get to know more fabulous people than this bunch.

(sorry if the whole post seems very disjointed. i'm just throwing all my thoughts about our psl journey in here, plus my english is just about admissible.)

but then again feelings like this are abstract, and can never really be expressed in words.

you'll have to go through it to know what it's like.

i'm proud to say i did. and i really benefitted immensely from it.

so finally, i'd like to thank some special people:

my class 1M! thanks for everything we had together, even if i didn't live up to your expectations as a class psl.

my class psls! charles elias ivan junsean hongrui maskil (isaac and stephen too, even if you weren't class based)! thanks for the support! and big boss charles for running the whole show. =)

my committee! kieran zhixuan jaryl marcustay weishen dixon junxiang abhinav mark rama rashidi avinash! thanks for your help in organising the finale and psgm! it may have been very sian towards the end since we're the last comm to wrap up but we did it!

my committee i/cs! yuda said theodore jianxiong nigelfong jieqi jingyuan jeremy kangjie aarongoh kieran shoujian benyong wenjie kengchee biquan yiwei shanzhi zongyi! thanks for helping to make the orientation as a whole a huge success!

and of course the rest of the psls. i cant possibly name all 150 of you. >< but thanks for everything you did! you were wonderful to know and work with.

this reminds me.

SHANZHI YUDA SAID SHOUJIAN AND I ARE OWED A DUNK BY ALL OF YOU.

the only unfinished business left.

i'm incredibly sorry, but just thinking about orientation makes me high sometimes.

thanks for reading till the end! =D

and it is the end now. haha thats everything about orientation i have in my mind.

OH NO i almost forgot.

thanks for the smashing hit "flame on" by gan and band! =D

what other orientation has their own song? =D

haha it really is all now i think.

thanks to everyone involved in orientation in any way once again!

5 months of hard work way more than paid off.

Two roads diverged,and I-
took the one less taken...

now i don't know about you.

BUT KT TUNSTALL SO COMPLETELY ROCKED THE HOUSE LAST NIGHT.

YES IT WAS DRASTIC FANTASTIC ALL RIGHT.

words so cannot describe what we feel. so i shall try no longer.

on to reality.

e-learning awaits this weekend. how lovely.

lots of soccer going on. now i see why a league can get rather draining.

and i promise the next post will be about sec 1 orientation. was reminded of it on the way home by a really, shall we say, interesting convo (remember ryan you're sworn to secrecy. although i think you don't need more mayhem on your blog anyway. =P)

Two roads diverged,and I-
took the one less taken...

now THIS is the kind of standard which should be coming out every single event we students organise. it's from the 2005 ripb, so for the sec 4s there should be some kind of special connection. =)



and who can forget the spanking cool new cool videos.



have fun. =)

Two roads diverged,and I-
took the one less taken...

interclass today was nearly an unmitigated disaster.

and i'm actually almost inclined to believe it is.

the ruggers completely did not help.

more specifically the coach. thanks coach.

and the weather was not cooperative.

all this just makes you look forward to organising it doesn't it?

and thanks to the jokers who did us a great service by taking our balls.

we'll readily thank you at the first opportunity we get.

oh, on to happier matters.

we're going to do it all over again tomorrow!

organisers, how does that sound to you?

i say it's absolutely fantastic!

not.

sorry to the people i daoed/looked damn glumly at. must have been easily 100.

i still remember when some prefects told me i looked like i aged by 1 year managing the 2 hour orientation camp finale.

yes that was how stressed i looked. i didn't even dare to see what i and my committee had produced, for fear of getting slammed.

but in the end it worked out fine.

more than fine i hope. not an average run-of-the-mill finale.

i wish the same could be said for interclass.

yes once again sorry to those i didn't look too happily at. i'll put on a smile and say sorry the next time i see you i guess.

congrats to 4k by the way. top of the table. :)

edit: sorry my bad. forgot 4q beat 4d 3-0. but still 2nd ain't too bad.

Two roads diverged,and I-
took the one less taken...

today (or yesterday depending on how nocturnal you are) was a blast.

the day took a while to get started. i woke up at 7 for the movie at lido at about 9 but i overslept and only got out of bed at 7.50. not too good.

so i took my parent's car down to orchard, reaching orchard mrt (where we were supposed to meet) at about 8.25. 10 minutes late, so that was a good recovery of sorts.

met kangjie at the mrt (who reached at 8. poor thing as you'll see later). zong yi was not there yet though. ><

zong yi eventually came at 8.40, meaning we wasted valuable time in bed sleeping (or slacking around in any case).

on to the movie proper - august rush it was. not being a particularly critical person i found it ok, but it didn't really have much of a twist. rather straightforward, but still not too bad.

thanks to mrs eunice tay (who brought her whole family i heard, and won the top two prizes in the lucky draw too!) and zong yi for the invitation. certainly much better than most other holidays so far.

ah well the day was really quite relaxing overall. no real work done (which didn't bother me as much today as other days) for a change.

and towards the end of the day i got a real surprise.

for once, facebook serves a purpose other than playing with some fun apps.

haha i'm lost for words on what to say. because it's been so long.

and that made my day. :D

ok i shall be off to bed early (for once) now. till the next time.

Two roads diverged,and I-
took the one less taken...

it was community day today.

but to be honest i felt i could have done so much more today. i was really just going through the motions, getting it over and done with.

which is a rather niggling thought.

and yes, we didn't really interact much with the community. it's more of being environmentally aware and advocating its cause.

but then again, so long as it benefits the community it's something good to be done.

and the news report on channel newsasia was rather amusing. they spelled isaac's name wrongly, the poor boy (how's that for an unglam moment on national tv). but the report was good nonetheless. :)

and the whole event was pretty nice with the press coverage. so well done to the interact club for planning this event!

going to watch a movie tomorrow with kangjie and zongyi. don't know what it is yet, but i do know the time (8.15am ftw!) so no sleeping in there. should be fun, but not as fun as a certain outing a week back yeah? :D

Two roads diverged,and I-
took the one less taken...

it's time to change the mood of this blog, don't you think?

and what better way to do it than to have a few songs.

pretty touching ones at that.


Sam Cooke's Wonderful World
(note: avert your eyes if you're easily aroused/affected. or you can try to see how easily it does happen. this is the only version of the original song i can find so oh wells.)


Stevie Wonder's Lately


The Eagles' I Can't Tell You Why


Bob Dylan's Blowing in the Wind


The Rembrandt's I'll Be There For You

Two roads diverged,and I-
took the one less taken...

you are unlikely to understand this poem.

but never mind. it's my first in 3 months, and i had to get back into the writing mood somehow.

so here we go.


Bridge to Heaven
How about my father?

Does he take
Your hand
And helps you to stand?
Does he light
Your way
Whether night or day?
Does he lift
You high
To let you touch the sky?

Or does he take
Your time
And values it a dime?
Or does he break
Your will
And makes it his kill?
Or does he take
Your life
When troubles are rife?

How do you touch your father?

How about my mother?

Is she up
In the sky
With watchful eyes?
Is she here
By my side
When, not if, I cry?
Is she all
Around me
Blind to what I see?

Or is she up
In the sky
Because I think she died?
Or is she here
By my side
Gee – ripping my pride?
Or is she
All around me
To blind what I see?

How do you touch your mother?

But.

So often we squeak
Of walk and talk –
Realities, of I being too meek
Realities, of they being too weak –
You can’t erase your own chalk.

But.

Youth gives way to age
Like the way they do until
Us children can never
Really understand
The way things fit in

Melodiously, magically –
And then it starts all over again.

But.

It all fits in somehow.

So on life goes – only that
One can never hope to clap;
Note – it takes two to ring a rhap.

Two roads diverged,and I-
took the one less taken...

what an absolutely lovely day it's been so far.

going to queensway with the 4k gang. that was good.

dealing with the persistent rain. not so good.

and going home with my parents?

let's just say that didn't exactly turn out as expected.

and that will be all, thank you very much.

*edit: ok i decided that what i wrote was rather hurtful, so away with it.

and defensiveness is the sign of a somewhat guilty conscience.

Two roads diverged,and I-
took the one less taken...

i was originally in the mood to post about psgm finale.

but not anymore.

thanks to the massive lecture from my parents to me.

about commitments no less.

is it so hard to do what one likes?

i find something in doing what i do which i can't find anywhere in my schoolwork.

and i'm not about to give it all up in a hurry.

*****
Win by Brian Mcknight

Dark is the night
I can weather the storm
Never say die
I've been down this road before
I'll never quit
I'll never lay down, mm
See I promised myself that I'd never let me down

I'll never give up
Never give in
Never let a ray of doubt slip in
And if I fall
I'll never fail
I'll just get up and try again
Never lose hope
Never lose faith
There's much too much at stake
Upon myself I must depend
I'm not looking for place or show
I'm gonna win

No stopping now
There's still a ways to go, oh
Someway, somehow
Whatever it takes, I know
I'll never quit, no no
I'll never go down, mm, mm
I'll make sure they remember my name
A hundred years from now

I'll never give up
Never give in
Never let a ray of doubt slip in
And if I fall
I'll never fail
I'll just get up and try again
Never lose hope
Never lose faith
There's much too much at stake
Upon myself I must depend
I'm not looking for place or show
I'm gonna win

When it's all said and done
My once in a lifetime won't be back again
Now is the time
To take a stand
Here is my chance
That's why I...

I'll never give up
Never give in
Never let a ray of doubt slip in
And if I fall
I'll never fail
I'll just get up and try again
Never lose hope
Never lose faith
There's much too much at stake
Upon myself I must depend
I'm not looking for place or show
I'm gonna win

Mmm, I'm gonna win
*****

this song is incredibly meaningful now.

There's still a ways to go, oh
Someway, somehow
Whatever it takes, I know
I'll never quit, no no
I'll never go down

we'll see who wins at the end of the year.

...

stayed back till about 6.30 to do the interclass soccer draw stuff (thanks theo! you really really saved me with your idea), and hung around a little while more before going home.

it's always really cool staying around in school. the later the better really. so the idea of everybody staying in school the night before a big event isn't all that bad to me. the feeling you get when you're all working together and making it successful can't really be put into words. the sense of accomplishment, the bonding, the effort... it's quite wonderful at times.

it's a rare day where i don't have any homework due the next day (other than the interclass draw of course). like i mentioned to a few others, and this will apply to all my psls,

this is the first day in 4 months we don't have any psl work to do.

it feels weirdly empty now.

ok but more on that topic when i feel like writing about being a psl and psgm and all.

and maybe i will get that new blogskin tonight.

yes your eyes are not deceiving you.

it is 3.30. and i'm posting at 3.30.

i could have finished my work at 2.30 (wow. big difference) but thanks to a screwup from my com's internet, my already precious sleeping time got reduced even more.

but i'm still wide awake.

i think the cup of coffee my mum forced me to take worked wonders.

this isn't going to be a particularly coherent post. i'm updating to remind myself that amidst all the work, i have this place to say what i feel.

right now i feel two things.

my blogskin needs to change. soon.

and psgm finale was earlier today (oops, yesterday).

will post about the finale and update as soon as my workload decreases.

which should be soon hopefully.

i could always stay up till 6 to find a new skin and post though...

see i told you the post wasn't going to make sense.

good morning to you. i think it's important we get our sense of time right.

especially if you're going to work past 12 every day.

Two roads diverged,and I-
took the one less taken...