"maple: hair is waterproof, so it's okay la :D" - ONE YEAR ON
today at Sergeants' Weekend we all played river crossing, and it came down to the point where we only had 2 rocks per group to cross this wide gap. Half of group 15 (famous forever, all of you) got stuck on the other end because their rocks were taken away. Right after the activity people just brought up the usual takeaways - teamwork, flexibility, perseverance - but Kenneth emphasised: No One Gets Left Behind. Before every crossing he made us tell each other "I will not leave you behind! I will not leave you behind!" but in the end we still did.
why I am writing this first is because for this whole week, it has been the most striking thing. Kenneth just shoved NO ONE GETS LEFT BEHIND so many times in your face and suddenly I thought of
we keep saying 45th is a family, but those who say it are the ones walking in front with the coy's progress. How often do we think about the ones left behind? Honestly, like Cherries emphasized that each. and. every. one. of the coy is important to 45th, and if 45th is to be a family then 45th must include every single member and not leave anyone behind. And honestly we're not doing that, batches sometimes exclude certain people, and those people therefore continue to exclude themselves, and what do we do? We complain about their uncommitment or whatever, and then exclude them somemore, so then it becomes a vicious cycle. Exclusiveness is a two way thing - a lot of times people don't come to us is because we shut them out.
nevertheless very proud of you batch 12 and 45th (((: I am just sayin' because it is true, it is something we always overlook and don't care, and honestly when Kenneth was speaking about it I was so filled with joy and realisation and shock and fear at the same time that I started tearing and it was God speaking to me. There were a lot more such moments during today (the talks are so good btw!!!) like singing a common strength when we are weary / a common hope for tomorrow and
:'))) the week has been azaming (which y'know, is cooler than amazing)
2. Kim always forever talking about the problems PSB has and comparing board camp OT to our batch planning june camp and somewhere in between, I asked her why she still even bothered applying for head.
Kim: because it's...just something I can't live without la.
3. finding out that batch 14 has a batch shirt (school approved! prettier than ours!...actually most shirts are prettier than ours anyhow) made me really really proud of them - each batch is surpassing us in the good way 8)
4. also finding out that batch 13 has passed drill stage 1. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM!!! ON THEIR FIRST TRY!!!
5. polishing boots during movie screening at PSB camp (karate kid!!!) and everyone saying wow your boots are so shiny
but best of all was when Chelsa was all EEE RUTH YOU MAKE ME REGRET NOT POLISHING WITH YOU
HAHAHA
6. Mdm Thern being forever lovely and asking me and Chelsea to sleep early, and also giving us cake to eat in the morning (which we didn't :c)
7. eating unromantic breakfast at the vending machine with Chelsea and then Kwoong in the morning
8. batch prayer before roll call around the clump of big bags and everyone bowing their heads in silence...and then a long pause before "who's praying?"
9. all four worships and Oceans Will Part which stuck with me for really long
10. particularly batch 11's worship on third day, because Joelle Cheong fell sick D: but she still sent over all the chords and slides and before the second time I asked about it, the sec fours already settled worship on their own (((: like who's leading and playing and all that, thank you!!!
11. my trusty guitar picks :D
12. for the food we cleaned every bit of, and for this being the first camp I really really was able to eat all my food (and even apple!!!) without anyone helping, even though I took really long (: thank God
13. also thank God for keeping my batch safe anyway even though it was shocking when during drill half the batch fell out because they ate too much and either felt funny or wanted to puke
14. thank God for everyone keeping Joelle and Yu Teng and everyone else sick in their prayers, and also for Anne for coming back safely after visiting the hospital for choking on a piece of uncooked noodle x)
15. when we sang grace during one of the lunches, the whole canteen -Anklung, Ringers, random people- all fell silent and listened (:
16. station games was apparantly super super fun and good and all that so you are fantastic, games comm (((: esp The Ruthanne
17. during station games at Bishan I talked with Ruthanne in 10min more than I have ever in last few years 8D so thank God for that!!! the 5 hours with her were super fun haha with random people coming to visit Ruthanne >D wow so interesting
18. also shouting at an empty field "I AM SO AWESOME" many many many times felt good. :D
19. the ability to run everywhere and basically be quick and fast and hopefully punctual
20. um, for a lot of time on day 1? because we still did have time to talk to each other during Outdoor Cooking and to have time to BATHE PROPERLY I guess and ya (:
21. for it being the first year Leti actually talked to me HAHA kinda
also Kailin Leti June ganging up on me and pronouncing my name so ugly-ly in supposed French and it's so...strange I can't even type it down in letters
22. celebrating June's birthday about...ten times literally
Leti: JZOOOOOOON NI SHENG RI KUAI LE
23. all the midnight debriefs, because even though they were so late and long, that was what brought my batch so tightly together. And also for exco and teachers staying up with us (: even though they were so tired, Ms Ling fell asleep on the seat etc haha
24. for exco to bring up the chaperones issue, and to see how much heart my batchmates have to care so much that they would cry
25. thank you chaperones for coming down (((: extremely grateful except that we forgot to care about people before caring about the camp and therefore extremely sorry ): really ): and also it's not just June and Kwoong's fault ok you two, it's our entire batch
and just in case you don't know what we're talking about, it's the introducing you to the coy and the thanking you part ): so thank you Yih Hui, Shi Qi, Joelle, Shi Hui, batch 10 for making sure we had enough people!!! I hope I haven't left anyone out D: anyway IT WAS REALLY GREAT TO SEE YOU GUYS BACK (((: honestly haha
26. ok not in chronological order anymore but today Kenneth was sharing about how he was super impressed by the 1st coy, because once he was there, he saw that a lot of people who already graduated still came back during their holidays to help out. And that made me smile so much because I thought about our own seniors, forget about holidays YOU COME BACK DURING SCHOOL DAYS!!! and even when you don't even know most of the coy anymore, having graduated 3 years ago, you still come back! haha right then I thought Kenneth would be really impressed with 45th too :P It's amazing that God gave us such dedicated committed people (: even those that can't come back because of stuff, you still pray and think of us and encourage us in small ways (like levites ygroups!!!) and ((((((((((:
27. on day one night, Mindy and Yi Fan were giving outdoor cooking debrief. Then they apologised for being so frustrated and worked up earlier and were really sincere and then Mindy said "We are really putting in our best in this camp." and I was super. impressed. Not just like impressed but like heartened and shocked and guilty and like food is REALLY difficult (aha!) although people would just think it's food, it's distributing of logs and stuff
yet they said they're putting in their best. In food. Not ICs or games or programme you know! FOOD!
From then onwards I kept asking myself if I was putting in my best for the camp and I'm not sure but anyway love you guys ((: when I shared this during camp debrief I made Mindy cry haha then omgsh a lot of people started tearing
28. thank God that Kailin stopped nosebleeding in the end and could sleep well, oh and also for placing another sec 3 in my group when Alicia Lian was sick and absent!!!
29. for my groupmates, Samantha Yi Wei Selene Wei Ting Yu Qian Ah Soh Nikita Joelle Cheong :D the sec 1s and 2s are really cute and they ate faster than us on day 2 and they were generally pretty helpful and cooperative 8D and the sec fours were just gay HAHA on day 2 morning Nikita decided we had to be more enthu, so we made up our group "OH YES!!!" /punch air in fist/ and our group "OH NO!!!" /act cool and put hands in front of you while you tilt backwards slightly/
30. Ms Sandra's dedication!!! God's Business (GB) before Family Business, omgsh thank you Ms Sandra :D and all the wonderful stories you share, the testimony of Dr. Joe stuck at the airport and coming back right before day 1 devotion and her years at university and all her bio info HAHA and esp the story of Terelyn's "y'know mummy I just drew some dots on the strawberry then God drew the rest!"
31. and Mr Liu who came down regardless and helped us with connecting his laptop 8D very helpful and basically also taking care of us ^^
32. for Terelyn and Teresa and Trinity, they are such big joys to us, and they made a video back for the video we made about the gifts to Trinity! I teared because it was so sweet :') also omgsh sorry Joelle Cheong 8( I kinda remember writing that one fine morning and you just accepted the paper but anyway you get more love from the kids??? and from me la hehe
33. archery, where we got to see a different side of Yi Wei HAHAHAHAHA SHE SHOT SO ZAI!!! ONE OF THE INSTRUCTORS WENT "SILENT BUT VIOLENT" HAHAHAHAHA (Y)(Y)(Y) GOOD JOB 8D
34. Kathy and Sophia for coming back on day 2!!! and MAPLE KHOO FOR COMING BACK JUST IN TIME FOR CAPTAIN'S DEBRIEF ON DAY 3 HAHAHA AND STILL WANTING ALL THE LEFTOVER FOOD xD <3!!!
35. Eileen Tok and Clarice and Alicia Lim helping everyone with makeup (: and people just putting on makeup spontaneously 8D also, for
Ruthanne: OMG MY EYES ARE STUCK!!! CLARICE!!! WHAT DID YOU DO!!!
Clarice: HAHAHAHAHAHA
Ruthanne: STOP LAUGHING I CAN'T OPEN MY EYES OMG
36. juniors said Esabella Mindy and my station was the scariest 8D because of Mindy's singing haha also it was very hard not to laugh when I said ohKAI or when Esabella did her witch routine xD or when Eileen Tok just said "oh it's you!" in her gay cheerful voice or when a sec one walked past and said "oh it's Ruth" then I was all angry "who is Ruth? Ruth is a ridiculous namemmhmm /tries not to laugh/"
37. thank God for the drill we had on day 2, everyone was so zonked out but yet!!! OUR DRILL!!! everyone was so together for once in a very very long time (since pre-drill comp days) and it was super amazing seeing how everyone's attitude just changed overnight and everyone was being serious and doing it together. Also I still thought our FIP was pretty amazing considering how it jumped from Atrocious to Not Too Bad, which is a vast improvement for us!!! The first time we se dua without laughing I was pretty shocked haha
38. for wonderful drill commanders who still care for us people FIRST, no matter what (:
39. we had the feet washing activity (: I thought it would be better if everyone could wash someone else's feet but nevertheless squad leaders (or their substitutes) washed the feet of everyone in the squad. Then Ms Wong told Chaslyn and Leti to play worship songs to create The Mood and so they did and we sang and sang and I was so at peace with Levites, with 45th
40. many times when Felly prays, she sums up perfectly what I have been feeling, thinking, wanting to say but not sure how to for the past few weeks and (: thank you Felly for praying.
manz to put it in her words (vaguely), Lord put in each and every heart the desire for You, the desire for You. Not sure how each to put it but it has been something I've been struggling with for the last term ):
41. today Kenneth (wow a lot of Kenneth mentioned here) was talking about integrity- how he was always late for everything and never lived up to his words and how people soon began to just not credit him and be all "oh but he'll be late anyway" + Mrs Chee talking about her son being unable to wake up
both stories, stories of my life ): and honestly I am really really sorry for being late most of the time!!! for everything!!! and even though my OBS commitment and promise to self was to be punctual the whole year, uh, still working on it.
But thank God for the batchmates that don't complain about me (though they have good reason to). This morning I was awake and Chelsea and Mindy were on the phone "RUTH WAKE UP! WAKE UP! YOU WAKE UP ALREADY OR NOT" and I am just so glad to have forgiving batchmates who GO DA EXTRA MILE to even call me up before batch meetings or stuff like that, just to make sure I woke up. <3 thank you all.
42. today also I was just talking with my groupmates (who are pretty fun to be with! 8D) and asking them if they like GB or not. Other than someone from 42nd, the rest were all like I hate GB or GB is so slack we don't do anything or I'm not close to my batchmates. Which then makes me tons grateful for the company I'm in. One girl said in her school students were actually just ASSIGNED CCAs- and even though in a sense most of 45th were also assigned GB, it's such a different story! we still kind of get a choice and though the lousy ones get placed in UGs, God put each and every one of us in RGS, in 45th, for a purpose. This reminds me how easily I could have applied for another school because I never really wanted RGS at the start, how during the first badgework everyone was like "I joined gb because I had no other choice"
but in the end we're all here, together. Each one with God's purpose, whatever squad, whatever you do (:
43. thank God for my batch, a lot a lot a lot, we improved so much and we are like trees, our roots have grown deep and intertwined and we're ready to face up to storms. (: I have had so many doubts about our batch but now everyone has shown so much heart, really like EVERYONE!!!, and I have faith in us (:
44. today I walked with Chelsea Yifan Mindy to Heartland Mall and then interfered in their htht a couple of times :P sorryyy >< but you all so cute haha
45.
_____________
(I didn't write down June Camp quotes so if I left out anything TELL ME PLS)
(PSB recycled Project Runway)
Charis: her short dress shows, um...she is willing to step out of her comfort zone.
(eating dinner)
Kim Tan: MUSHROOM!!! :D:D:D
Kim Choo: you are such a weirdo.
(JUNE CAMP PLANNING)
Melissa says
Okay, how about Time to Renew?
Okay, it sounds abit odd
How about Renew and Start Afresh?
Pang Yen Siang says
All that sounds so
Mel
(piratepad rubbish for the Sleeping Beauty station)
"Script:
Group will knock on the room door and Yensiang will answer it.
Y: SSUP, WHAT'S ROCKIN' YO
R: HARRYAP LAH WHO'S THERE
Y: RANDOM PPL PLOX
R: OK TELL THEM TO COME IN.HALLO I AM SLEEPY AND GROUCHY AS YOU CAN TELL.
Y: YAH YAH YAH
R: I HAVE EENSOMEEYA, I DON'T REALLY KNOW WHAT IT MEANS
Y: I DO!
R: I DONT CARE YEN SIANG
Y: SAD FACE
R: DO YOU KNOW WHERES DA TEA LEAVES I LOVE TEA
GROUP: OMG NO WHERE ISSIT
R: ALICE STOLE THEM OMG GO FIND THEM
GROUP; OKAY
Y: THEESE WAY PLZ
GROUP GOES OUT THE DOOR AND TADA THE END. (: I AM FANTAAAASTIC"
"Script:
Group knocks on the door. Yen Siang opens it like really slowly with her eyes peeping through the side with an angry stare.
Y: (harsh whisper) SHHHH! WHO ARE YOU! My ma'am trying to sleep lah plox! WHY DO I SOUND LIKE A FILIPINO MAID
Group: uh...
Y: hurryap you come here sell cookies or help maam"
Mindee?: basically our station is about yifan being siao
"=> Don't laugh unless you have to in your script, same goes for smiling" - Kim's email
(during dry run)
Yen Siang: IT'S A BEAUTIFUL NAAHAHAHAHAIGHT~
"You will creep out one group each. Kailin does group 1, mindy group 8. " - Kim's email
(doing jumping jacks as punishment)
Mindy: and we must say in rhythm! I-MUST-CUT-MY-NAAAILS, I-MUST-CUT-MY-NAAAILS
(night surprise)
Ruth: /opens door/ COME IN. NOW!!! (group comes in) Who are you? How did you get here?!
Someone: uh...you let us in?
(night suprise explanation)
Ruthanne: you all are so strange! I'm like I'm gonna chop off everyone's head and you all are still OK I WILL HELP YOU
(skits!!! for devo haha every group was hilarious)
Annabel: have you seen my Niki shoes? They are black and they are made in India.
(a you-have-to-be-there moment HAHA)
Ruthanne: hello?
Winnie: HULLO!
(on Wanlun's maid acting skills)
Leti: you're a disgrace to all the Leticias.
(right after everyone walked into J block when we just cleaned it up)
Yen Siang: Ruth don't you feel like your hard work is wasted?
Ruth: not really la...
[...]
Ruth: EVERYONE DON'T DROP HAIR
Kenneth: now tell the person on your left and right, "CLARITY IS IMPORTANT!"
Ruth: /turns to Kailin/ CLARITY IS IMPORTANT!
Kailin: yeah, but I'm more important :D
(walking to MRT from Sergeants' Weekend while wearing mufti)
Ruth: Yen Siang can you stop shouting in public! You're an embarrassment to the Girls' Brigade!
Yifan: /turns around to Ruth/ YOU are an embarrassment to the Girls' Brigade.
Ruth: ...HEYYY
june dotsy says
Dear Ruth Lee,
You have been deemed assy enough to join the very exclusive Assy Friends Squad.
Your position: Senior Member.
Regards,
Letitia Chen
Head of AFS
june dotsy says
zhixin
sent me a message
that i saved in my "special folder"
it says: i just tore open my satchet and the pill is huge!!!!! i swear the doctor is out to kill me )x
june dotsy says
groce
y u so buangkoky
Ruth Lee says
eh you know everytime I ran up the stairs to the gallery
the signs keep saying
NO ROOF ACCESS
then I would feel a bit sad
june dotsy says
LOL
i know!!!
i see it all the time and i think
good job stairs people
Mindy ひばり Yeo
JUNE CAMP IS OVER! (it has finally sunken in) Cannot express how much I love 45th!! WHOO EXPLODING LOVE MY HEART IS OVERFLOWING!! \o/ BATCH 12, YOU ARE THE SUN IN MY SHINE!! GOOD JOB AND I LAAAAV YOU GUYS VERY MUCHLY.
Kimberly Chia
it's over; june camp 2011 ♥ thankyou batch12 and 45th for all the support (:
Anne Ng
GB I LOVE YOU.