My RI experience and new year resolutions!

I've spent 3 years in RI now and I guess it's time to reflect back on what I've done and what I should have done. RI's been a wonderful choice for me and I never once did regret my choice of joining this school since orientation day. Sometimes, I did think whether I may be better off in other schools, whether it's HCI, or neighbourhood schools where there is less competition, but I guess after these 3 years, I can safely say that till now, it's been a good choice.

Year 1:
Year 1 was, as usual, the foundational years. It wasn't much, but I guess it was still a really fun and enjoyable year. We started the year with a bang with orientation, all the activities we did, from bishan hike all the way to the star wars night game (forgot the actual name) and of course the station games and war games. It was a really fun way to start my life in RI and although I can't really remember what I did except for maybe a few really memorable scenes, it must have been really fun. Never in primary school have I seen such huge-scale events carried out in school, and by students too! Needless to say, I was really impressed and was even more astounded by the qualities of my SPSL, who was totally amazing.

So that got us going. Afterwards, it was time for us to catch up with the academics. Although looking back now, the workload then seems to be much less, I'm quite sure I didn't feel that way when I was in sec 1. I remember vividly the first presentation I did where I totally SCREWED-UP, and it's true screwing up. haha. Throughout the presentation, I was stuttering and singlish kept coming out every few seconds. I guess I thought it was "the way to present" at that time. I went to the front of class with no script in hand, and erm, well, though it was embarrassing, I've learnt from that horrible experience and improved by leaps and bounds. It was rather hard to score with all the new projects and stuff which I was rather unfamiliar with and I remember hitting a 3.67 for my first term. Not bad, but definitely, there's room for improvement. After all, many of my close friends in my then sec 1 class like Edward, Ying Jie, Rich and Aaron were scoring well above me. So, entered term 3 of year 1. It was one of the most fantastic terms I've ever had. Topping my class in 3 out of the 6 ccts that were packed into term 3, I started chasing up in terms of my grades. The quality of my project work gradually became better and better and I guess it's all to do with improving with every project that you do.

Another big event for year 1 was the Dr. William Tan marathon race. I had no idea who he was at first but after his speech during our assembly, I was really motivated. I see him as someone very similar to Mr. Mac in terms of the speeches they make, the perseverance and strength that they had and the willing to push forth something virtually impossible. It was a really nice experience running with him around the track. Although I can't say I did much, it was still something really big for me given that it was only my first year in RI. I remember that on that day, we had lots of drinks for sale, CDC was selling if I'm not wrong, and we were in charge of stepping on cans to save space. haha. whatever the case, it was a nice experience to be there.

Oh and of course! Year 1 marked the start of my "CCA career". I always love to tell stories about my CCA life cause it's all topsy turvy. I still remember vividly. I knew I wanted to join the choir, Raffles Voices, cause my whole family has been in choir. Thinking that I would definitely enter choir, I put random choices in the rest of my CCA choices in the "CCA choice list". I remember entering Raffles Voices as my first choice and Guitar Ensemble as my second. Another really intersting point is that rugby was actually in one of my choices! haha. and gymnastics too. >< all right, but anyway, it was a Sunday, so Wing Hang, the guy who came for tuition last time, came over to my room and he says, "JOIN CO! IT'S SLACK!" all right. but anyway, i was thinking that since I would definitely get into raffles voices, why not just put CO as my second choice? So I did. And the end result? I forgot to go for the RV auditions and got myself "landed" in RICO. woah. BUT, there was another twist in the story, I decided to have a go in CO for maybe 1 term before quitting it and joining RV, when suddenly I see myself in the most famous or notorious (whichever suits you better) section ever - PERCUSSION. Honestly speaking, I had no idea what "percussion" meant when I first knew I was in that section and I was imagining some random chinese instrument that either looked like an erhu or a dizi (haha. yes. I was dumb then, but so am I now! xD). Well, so as soon as I found out that perc was actually that really cool thing where you use a stick to hit the drum, I decided to give it a shot. Surprisingly, though percussion was so pro then (as compared to now), they were actually lacking people for SYF! So, without even knowing what the instruments were called or even knowing how to hold a stick, I was called up for dazu. haha. Oh yes, it was that experience. All the stares were on me as I walked in from the backstage of the hall (we practiced in the hall last time) and they must have been wondering, what is this idiotic sec 1 doing here for dazu when he doesn't even know how a conductor conducts! Truthfully speaking, I really knew nothing about chinese orchestra, about performing in such a huge group, or even about percussion itself then. But the dazu experiences in sec 1 were just fantastic and made my learning curve so steep that I couldn't believe how fast I was learning. In no time, I had learnt how the conductor conducts, how to play the muyu (my first instrument! YAY!) and even tried out on the timp once for some simple part in feng nian ji. I guess I was regarded as "the pro sec 1" then, but honestly speaking, I wasn't. If anyone had such a wonderful chance to get into dazu after 1 xiaozu, and not even knowing how to hold a drum stick, their learning curve would be much steeper than those who carry on in xiaozu. I guess dazu is really where the application comes in. If I hadn't been in dazu so early, I guess I would be writing about RV life now cause I would have most probably quit CO. Drumming on tables (which we did last time in sec 1 before moving to RJCO room) was certainly much less entertaining than having so many instruments to play with and so many other people and instruments to play with. For that, I have to thank BL for giving me such a wonderful opportunity. I think he's the reason why I'm still in CO. So sec 1 marked my first syf which was really rare cuz many people only get to go for syf when they're sec 2 or higher. I was really noob at that time so I wasn't really sure about our overall standards. I was hoping for a gold but we missed it and instead got a silver. It was rather sad because we were having intensive trainings so often. But I guess it's the experience that counts. I'm still really happy that I got to perform for SYF as a sec 1! Oh and of course, BL was the one who gave me that fantastic opportunity to perform in a hsinghai concert in sec 1 end of year! it was my first time playing for a semi-pro orchestra and it was even more fantastic because i went for the concert after 2 or 3 practices! (but i was only playing the sus. cymbal. haha.) but it was still a nice experience cuz it was the first time (and probably the last) that I played with a semi-pro CO after just learning one year of perc! yay.

And year 1 also marked the start of my "chess club career!" I don't really remember which competitions we went for but I do remember quiping where we got 3rd. Hmm. not bad considering the junior team consisted of all sec 1s (me, hongbo and kengyong if I'm not wrong)... so that must have been a wonderful experience too!

Overall, year 1 in RI was basically an introduction to what was going to come. We were introduced to project work, to Research Education, to CCAs and how we played for the school instead of ourselves now (used to play weiqi on an individual level cuz only 3 people in MSHS knew how to play weiqi...)... And so that was it for sec 1.

Year 2:
Year 2 was an interesting year. Well, actually it was almost like sec 1, just that we had moved to a higher level. First, RE went up to a much higher level. No more rigid surveys and interviews. No more copy and paste from internet. No more guidance from teacher mentors. We were pretty much on our own. We had the most fantastic RE group ever (in my opinion... haha) with Edward, Ying Jie, Aaron Tang and me! That's 2 GPA 4.0s in an RE grp! But anyway, we embarked on some really weird project on lights and spiders (basically how do different colours of lights affect web-spinning behaviours). Like any other RI event, we always left things to the last, procrastination or so they call it... but i thought we did a fantastic job. I remember that SYSF deadline was coming up in a week and our report was still not ready. All the other groups were sort of ready with all their reports done up ready for touch ups and our experiments were still pretty much undone. The spiders apparently didn't really like spinning their webs. Well, to our amazement, it finally did and with the poweress of the RE group, we worked through countless nights, spent hours in school, all the way till 10pm at times, to finish up with the report. Then there was SYSF exhibition which we once again rushed out towards the end. The end result? We got best exhibition and best report for SYSF. It was totally amazing. Even we ourselves were surprised at how far we had gone and how much effort we must have put in after those spiders just refused to spin their webs until a week before. Well, that was certainly not the end. We carried on with YSC and won a gold there. RE congress wasn't so much of a success as our progress was halted during the semi-final stages. But we got ourselves back on our feet and won the gold award once again for the IRS. It was an amazing RE year for me, and I'm sure it was the same for the others. All the countless hours we spent in bishan park catching spiders were fun and enjoyable and the countless hours we spent discussing how best to present our report and our analysis of findings over the phone, over MSN or in school, were totally fantastic. Our group did what I believed to be unachievable and it's all down to our hard work that we've achieved all these. All right, so RE was a major success in year 2.

Then, there was academics! I did wonderfully well here in sem 1, scoring a 3.87 which was well above my expectations. But then, I did terribly in sem 2, causing my humanities grades to drop horribly and I got a 3.73 overall fo that year. That's not a horrendous GPA but I guess it was rather frustrating cause I got 2 79s and 1 78. Well, I guess that's the result if you try to achieve the bare minimum (the 80 mark) which reminds me of what the sec 4 said to us today. but nvm, that will be saved for another post. Well, so academics wise, it wasn't so good, but there were definitely some positive points to take away. I topped the class in the 2 CTs for Science and got highest in LEVEL for Math in Special/Express. It was totally cool cause I would never have thought that I would ever be able to top anything in class, save level, in RI with so many pro people around. But I guess Mrs. Ng was a really good teacher. One of the most fantastic math teachers I've ever got. ok. so that's for academics.

Then, there was CCA. Year 2 was a really "CCA" year with the big events being qiuping, pesta sukan and whompoa for chess club and mediacorp performance, rjco concert, myRIad and rico concert for CO.

Qiuping was great as the junior team (this time me, hongbo and ernest) got the better of dunman to clinch the 2nd place. The senior team too were rather good! Playing with 1 sec 4 (our chairman, shi hao) and 3 sec ONES (yiheng,m alan and zexi), they did their best and managed to clinch 3rd place. Although it was lower than last year's 2nd that we got for the senior section, it was truly amazing as we beat all odds with 2 sec 1s playing in the senior section. Pesta Sukan was another truly amazing experience as we almost beat HCI for the first time ever in the history of SINGAPORE SECONDARY SCHOOL WEIQI. ALMOST. but we didn't. It was really the closest that we've ever gotten. HCI had 18 points, RI 17. It was even more disappointing because hongbo had to lose the last game to a HCI guy by ONE SEED! If not, we would have finished 1st in the team category. Well, not to be. But it was a really good experience. I played very well in this competition, having 5 straight wins (beating 2 HCI players along the way) before losing to one HCI guy who was going to win all 7 games anyway... I won the last game too to finish individual 3rd. I'm not sure whether to be happy or sad because the 2nd position (which went to a HCI person, was the person I beat on the 4th round) but the 4th placing, was Shi Hao (our chairman!) who i very fortunately did not play against (if not I would definitely have lost... The whompoa was great once again! This time I won 6 straight before losing the last round, thereby ending up in 3rd position once again and getting a 3Dan certificate. Hmm... so i did well for chess club.

Then there was CO! CO was a mixed experience for me in year 2 with the addition of DeViL to the perc team. It was not a very nice experience but then again, the events that we had were great. We got to perform in Mediacorp for the first time in our lives together with many actors and actresses and of course the winners of Project Superstar. It was a very nice experience to be there and playing matsuri on television was totally fantastic. And we were the starting and ending performance! woohoo. I think I played timp for the first time then. Hmm... so once again, another achievement! yay! all right, then, there was RJCO concert, which was another good experience. It was then that Raffles djy really started knowing each other. It was fun practicing qin wang with 25 percussionists. I remember being the only RI person to be on the dagu! YAY! ok nvm. >< but anyway, it was a good experience not only because I got to know Raffles djy and some RJCO people and maybe work with RICO alumni like BL but also because it was the first time we were going to perform in ESPLANADE! woah cool. Got myself lost in the amazingly confusing backstage... and it was a truly amazing experience performing in front of such a big audience! Then, there was myRIad, the first ever combined RI musical groups performance. It was a rather big event cause it was the first time we were doing it and also because it was going to be in ESPLANADE (again). haha. but it was once again amazing as we did lao hu in esplanade (COOL!). haha. i remember all the practices when me and lionel kept screwing up. Thanks to Thomas for covering up for all my mistakes which would have sounded rather audible in Esplanade. Then, there was RICO concert! woohoo! RICO concert VOICES OF THE DRAGON 8, totally rocked. I loved all the dazu songs that we played from feng nian ji, taiwan to long, huan xin, dong hai and matsuri. YAY! it was the first time i've performed for a full 2 hr concert so it was a whole new experience once again. It was fun playing cards and talking crap during rehearsals or backstage but it was made even more meaningful because it was going to be the final time that Mr. Yeo conducted us on stage. Dong Hai and Matsuri certainly rocked the audience and it was a fantastic experience. I can still remember during dong hai, thomas, yin kwan, tze ern, BL and I were all discussing how loud we wanted to go. Decision? AS LOUD AS WE CAN! woah. tze ern was relieved he had his ear plugs on. haha. well, that was great too! and of course there were even more small performances like those at Expo or some hospitol (forgot which one) or at some HDB flat or at Toa Payoh... All these were really nice experiences too. The expo one was especially fun because there was a perc ensemble. YAY! and i was leading it! YAY YAY! ok. nvm. but yup, that's all for CO for year 2!

Year 2 also marked the start of my CIP life with THREE large-scale CIP events held. The first was pathlight, which is a school for autistic children. Went there twice. First time was to help them in the sorting out of library books. The second was to carry out an assembly session with them which meant small performances. Then, there was the beach clean-up and newspaper collections. Not really huge CIP events but definitely much more meaningful than going around asking for money as we did in sec 1. It certainly was the foundation stones laid for the CIP events that I would be embarking on for year three.

Year 3:
Year 3's been the most fantastic year of my entire school life. There were just so many huge events going on around me and it was basically the best experiences ever.

First up, OBS! OBS was the first really large-scale camp that I've gone for, the second largest being sec 1's orientation. There was 1 for sec 2s in Malaysian Montage but I had to miss that one because of RE commitments. But well, OBS was both physically and mentally challenging. All the activities we did, from the pitching of tents, hiking, rock climbing, to the kayaking and maybe stealing of waterbottles at the end from other teams. haha. It felt really like an achievement when we finished OBS. It was as if we didn't mind doing unite cheer in the middle of Orchard Road anymore. ok, maybe we would reconsider that but it was really brilliant. We helped each other out in any way possible, cheered together as we hiked for 9 hours straight, ate our rations together and shared the food that we ate when rations ran out (cuz the dumb dog came to steal in on the 3rd night...). lol. but for all the efforts that we've put in, we could really see the results that we achieved. The bonding of the team became really good, we got to know each other so well in 5 days and we can proudly say that we finished OBS. woohoo! OBS was a whole new experience for me. There were lots of first-times whether it's kayaking, rock-climbing, hiking, pitching of tents... But with the help of all my friends, I managed to see it through. I may not have climbed to the top during rock-climbing, I may not have done much during kayaking cuz I wasn't strong enough, I may not have carried the most things during hiking, but it was still truly amazing that I actually dared to try out all these new things. I would never have thought of trying to hike for 9 hrs with such a heavy backpack. I would never have thought that I would try out rock-climbing some day and neither would I have thought that I would try out kayaking. But I've done it all in these 5 days and it made me really proud because Mr. Mac keeps saying, "When was the last time you did something for the first time". I'm also proud that I helped lots of my friends during the way, helping Brian carry the bottles when he got tired, helping Jie Liang when he pitched the tent... It may not have been much help, or it may even have been a case of 越帮越忙, but at least I tried to give a helping hand.

Then, there was Math RA. Math RA was another nice experience. Suddenly, during Math lessons, I found myself flooded with Gifteds and pro scholars who could solve olympiad questions in no time. I found my math far inferior from them and it was as if I was relearning math. It was certainly a major fallback from the top in level I got last year as I started to realise just how much I still had to learn. Though I may still not be as good as the others in Math, Math RA has certainly got me going. I've found more interest in Math than in normal lessons which would sometimes be quite boring going through mundane stuff. I found the learning curve much more steep and once again, although I couldn't absorb everything that was taught, I certainly learnt much more than I would have in normal Math RP lessons. Overall, it's been a very very nice time with this bunch of really smart people.

Then, there was 3B! 3B's been the most fantastic class I've ever been in. Most of the times, I would only have a really close group of friends like Cedrych, Nigel, Ting Fong in P1-4, Dewei, Max, Shihao and Kairen in P5-6, Ying Jie, Edward, Rich and Kejing in sec 1 with the addition of maybe weijie, kejing, jaryl and aaron in sec 2. But in 3B, everyone seems to be so close. Sure, there are still close friends but the not-so-close friends still seem rather close to me. Huiyao, Barry and co. are all very friendly and nice. Then there's Mark, Benyong and co. Then maybe Leonard, Brian and co. and many more but they are all really nice. 2H was really nice with such a big bunch of close friends but I think 3B's been better. The spirit's been burning since the start and inter-class soccer clearly showed just what 3B's made of. Although inter-class soccer's not really a big event, it was truly amazing how the "mugger" 3B class got 4th position. It's all down to the teamwork of the players, their trust and believe in themselves and of course the rest of the class where around 15 people or even more came to cheer them on. That's almost the whole class down at the field! Although we eventually lost in the semi-finals and 3rd/4th placing, it was already a very good achievement for a class which isn't really so sporty.

After which, there's Gang of 6 Pros (Go6P)! Made up of Junsheng, Kenneth, Jerald, Keng Chee, Dennis and me, with the occasional addition of EDWARD from 2H! haha. well, when edward joins, Jerald's not considered a pro so Gang of SIX pros still stands. haha. Hmm... ok. well, this must be the closest friends I've been with, closer than all those mentioned before, even Dewei and Max! haha. It's just amazing cuz we all come from different sec 2 classes and yet we still become such great friends. Junsheng from 2F, Kenneth 2A, Jerald 2C, Keng Chee 2E, Dennis (gifted), me 2H! but Go6P has made 3B an even nicer class for me cuz it makes mundane stuff like recess and lunch, or walks to science block or to PE or even after school times much more interesting. And then, birthdays become much more interesting too and times between lessons also become fun when you get to poke people like keng chee, bitch with jerald, crap with kenneth and junsheng and joke with Dennis! haha. And of course, there will be times where we go out together, whether it's to kBox, to J8, S11 or wherever... It's really fun to have such a great group of wacky friends with you. YEAH! ROCK ON Go6P!

Then, there was the IBN experience in June Hols. June Hols was mostly spent in IBN with Aaron and Ying Jie where we did research work with professional research mentors. It's taught me loads. Not just research techniques or maybe some excel usage but also how to work from 8-6 (sometimes even to 1030. haha. OT.). Then, we also got to know many friends from NUS like Cao Qi, Ji Qing and co. and got to work with the nicest mentor around, Dr. Deng Rensheng! woohoo! haha. it was fun working together with 2 close friends for long periods of the day in the lab, spending time together eating lunch at Ghim Moh or Holland V., spending time together slacking off in the pantry or playing mass pinball games in the labs. That was the fun part. Then, there was the boring parts where we had to look over the experiment conducted in the lab, roll out fibers, glue them, paste them, and do whatever possible to squeeze them into the really small cartridge... ><. ok. maybe that was fun too! haha. Then, we also had times where we had to troubleshoot our own experiments, find out problems regarding it, ways to improve it and stuff... Lab skills were also learnt like pipetting and stuff but yeah. it was overall, fun at times, boring at times but a really good learning experience.

After that, it's the RE experience! RE was fantastic this year for the most fantastic RE group ever once again. Although we lost Edward because we could only form a group of 3, we continued to work hard and achieved brilliant results. We were the only ones to get ourselves RE projects in Astar, we were one of the few groups who made it through the Congress to win the gold award and most of all, we were the only sec 3 RE team to present in the VIP session for RE congress 2007. It was a totally new experience for me once again, presenting our findings in front of a huge crowd with VIPs and well, it was an amazing experience. One I guess i'll never forget. And of course I maintained the A* grades that I've been getting for RE since sec 1 so that's great! I realise my presentation skills have improved tremondously too from the humble beginnings in sec 1. Maybe not as good as Aaron but there's definitely improvement! I guess presentation skills come with experience...

THEN, there was the all-too-amazing taiwan DWEN AN trip. It was TOTALLY BRILLIANT! oh my gosh. i can never over-emphasize this point cuz it was really really really really really fantastic. In a short span of 7 days, we learnt much more than we could have learnt in school. We learnt the taiwan culture, the games they play, the people there and how the spend their lives. We did a HUGE project all by ourselves (teens and maybe a few young adults), working together, striving to deliver the best. We learnt LOADS in terms of communicating methods in big groups, the ability to stand out from a crowd to lead, the ability to speak up from a big group to break a 冷场, and many more... It was really tiring as we worked from 8am-12midnight but it was very fun at the same time. We worked with so many Taiwanese, random people who came together to do something for the community together. We may not be linked. There were people coming from mainland china, us from singapore and most from taiwan. We may have had different likings, we were of different age (although around the same), but we all had a common goal in mind and that was all it took for us to become a team. We worked hard everyday, planning for the big day. We discussed problems, big or small, we solved them, together as a small team and then as the whole big group. We helped other small teams in whatever way possible and our progress was really good. On the day itself, we delivered the best. I myself did my best and I think I really did a wonderful job on my part. All the hard work that we'd put in, it was just so amazing cause we benefited so much from it. We learnt so much from taiwan culture, people to leadership skills, teambuilding activities and communication skills. We had fun together playing card games, 节奏游戏 and bang bang 007. We persevered through adversities, especially in the case of our small group where we faced loads of problems because of our inability to capture the big picture and focused to much on the details. But at the end of the day, it was the most memorable and touching experience that I've ever had, watching the visually impaired chilren have so much fun, watching them as they struggled to walk but continued to smile to us, watching our fellow friends as they did their best to make the children have a fun day. In the end, when we all had to leave and probably never see each other again, it was once again very sad and emotional but I can safely say that we've been the best of friends for 7 days, all of us.

It was a really good academic year for me too! It was the first time I was going to take triple science and SS so it was always going to be hard. But I think I did very well for everything! From Social advocacy, to the history projects, to the Chinese project all the way to all the CCTs and stuff. I'm especially pleased with my CCT results for my math and sciences and SS and all the projects that I've done this year. In the end, I had an overall GPA of 3.87 which was a huge improvement from last year's and it's not as if I'm lucky or anything cuz I got a 79 for history... haix. Still lose to Kenneth due to some freak moderation of physics but nvm. haha. I shall beat him next year then. (: Anyway, great job on academics this year. I think it's been my best academic year since P6 or maybe even the best ever. YAY!

Then, there was the CCAs! Year 3 wasn't really a CCA year. There were much less "CCA stuff" going on but there were still lots! For chess club, there was the yearly, qiuping. Although we lost our pro chairman, Shi Hao, last year, we still did our best and produced the best results since the formation of the chess club. Yup. 2nd in both for junior and senior sections! It was 3rd for junior and 2nd for senior in sec 1. Then, 2nd for junior and 3rd for senior in sec 2. So it's been an improvement this year! Hongbo, Ernest and me (the junior team last year) won the senior 2nd while Yiheng, Zexi and Alan won the junior 2nd. haha. not bad. Although I lost the individual award which I won last year, it was still ok as long as we got the team award that we aimed for. YAY! haha ok. Then, for CO there were 2 major events, SYF and concert. SYF was great. Although we lost our former conductor due to cancer, we got his (our former conductor) student to come conduct us and he's really cool! haha. Lots of people say it's very hard to hire him and I guess we must be very lucky to be able to do so cuz we aren't exactly the best of orchestras. And so, we practiced long and our set piece every week, with me trying to perfect my rolling skills on the timp. It was a rather slack half a year for perc because both songs weren't really "perc" pieces. But we still concentrated on doing well and hoping that we won't screw up on the day itself. I was really afraid that we would get silver again after so many years cuz it would really spell disaster both to the reputation of CO and we were in danger of losing some of the best instructors. On stage, I just tried to concentrate on not screwing up and not dropping the bowl like thing which I was supposed to hit. haha. It was rather hard cuz of my stupid sweaty palms but I did it! I still remember how stressed up I was after long, couldn't smile at all. haha. I was in fact SO stressed up that Mr. Lim (new conductor) came over and pat me on my back while he was walking out. Somehow, that told me that something good would be coming up and WOOHOO! GOLD! although it wasn't really the award we would have craved for, it was still fantastic. A gold award after so many years. My only regrets is that we couldn't get it under Mr. Yeo. It was truly amazing. We were all jumping up and down after the results were announced. I'm not sure why we were soooo happy but I guess Thomas had lots to do with it. He was a really good student conductor for us. He kept adding pressure to us to practice. Even a week b4 the actual SYF day, he was saying,"With this sort of standards, you all can forget about gold. Be prepared to get a bronze. Practice hard and maybe we would get a silver". That probably freaked us out cuz I saw many practicing really hard towards the end. Our improvement was so great during the last few weeks that Mr. Ngoh said that it was either a case of Gold of Gold with Honours. Well, no gwh but I'm still really relieved that we didn't get a silver again. WOOHOO! WE ROCK! RICO ROCKS!

Spring of Life, RICO concert '07, was totally fantastic. haha. Most of you people might have read my reflections already but I still can't over-emphasize how great an achievement it was. All the sponsorship, concert booklets, rehearsals, xiaozus, intensive practices and stuff were just so fun and enjoyable. In the end, the concerts really rocked the audience. The afternoon one was average I guess, but the evening one was really really good! We were all so pro! I think we've done a great job and Mr. Yeo would be very proud of us. Even Mr. Lim was praising us at the end when he himself was THE STAR of the concert! haha. he was really really great. All the fun and joy that we had, I'll never forget.

Then there was OIP '07. It was the first year that they were holding OIP but it was really great. The ChangChun team totally rocked and ChangChun itself with ji da and jiu tai and xi wang all rocked! yay! it was a really nice experience there. I got to learn a lot of things which I probably would never be able to learn in Singapore. I tried out living in the village, I taught a class of 70+ students for the first time in my life, I touched snow, I worked on a huge project in karaoke competition within a limited amount of time... It was all just fantastic. I got to know lots of friends both in Singapore and in Changchun and it was a really great feeling to be out there, far far away from home, with so many great friends. We cheered each other on when we felt down. We helped each other out when it was needed. We played card games together. We worked on projects and lessons together. We suffered in the villages together. But it was all a great experience that I'll never forget. haha. Look out for ChangChun post which I promise WILL be coming up soon enough. haha.

There were actually a lot more stuff that happened in Year 3 like Teacher's Day org comm where we all stayed back till 9+ to prepare for the big day. Then, there was the introduction of DMP which was rather fun because lots of time could be spent mugging or eating at S11 with friends when one had no lessons on! haha. And linear algebra was super fun! But yup... these were all the really MEGA-SIZED events that happened in YEAR THREE!

And Year 3 also marks a new journey that I'll be embarking on - PSL! It really excites me because it's going to be so fun taking a whole class for orientation. I'll try to make the best out of all these and put my best into whatever I do. Hopefully I'll learn some stuff and the sec 1s will be happy! haha. There's still much to prepare so I guess I must get ready. But I'm sure I'll benefit from all these. Tze Ern did ask me to create a goal list for becoming a PSL so I guess I'll do it now.

Goals for myself!
1. Become braver and be able to speak in front of a whole crowd and not stutter. (hope all the training in ChangChun OIP will help! (:)
2. Become less forgetful! haha. this has always been a problem for me. Hope these activities will get me to remember more stuff along the way. It's good memory training. haha. need to memorise where to go, when to go, what to do, what to say... And then all the water breaks, first-aid boxes... (:
3. Make more friends! Whether it's with the PSLs that I still don't know or it's the new sec 1s. Hmm.. (:
4. Train on-the-spot thinking! will have lots of chances for doing this cuz all the stuff aren't exactly detailedly prepared.
5. Become more organized! This should help in communication with the sec 1s as well.
6. HAVE FUN! (:

Goals for sec 1s:
1. Become accustomed to school practices. e.g. cheers, assembly, institution anthem...
2. Know their surroundings! From places to people (students, teachers...)
3. Bond together as a class like 3B or 2H! and hopefully as a batch as well but that's really hard...
4. Know the Rafflesian style of living and be proud of it. haha. sounds so cliched. but i do love it!
5. And of course... HAVE FUN! (:

All right... so i guess that's all for my RI experience! hoping that sec 4 will be even greater! and next up, new year resolutions.

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS!
1. Academics
2. CO
3. Weiqi
4. CIP! / Interact!
5. RE - SMP + SL?
6. Music!
7. Others

1.1 - Maintain 3.87 GPA!
1.2 - Improve english vocabulary! sigh. i realise i have no synonyms for fantastic or brilliant. HMM!
1.3 - Improve CHINESE! O-levels coming! haha. but chinese is fun!
1.4 - Basically redo what I did this year cuz I think I did a great job. (all the review of lessons and marks and stuff...)

2.1 - Hopefully get pro sec 1s in!
2.2 - Train perc till there are at least 3 who can play impt instruments and 2 for smaller ones.
2.3 - Make concert '08 a stunning success (sponsorship, concert booklet and stage plan) and of course everything else from Raffles Trail, CNY to concert with Mayflower (i think...)
2.4 - Have fun during interaction (hopefully it will take place) and if possible help out in RJCO or RGCO concerts (but probably they won't need help... ):)

3.1 - Achieve double 2nd in qiuping again.
3.2 - Participate in more competitions
3.3 - Hopefully rope in more people to come for training
3.4 - Improve myself! Get to know more stuff.

4.1 - Embark on at least one BIG cip programme like taiwan or OIP this year.
4.2 - Start going for and enjoying INTERACT! and hopefully do my best in it.
4.3 - Become a more helpful, courteous and smiling person! (: Yay!

5.1 - Embark on TWO RE projects like the pro sec 4 this year!
5.2 - Work well for SMP. Learn research techniques and other stuff! do well for YSC!
5.3 - Get and SL project done up and make it good! Hopefully something like taiwan!
5.4 - Do well for RE congress.

6.1 - Continue playing the piano and play whatever I like! (:
6.2 - Continue improving snare! rolls! or doubles or whatever...
6.3 - Play the timp more often. Practice rolls and tuning!
6.4 - Try out drum set. Hmm...

7.1 - Make 3B and Go6P even better!
7.2 - Get some leadership positions and work hard for it! (whether it is in projects or CEC or the new students leaders thing...)
7.3 - Start training pull-ups and running unless I want to fail Napfa. HAIX.

Guess that's all for now. It's another rather long post. ><. haha. shall add on when i think of more new year resolutions. and you can be sure changchun post will be coming soon enough! (:

Patrick