obs oranges, or you bring out the best in me (or RAJA IS LOVE)

Because everyone's favourite food are the oranges. Really they're super sweet and I learnt how to peel oranges during OBS hahahaha I am totally proficient now.

(A glance at my StatCounter Summary tells me that a good majority of the regular visitors to this blog are Sec3 'cause my hit counts are almost zero during OBS days hehe)

I kind of miss OBS, and I kind of don't. Okay I miss sleeping in a tent with other people and having our tent banged on by an instructor 'cause we're laughing too much, and I miss seeing Deeper Sides to people whom I've known casually, and I miss being part of a watch you know you can trust to have their hearts in the right place. Mostly I miss being part of a group for days and nights and hours and forevers on end. (I was, however, very glad to be home and in my home toilet. Not that the OBS toilets were bad, but home's always the most comfortable)

In truth, I don't feel very physically or mentally stretched from OBS. (my mental strength might have snapped once or something, but it didn't stretch :( ) Rowing was so easy our whole boat probably wouldn't have minded doing it the whole day, instead of just two and a half hours. It was also very entertaining and exasperating in equal parts to see a boat row too close to a kelong with dogs, and shout at them to REVERSE!!!! REVERSE!!!! with the result being the whole boat just stops rowing in shock, except for one person still paddling forward for some reason.

Trekking for 15km for 7 hours was.. idk. Jingyi and Wenxin were the best navigators ever as well, by the way. And Lizzi, who brought up the back and Mary who both brought up the back and set the pace (not at the same time haha) And Joelle, who's just such a Rock of Solidity and Aly who's amazingly sensible and Ninghui who just keeps going like wow and Marcia who gets full marks for effort and yeah THE WHOLE WATCH. (I believe we Grew as a watch after the trek haha ;D) I think I snapped at one part when we were feeling pressed for time, and we kept trying to hurry up and at the same time keep the whole group together, which failed to a certain degree. After that it was really just one foot in front of the other and try to keep the whole group together, being on time wasn't worth killing people for.

And I did lots of reflection while bathing yesterday. Begin a huge chunk of pseudo-philosophical rambling. Mainly:
- I'm still the same lousy broken water tap, I don't even know why. Probably if Ms Chng/Mrs J ever found out the reason behind this conclusion they'd scold me again for not being mentally strong enough hehe
- There are so many sides to people. There is always a redeeming quality to any annoying one, and in a place like OBS, the redeeming one always wins out.
- They always say that the toughest situations bring out the best and worst in people, and OBS was probably meant to be one of them, with instructors there to ensure it is the best that's brought out. I guess, it kind of makes me think that I want to be someone who influences that too, who can bring out the best in people. I don't believe that a Lord of the Flies situation has to happen, because there's always good in people.
- OBS is a learning journey, very much on the emotional and mental side. There are, however, some people who just Don't Learn from OBS, and came out exactly the same as how they went in. OBS would have been (has been) a complete waste of effort and resources on them. I'd never actually met anyone before who had a complete lack of respect for anyone or anything, not to mention a lack of trust and discipline and humility and oh goodness so many things. And it shows, really. I guess, in order to learn, we need first to accept that there are things we need to learn, and people we learn from.
- Which kind of leads to this point, about how everyone tries to be the best person that they can be. Maybe, when we live as a society and a group, we incorporate what we deem to be the best qualities of other people into ourselves. Not to copy, but to internalise and make it ours, like learning from someone who is humble, or giving, or strong.
- I'm such a selfish and self-centred kid, really. Throughout OBS, there was this little corner in my heart that was screaming me! me! me! non-stop (it showed, too), and I think that I would have been selfish enough to try and hang back and let other people do it instead. (except that well, no one was doing it, and 'be the change you want to see in the world' (hi gandhi ;D) and if you don't do it, who will?)
- During the almost-compulsory exchange of OBS stories during lunch and pre-training, I think I've almost come to the conclusion that netballers tend to pull more weight during OBS ahahhah. (Richelle definitely always does all the saigang according to Boh haha) Not that I'm putting down non-netballers, or anybody else for that matter. I don't even know the swapped stories from most other people xD But yeah, maybe we're more prepared, physically and mentally, for OBS, because of training and the fact that we're a team sport (and that RN is just cool like that okay), so in such a diverse team dynamic, it is not so much how much one can give, but how much one is willing to give. So if everyone's willing to give their hundred percent, and everyone really gives their hundred percent, there will definitely be people who do more than others. But it doesn't matter, because everyone's already given everything they had and could. That is, perhaps, more fair.

(By the very way, I think the way they split our class up is just so stupid. As far as I know, 307 is the only class split neatly into half and sharing a bunk and camp mobile and all that shiz, but gosh yknow they split us by sec2 classes which is WHUT and useless because I already know 90% of the people in my watch! D<)

I like high elements very much. Doesn't matter what kind of high elements, whether it's rock-climbing or rope-thingums or anything, I just like climbing. (Which is slightly ironic, because I'm only the slightest bit terrified of heights. I always get freaked out at the top hehe) My reputation for climbing is also undeserved, because the part where I actually climb is only a quarter hehe. The other three quarters are a) the belayer pulling me upwards b) people down there telling me where to put my hands and feet c) I'm just stubborn like that, I hate coming down before I reach the top. So yeah the cooler people are the ones who help me get up.

(I feel kind of sad for the people who rowed for a longlong time. Not so sure about kayaks, but I know that after only two and something hours of rowing, half our watch was feeling the landsickness)

So, coming back from OBS, truthfully I didn't feel very much like a changed person, apart from the fact that You Bring Out The Best In Me by Blue has new meaning for me (I don't, however, believe in the next line, which is 'like no one else can do') and my new perspectives of people and a renewed Want for tough camps and sleepovers and the like. (Perhaps the mental strength will come, in time :)

Also, I had a hundred and seventeen unread emails upon my arrival home. It was just sad. (Now though, I have twenty-seven! Achievement haha I went to delete all the emails that didn't look important)

Was so tired last night, I slept when I got home, then woke up to go see a doctor about my infected toe (having a naturally deformed toe really sucks okay it got cut open by my nail during trekking or somewhere around there) and finally slept around maybe 11-something. Sleep debt doesn't agree with me very much, either I become a zombie, or a water tap if you try to shake me out of zombie mode.

Walked around in bright blue Crocs during training because my slippers were too dirty (stinky from being kept in the same bag as wet shoes hehe) and I'm not allowed to wear shoes for the weekend.

Finally, I'm in the school team for this year. Just, wow. Not that I haven't wanted it very much, but I haven't been very confident about getting into main fourteen even, truthfully. And, I'm glad. I can't help but think about who hasn't gotten in because I'm in, but I'm still glad.

//(My absolute favourite game right now is the bingbong game! The one that goes in a circle and you tell people 'this is a bing'/'this is a bong' hahahaha it's super fun. We played it on the last day of OBS while waiting, then we changed the words at Lizzi and Ariel's suggestion to 'this is a Kim Jae Joong'/'this is a Kim Jong Il' and we got super mixed up with the kim j-somethings haha. No prizes for guessing who wanted which name ;D)