Miss facilitating. Haven’t been doing it for so long that I forgot I’m able to do it and I should do it everywhere and anywhere. It’s a life skill that I gained from volunteering that I should spread it to the rest of my life and friends. Surprisingly, I didn’t feel disappointed with myself that I didn’t think about it from the start. Instead, it was very refreshing to get in touch with this habit after a long long time (: Makes me feel really good about myself, because I know that every moment, I’m making a difference, for the better. Not just for myself, but for others. I guess now I’m more stable and settled with my life here, have more energy to resume other things that I usually do back at home. (: A really really pleasant re-discovery of myself.

Just this morning, I felt the scary vibes. Holy shit, I am flying in just 5 days. 5 days is so damn freaking short. I realised, all of a sudden, I haven’t met up properly with my good friends. I haven’t met RV friends properly. Only had this short prata supper with Kiats and WX. Short meet up with 2A. Didn’t even meet XYZ. Didnt meet Huang Cheng mates. Ha, man, now I regret not planning my holidays properly. It always happens.

Well, at least I didn’t let myself down in some aspects. I met 71 quite often. (: Times with the class are horribly enjoyable. From the dim sum buffet, gged class outing, taiwan trip discussion, MAMBO NITE, xlb buffet and Timbre. Man we met up so many times this summer! I won’t forget how Yuming rejected my request to join?the “male moment”, haha. We’ll go to Mt?Sophia or Art House when I am back!!!?Zeqi, don’t forget to plan Maria’s birthday!!!?I trust you with this very important task! ACE and YV stuff were done. Kept in touch with my volunteer friends.

Tonight’s meeting was the last YV 09 meeting I could attend. Our Book is almost done, just a little touching up left. I was in shock that it was my last meeting, actually. That’s why I couldn’t share all that I wanted to share with the comm just now. When YV08 ended, I told myself, I would only go back to YV if it doesn’t change. It is still the same old traditional YV, focusing on social service, training, grooming and growing students to make a difference in the society. Where we don’t use extravagent methods, nor imba physiological mapping to win the participants. Where we win their hearts using our hearts, and make them share the same feelings as we do, join our friendship that would last you a lifetime. If it were to change, I thought, I won’t come back.

Afterall, I still did. Change is inevitable. But at?least, the main structure of YV remained. YV08 was another impactful year, when I got to be a TF again. Got to bond with our awesome #1 TFs. Witness YV grow big with more participants. It made me feel so much better about life after that ugly half a year in NTU. That energiser turned Sylvia on full batt.?I told myself, I must come back to YV every year until I graduate from NBS.

It wasn’t easy to decide on going for exchange.?Besides issues on money, academic workload, specialisation, exposure etc, I was worried about my involvement in YV. Of?course, everyone will tell me pick going for exchange, cos it is once in a lifetime and I won’t regret it. True enough, but my attachment to YV was quite beyond what I imagined. I had a struggle to choose between being more involved in YV or to go for exchange. I choose the best of both worlds, to go for exchange and help out with YV as much as possible.

I’m very honoured to spearhead Our Book, to revamp the YV file and to revive the YV Chicken Soup, together with Nina, Hui Bin, Zhing and Kenny. About planning a YV camp, I am most comfortable and familiar with the procedures and things to be done. It was the first time I did somthing that was not concrete, with no formula to follow, with no seniors to consult. All I had was five brains and whatever creative juices we possessed. The whole process from conceptualising, to gathering materials, to compiling was enriching and different from what I used to do. I learned about working on a brand new project and my friends through a different media. Believe?I cuold have done better, the product could have been out earlier. But I guess, people have their failures at times, and for me, I was a little distracted from work. Had been swarmed with YV, preparation for the trip and meeting up with friends. I didn’t segement my time properly. I’m lucky to have gotten Our Book done and can fly off without much worries on this.

When Vick talked about how the comm should be working and the attitudes that we should carry, memories flashed back. He shared about how?I changed from a pessimist to an optimist with so much more energy to reach out to others. And he is right there, that was my life changing moment in YV. That made me so much more a better person and I hate going back to the negative self when I fell in the pool at times. In 2006, I learned about proper ettiques in a committee, the positive attitudes that we should have for our fellow friends in the comm, and how to brave to wind and storm because we believe in our good cause and we want to make YV a success. At times, we keep working on YV because it is an obligation, because I need to report at the next meeting, because this other person is chasing me for this. Yes, it is tiring and tedious, I know that. But I love this perception that Siew Mui shared before. There are many things we want in life. The route would never be easy, we need to work hard to realise these dreams, overcome obstacles that stop us from realising them, resist tempatations that distract our focus. All the hardships that we, as a team, go through, would never go to waste. We create a chance for 20 TFs to learn how to manage and facilitate a group. We create a chance for 200 participants to learn and practice direct volunteering. We create a chance for countless beneficiaries and friends there to enjoy a day of our company. See the multiplier effect? It just keeps going on and on.

Tonight, I was truly re-charged. I finally got to relive in one of those memorable 2006 meetings, where I could feel from the bottom of my heart that I am doing something meaningful, in the right way,?even without witnessing the end result yet. I observed how Vick links up all the little little events to this huge chain effect. It was just amazing. Wish I could do that one day, so that I can impact my friends better, for them to climb up this positive ladder and create a better world for us. Team Yv 2009, jiayou k, the show is still on and we will do up a great one! Keep me updated on how’s everyone going!! All the best for TF camp!! (:

One last family gathering before I fly. Thank goodness, I felt that urgency this morning, haha will fully utilise my tiem tommorrow (: Gonna have a list of things that I wanna eat before I fly off!!! :D

I think after the TF training, I am super duper sure that I didn’t make the wrong choice to continue volunteering here. Ther concept is always the same, we do things, make mistakes, we share, brainstorm, care for one another, grow and finally inspire new volunteers to keep going. It stuck me that the feeling at ACE is the same as all the other volunteering experiences I enjoyed when I was having this really long chat with Alicia. It was long, but totally nice and heartwarming. It is the same thing I go through with YV peeps, we chat over our lives, what we believe in, what changes we hope to see, what do we treasure in life, what else we want to do in our lives… It’s really amazing, the way we forge and maintain our friendships. Even an inital intern who was supposed to help with admin stuff, get infected to feel the same as we do and enjoy the whole process with us, I think we are seriously amazing people who do amazing things.

Despite feeling like shit about straining my injuried ankles from all the shit load walking at ECP, I was really very very happy to go through another SVC activity. Daniel reminded me of my weakness when I was sharing about how distracted I am about like problems and loopholes we are facing. Honestly, I was having alot of difficulties concentrating on observing every little thing I could at training, making mental notes about them, and thinking of solutions calmly. I never know how to make small steps and not worry over little things. Cos I always get emotionally involved in every little problem I notice, I get too overwhelmed with the whole load of issues in front of me, and can never be able to solve them to my fullest ability. Haha, even though I was reminded of my old long weakness, it stills feels good to have an old friend sharing things close to our hearts. (:

These 2 days simply reassured me that I am right to stay on. I just knew that there was more to this. Everytime I returned with doubts, I always go home with a bag load of things to take away. Even if things turn out to be a complete failure, they can never take away my friends I know from volunteering, who can last me one lifetime.

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Not that exaggerated though, lol. Managed to finish at 1am, without feeling too stressed and celebrated with McNuggets and McFlurrys.

While we were re-editing the report, I started to receive messages from numbers not in my contact list. They told me to “jiayou with my work”, that I was “missed tonight”, I had to “kick some butts”! Lol. I was really surprised and touched. Gave me more motivation to put in more effort in my work. Encouragement makes magic (: Never realised that it truly does the trick.

Just wanted to say thank you to all and it makes me look forward to working with our comm even more! (x Will return the jiayous when you need them, ha.

I’m damn imba. I’ve just wasted abot 2 hours of my time when I should be preparing for my comm funds presenation. (Y) Miss harry.