8 August 2008

Today is:
• The opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics Games in Beijing
• The day Jam Hsiao comes to Singapore
• Rag Day 2008

Personally, I don’t give a shit for the Olympics. It’s not as if it has affected the way I live my life. Not like the way the IMF/ World Bank meeting at Suntec Convention Hall last year or 2 years ago.
Rag preparation actually started after FOC for the freshies. So, it’ll be about a month already? I feel that during that one month, I didn’t help out much either. But maybe, all the small things I did went a long way. I don’t know.
Anyway, towards the last week of the rag preparation, the seniors wished for us to stay overnight as many nights as we possibly can. I was actually thinking of staying on Wednesday all the way til Friday. But decided not to in the end because it was my sister’s birthday in Wednesday.

And apparently, a senior gave the raggers a motivational sppech on Wednesday night. He seemed to have touched many a hearts with his words cos today, the seniors were quoting him here and there. Elf said this, Elf said that....
Anyway, I have only slept like, 2 hours in the past 39 hours and counting. I am feeling really dizzy now; everything seems to be swimming in front of me. It’s even difficult to type. I wonder what is wrong with my body recently. I have been experiencing more and more of these dizziness spells recently than in the past 18 years. Oh well, I can’t care less.

Anyway, maybe from the lack of sleep (I slept from 5.30am to 6.30am out in the open), I was somewhat grouchy, somewhat irritable. But the truth is, the Rag Day is definitely not a tribute to the public for donating so generously to the 20 beneficiaries NUS is helping. It is a competition among halls and faculties more than anything else. It brings out the worst of human’s competitive nature, the uncouthness that surfaces so naturally in the face of competition and glory. It’s almost amusing to see the ugly side of NUS students if my friend were not the victim of such ugly behaviour. I would say such behaviour is unwarranted. What is wrong with simply telling the person, ‘you are not supposed to step into our allocated box’? Is there really a need to manhandle a person for a mistake made in ignorance?
After the performance, there is definitely a sense of satisfaction at having completed our performance well and having the float work the way it’s supposed to have. Maybe I am biased, but I seriously thought that SDE’s float is the best in design, and originality. Too bad the judges did not agree with me. Having won 7awards in 2007, it’s big blow to our morale and self-esteem to not ahve won anything at all this year. Shi Min was right, we went with expectations to win certain awards but when we won nothing, we were naturally upset. It’s most unsettling.

Positive thinking will be that there is still the next year, the year after... I guess we could find a way to win back everything. That’ll definitely be Rag2009’s motivation. Although the hours before Rag performance were that of hell on earth, I guess I would still join Rag next year. I hope next year’s rag head, float head and dance head will be as nice as this year’s. The seniors were really a great bunch of people. I can say I can not ask for more. They motivate us, push us on with encouragement, not with words of anger and frusration. I couldn’t ask for a better team. (:

Raggers rule, no matter what.

I’m off to bed now. There is still rag chalet tomorrow. (:

-aeRieL-

aeRieL fell to the samurai's sword @ 12:59 PM