Dawn...

When was the last time I watched the sunrise? To immerse in the soft silver rays and cool morning breeze, to listen to the birds giving their first chirps of the day? I long to throw away the burdens on my shoulders and live for that moment, even if it's a fleeting one. Alas, it's not meant to be, lest till I finish meet my final hurdle, which is looming and lurking in the shadows...

At this point, I should probably take it easy. Ambitious my aims may be, but there are times that I need to let off the steam, step back and look; and realise that there are so much more to life than my goals. Some may not agree with me, but being able to sit idly and immerse yourself into the surroundings is a blessing. Sure, society progresses, life becomes more hectic, people become more competitive, corporate ladder is getting more and more difficult to climb, meritocracy and capitalism are the main philosophies adopted by advanced nations in the globe... there are just so many reasons for us to deprive ourselves from the goodness life has to offer us.

Are people really evolving or devolving? Are we so obsessed with chasing fame and success that deep inside we are but an empty shell? Did we spend so much time on soaring towards excellence that we have no time to spare to truly live? And as cliched as this may sound... are we merely existing rather than living(and making your mark in the history doesn't necessarily mean that you've lived, it can only prove that you've existed)?

That said, I am by no means suggesting that we should stop seeking improvements in our lives. Rather, take some time off the pursuit of excellence and relax. After all, life is so much more than that.

So, when was the last time that you watched sunrise?

*Sneaks in, looks around, then sneaks out*

Deadlines, deadlines, more deadlines.

And now I'm on the verge of being free of deadlines... maybe not.

Deadline in the form of exam is coming soon, oh the joy!

OBS

If not for this:
Outward Bound Singapore - To serve, to strive and not to yield

I think I would've gone nuts during recess week. In case you're wondering, I didn't go back to Malaysia during this break. Instead I stayed back and had my eyes practically stuck to the books all the time.

27th September:
We arrived in Pulau Ubin at around 10am. Then we went through the standard things - ice breaker, separated into groups (Eng Soon, Gandhi, Rajaratnam), surrendered our valuables to the instructors. I was assigned to watcher (or group) Eng Soon. Each watcher was led by an instructor.

Eng Soon. They rocked simply because I was in there. =P

After lunch, we went jungle-trekking. Eng Soon separated itself to 3 teams so that it could find all the checkpoints in the shortest time possible. Alas, we only managed 3 out of 10 checkpoints, no thanks to the fallen trees that further complicated our routes.

Billy fanning himself with our money while he's hanging halfway up in the air. Life's hard up there, I know...

We then went to our next destination - our camp site. When we reached the campsite, the other watchers were there already with their members concentrated on the debate on which kind of leader is the best leader.

Dinner was rice, canned mushroom, canned curry chicken and canned sambal ikan bilis cooked by... US! Gandhi had the time of their lives concocting funny names for their recipes such as Gandhi jump over the wall and Tiger swim across the river.

After that we pitched the tents and prepared to sleep.

28th September:
We built 2 rafts and rowed back to the headquarters. Our raft were on the verge of breaking apart when we were halfway rowing at the sea. Thanks to our rowers (and lots of hands of the non-rowers holding the raft together), we managed to row back to the headquarters in one piece.

And we arrived at the headquarters just in time for lunch! Everyone practically wolfed down the food... after a long and hard process of building raft and rowing it for around 1km, any food is bound to be heavenly.
The inverted tower behind us brought us yet another challenge of the day - how to invert it back?

Next up is the vertical element... in simpler terms - climbing.

This activity basically fostered trust between each and every team member as we had to leave our lives in the hands of our teammates. They were responsible for controlling our safety ropes and bringing us to ground safely when we slip or once we're done climbing the tower.

I had more fun climbing then bringing people down to their safeties though. =P

Then we're practically done for the day... no more activities at night, only discussions and planning for next day's activities.

29th September
The final day of our stay in Pulau Ubin. We had a self-reflection and sharing session in the morning before the commencement of the day's activities.

We were supposed to play mini-games like these:
Jump!

Walk!

to collect points so that we can buy materials to make:
A harmless little ballista that costed us probably close to 5000 points.

And we used it to launch:
Humpty-Dumpty with straws and masking tape.

Unbreakable egg!

When we were done with making the launcher, Christopher proceeded to present our Code of Arms to the instructors.
Christopher: It's time to show my blow water skills!

followed by our warcry, which goes something like this:

"Yenadei kuchi kuchi ma ma! MAE! MAE!" x3

Never quite understood its meaning. Then we launched Humpty-Dumpty, which didn't break when landed. And that concluded our activities, and basically our stay in Pulau Ubin as well.
OBS: 27 - 29 September 2007.

And so we're once again back in the concrete jungle of Singapore, back to our lives. But I'm sure this OBS is etched in our memories, never to be forgotten.