Journalism on NPP
Hi. My name is Zane. I came from Jurongville Secondary School. One day, a miracle happened. I got through the Direct Polytechnic Admission exercise. I could then move on. The Ngee Ann Preparatory Programme is a fun a enriching experience for me.
Screw those nonsense above. People have some standard, stagnant, fixed, dead, and lame writing style that conforms to the society’s expectations. In poly, I’ve learnt to break the norm and get an attitude.
Let me pen and share what happened in this very week just for you. This entry is divided into three portions. First, the Learning to Lead (Leadership Camp) at Kota Tinggi. Next, my reflections. And finally, what happened during the past two days.
DAY ONE
The boring theory portion in campus. I’ll skip the retarded details.
DAY TWO
Headed to Woodlands for Johor. Had to alight twice for the Singapore and Malaysia’s customs. The journey was pretty smooth-sail and took around 2 hours to reach it although there was a slight jam. (Bread and butter, anyone?)
Had lunch immediately upon reaching our destination. The food tasted below average. Well, either that or starvation. F*CK THE FIRST MOSQUITO BITE. *Maintains composure…* F*CK.
Had some team bonding, formation of group identity, group vision, some ground rules, and other gay crap. Marinne stood up as the first leader of the team, and go imagine what happens. Think straight, I beg of you.
Each activity ended with a debrief. Bloody hell. Each debrief is unique in their own ways and the final debrief was about telling each other into their eyes what sucks about them. That really sucked. Ranking a person the top 3 leader or the bottom 3 leader. A concept that’s too screwed up for me to take it.
DAY THREE
Practical assessment right after lunch. Total of four activities (five in the end). The first was to run to a patch of sand as a team, step some numbers in sequence and run back to the starting point. Our team scored well and we were very motivated about it. Then it rained.
The second activity was to keep balloons up in the air for as long as possible. At each interval balloons were thrown in to make it challenging. Team 7 improved by a minute each try. But our results weren’t ideal.
Third — our team failed at it. The three leaders who volunteered could not convey the instructions well. I’m lazy to elaborate.
The final one was leaded by Marinne, Simon and I. I did my best to lead the team and we completed the obstacle within quite a good period of time.
We had to go for another activity because the first one — outdoors — was cancelled due to the rain. We did poorly. But in the end, our first activity’s score was used for computation of marks.
Next, barbeque night. People jumped into the waterfall and enjoyed the dirty waters. Had some fun before heading back to the room. Mikhail and another guy walked me back to my room and that’s when I was left all alone. I imagined pale, white faces appearing all over the mirrors and windows, and was exclusively scared. Lucky for me, I wasn’t disturbed.
Soon the room was filled up with my bunk-mates and I was jumping on my spring bed in excitement (the next day is home-sweet-home). Glenn came knocking for Shairul. When Shairul returned, he told us an encounter that Hafiz has faced. Some ghostly story that I wouldn’t share here. Everyone of us went berserk (not literally) and had no guts left in us.
Jesper, Alfred, Youwei, Dehong, Valerie, XX, XX, and I went in pairs as a group to the location where the encounter was. The path was slightly lighted at the edges but the atmosphere was close to eerie. It hit midnight when we were retracing Hafiz’s path. Nothing happened.
With renewed confidence, we stood outside the dorm and Youwei (a.k.a lao da; gang leader) decided that we should knock on the other NPP students door and frighten them. For a couple, it was rather successful. Utterly enjoyable; screaming at the top of our lungs in the middle of the night.
Slacked with Youwei in the room before falling asleep. All hyped up for the final day.
DAY FOUR
Breakfast, and then written assessment (yes, an examination) after that. Kind of screwed up the second question but oh well — its over.
Then there’s this ridiculously emotional session whereby there were gems that you can give out to your friends, face-to-face, one-on-one, and to tell them how much you appreciate them. I’ve received a handful of them and dished out quite a lot of them too — accompanied with hugs. Seriously who could resist a hug from Zane? (Kidding.) I got a lot of translucent gems, which my friends say that they indicated purity (e.g. Hannah). Jesper gave me a gem that’s “unique in color”. Thank you all!
Headed back to my dorm to pack things up and get some snacks. Screw it, I left the drink I bought in a store in another snack store.
Boarded the bus, cleared the customs in less than 2 hours and back to Ngee Ann Polytechnic.
Reflections
Throughout the stay in Malaysia, I didn’t have autoroam activated and hence I can’t get back to my family or my brothers. Was really wondering how they are doing, and I’ve missed them fairly.
I also feel that in this camp, people aren’t who they are. They aren’t themselves. Faking some leadership personalities with a sharp dagger concealed beneath their clothes. A little backstabbing. I dislike that. Also, I don’t like the idea of people serving food to me. I appreciate their kindness but this is overdoing it.
Friday, 21 March
Juntai came over and played the whole day. Snacked on McDonalds and watched Step Up 2 in the afternoon. Back at my house and sent him back after 10.
Saturday, 22 March
Kind of similar to Friday, except this morning I was really sloppy and didn’t really want to get out of my bed. But for the sake of my brother, I decided that I’ll make it up to him (as promised before I went for the camp).
Things to do
- Zeke and Deon. I’m going back to see you guys!
- Okay that’s my main priority.
- No, really.
- I mean it.
- Serious!
- Bye.
And here are the list of people whom I can remember during NPP, and friends that I want to thank. (Sorry if I don’t know your name or miss you out!) In no order whatsoever:
- Ali
- Haziq
- Jesper
- Youwei
- Mikhail
- Serene
- Valerie
- Alfred
- Dehong
- Michelle
- Adabelle
- Chiayin
- Weifang
- Samuel
- Juliana
- Agnes
- Marinne
- Sarah
- Huda
- Nurzawani
- (…the other Malay girl)
- Simon
- Hannah
- Jocelyn
- Doreen (both)
- Glenn
- Malcolm
- …and more I’m lazy to list out.
That’s all. NPP is finally over. Chill!
