Lasallian Leadership Training Camp. Might be so long ago, since last week of June. Yet the days spent in it, the bonding i had with others, the lessons are so very missed, the memories, the 'talks' - official & unofficial, still lingers in my mind sometimes, somehow.. its not easy to forget something i so cherish, even though others might think tht camp was not a big deal.. its one of my final stepping stones towards being the leader in ncc, being the 'lasalle' in me. and yes, i hav not regretted at all being thr with other potential leaders..

it started all so quickly, as my mind was elsewhr, in shanghai still i think. and whole pile of unfinished work, yet thr i was carryin a small camping bag enough for 5 days.. was as lost as most of my friends while they asked me to check my group. 'Gregory' i was in. what a nice name for my group... -_- oh well, michael lian in my group too, not so bad after all..

nxt thing we know, after we got together as a group, with 2 st. pat's guys and some crappy games to start it all, we were told to go to st. pat sch, with nothing but our feet and our instinct, no one will be helping.. lots of ppl gasped, but i gazed at them stupidly. muz be the fatigue and not knowing whr st. patrick's is. wallet and ez-link card confiscated, we separated into our own groups, marched off to e destination tht will be e campin place for 5 days, St. Patrick's School. okay, seriously, i dunno anything bout this sch at all, but along this 5 days, i will learn a lot bout them, of course bou other things as well..

and yes, we walked to orchard, plaza sing, suntec city..>.< and walked.. walked.. we mingled around a little, there's this st.pats guy in my group in ncc land too, david. kinda nice guy he is and "saddam", even funnier guy, nv fails to crack some jokes along tht walk, "Walk the Talk" it's called. okay, fast forward, we got lost and yea, but still walked nvtheless and stumbled upon some other groups sometimes. finally, we reached st.pat's after 3 hrs! what a way to start this camp.. thr muz be some lessons from this walk and yea, its simply juz for us to work together right form the start as strangers alone without any help, and this is of coz wad a leader muz do. there isnt always smooth-sailing for a leader but still we hav to overcome it at any cost..like the long walk. yea, perseverance and all tht, but it isnt tht inspiring, more tiring as i think bout it..

after tht we were to choose amongst ourselves the responsibilities each group members hav to take.. no more facils will guide us this time, something like we are now leaders and we choose to run this camp the way we want to, takin care of ourselves and not always follow the facils. i chose the Games Master post, thought it will be fun and stuff.. other names were nicer, mage, scribe, keeper of the key, cleric, water druid...etc.( guess them for urself wad responsibility each one meant :P) still, games master i was.. the rest of day 1 was kinda slack, as we get used to the environment and some of the lessons we hav from the professionals. thr were games too on this day, and i helped out abit..

of course we learnt alot thru the many lessons. To me, it really was so much to know, so much to understand (both insipring and in awe), tht when i got out of camp, i really changed alot.. be thr urselves, and u will understand wad i mean. so yea, lessons are, in the 4 days, very common like 7 habits, what's lasallian leadership, etc. okay, now continuin with the highlights each day..

2nd day, it was mostly actions, our group had a feel of dragon boat on tht day. while some hav rope courses. anyway, dragon boat was fun, juz like canoeing, nv forgot the times in ace camp and kayaking contact time.. it was all bout teamwork again, & coordination and yea, it was about fun too. we splashed other group's dragon boats, and got wet in return too. and finally after we are so wet, we got to jump off tht boat into the sea.. very relaxing.. oh well, yea, tht's bout it.. nothing much, got bac to bathe and mingle, preparin for the afternoon and stuff..
however, in e 2nd night, this is tht snapshot in lltc tht i will nv forget. it was so unofficial, yet so nice. ben, my staff sergeant, a facil in lltc, brought me and martin to this quiet spot after everyone hav nearly slept.. we started talking, talkin bout e future of ncc, bout us after he had gone.. he told us lots of lessons, bout experiences and stuff.. things tht really touched my heart so much, i still can rmb everythin he said. anyway, its between martin and me..yea..haha..

3rd day, we hav ropes course.. it was quite okay, lessons bout bravery and venturin into e unknown, tht kind of stuff, but i had actually learnt most of them in ncc & ace camp already.. anyway, we had tht rock-climbin thing, freefall, high elements etc.. the usual daring things..haha.. yea, mingled alot again. of coz more lessons.. for dinner on this day, we had "fast food" oh right, tht's stated in e timetable, obviously somethin was amiss.. why bother putting the word "fast food" in bold when we are really havin fast food.. turn out to be a bread and water, not really tht surprising yea..

along the camp, we hav morning pts too, in east coast park running lots of km at a go.. it was tough for me, muz hav been not training well thru e hols.. tell me how can i with spec course & shanghai.. we also hav our small little "Gregory"-significant finger game, tht stupid finger game tht kept us very much together..

4th day, Gregory went to a Tembusu Home for a visit, this is to look at e less fortunate, the last, the lost, the least. other groups went other homes and organization. Tembusu home, is a home for the mentally challenged, actually for ppl who had recovered from being mental, we should be happy but no, they are in an even more tragic state, becoz of their past, they are being neglected and deserted by their close ones, so they end up in this home. it was terrible, when i went in, it may look like some nice home, but take a closer look and u can see how the windows are mosly sealed up, the walls are usually barricaded. isnt it no more than a prison.. anyway, we played with them, mingled with them, sang to them, juz to cheer them up alittle.. it may looklike we succeed, but of course, u think we reall succeed? we would hav to be thr for them all the time, not juz one measly visit. we did wad we can anyway, and i really am aware now of other less fortunate.. i wouldnt hav noe bout this home, bout these ill-fated ppl.. wad can one person do anyway? one person can do alot. u know how one person can affect so many others in life, why not us ourselves? i learn not to point at others now everytime help is needed, no matter how small e help is, we can do our part too..

at night,we were introduce to solidarity lasalliana. this was cool too, although quite weird. we went into e brothers' residence and sat closely, row by row.. in front of us were a small ball of rice, half a lime, 5 sips-worthy of water, small piece of bittergourd and small cube of rocksugar..
it was like some sort of procedures we hav to take, as we were told wad to do step by step and why we do them.. after a first sip of water, we had to chew on a bittergourd, i was okay with it, usually eat them durin meals, but not all were into it though. it was to show e bitterness of life sometimes, when things get e better of us but still we hav to face it.. times when everything gets tough and u feel like giving up.. we hav to persevere thru the ordeal so tht things will change for the better, like how we finally finish the bittergourd. after another sip, we will take e lime.. tht sourness.. i dun really noe wad tht means, but yea, shows how we can be so angry bout certain things not met.. shows e sourness of hatred, excitement and stuff tht we feel sometimes.. after finish sucking on it, comes to e rice after another sip of water.. rice, no matter how bland it is, how tasteless it is, so important it is to fill our hunger, our needs and fatigue. this showed how sometimes thru life, we may think tht some things are not important, we took so little notice of, even though they are actually so important in our development.. nxt comes the rock sugar. of course, thr are times when we are very happy with our life.. yes, tht sweetness of victory , of contentment, and satisfaction towards life.. endin it all, we hav tht last sip..tht sip tht ends our confusion towards our own life, tht now we hav to learn how to control our life, to be wary of wad we are feelin.. it was really special how juz playing with our tastebud can really relate to such a wonderful aspect of learning..

of course there are songs too, lots of motivational songs tht can really touch the hearts of most of the campers,many of them unheard of, but contain tht element of "woah.." songs really played a part in this camp, whr we sing to the fullest, oblivious to how aweful we may sound, tht togetherness in us, josephians & patricians alike.. really.. i was really tht nice.

we were then given our affirmation notes, tht affirmation system whr we write to others and put into envelopes with their names on it, writing to affirm, writing to show we care.. it was unbelieveable how useful it is, i mean, u wouldnt noe how many ppl really cares bout u even though we are great friends and we talks.. this affirmation thing really affirms you tht there are ppl in this world tht accepts u, tht cares bout ur existence, tht we are part of their life..

then come day 5, last day of the camp, i was kinda lost, i really wanna go back, but i would really miss this camp.. lets go straight into the evening, when my group was slacking in the brothers' residence, after helpin to clear up and clean up there.. i caught some sleep there, while my groupmates mingle.. then came the commissioning part, we are gonna go already, we are finally lasallian leaders..haha.. anyway, we were to tell our mission statements to our groupmates, and then pour the water accumulated for 5 days in our receptacle into a large bowl..i was the first to read wad my mission would be..wad my life is here for in this very moment. after everyone recite and pour, the bowls were then brought by the mages of each group to be released of all the water in it into a larger bowl.. -_- this is to signify tht our missions though mayb different, but we are still workin together in a common goal to make our life satisfyin, to make our life fulfilling.. finally, we each got our collar pin tht signifies a lasallian leader on to our sch uniform.. and after the many goodbyes and friendly hugs.. we departed back to our own ways, not be4 i had my supper with xd and martin, as a better josephian, a stronger leader, a more fulfilled person.

one of the things i love best in e camp, is how e facils, only sec4, one year older than us, can be so inspiring and show all their special leadership qualities each of them possess.. the skit tht they came up with bout De La Salle and his life, how they would dare to sing infront of us and acted so naturally..i would really wanna learn from them, but still i will hav my own special qualities awaited to be discover. some may be discovered already.. here comes the end of the LLTC, but it marks e beginning of my life as a leader in my sch, especially in ncc.. and marks another stage of my life crossed over, as i begin now a much different person all together..