Day 5 (8th Jan)

Today’s morning was well spent at the amazing race. It started out kind of slow, as it felt like the usual leadership programme that admittedly people might have gotten desensitised to. It all began with some networking session to encourage us to open up and leave good first impressions. This all did not feel new.

The concept of the amazing race definitely was not foreign as well. Throughout secondary schools, this sort of activities always occurred. Perhaps it was this complacency that did us in. We started off without an end in mind, or to put it in Singlish, ‘just whack’. This resulted in major roadblocks for us down the stretch. First, we took a long detour in order to get to our first location. Second, we did not figure out anything beyond the first clue, and that got us stuck for a long time after we reached our first location. Things soon turn around though, as through the hardship, we started to warm up to each other and accept different views; our spirits together as one. With the revelation of the next clue after we got lost for more than 30minutes, our hearts were in unison as we decided to run/jog to the next location. Subsequently, things went very fast and we got things done, even while having a lot of fun.

Upon arrival back at the location, a much needed reflection session took place. Apart from diagnosing our group performance, we also got a chance to evaluate our peers and ourselves as leaders. This was a timely reminder of what it means to be a good leader for me. I was also able to revisit my strength and weakness, and once again find something I should work on. For me, one of my biggest weakness is my indecisiveness. Moving forward, I hope to always be able to keep my strength and weakness in sight as I develop as a person.

Through this session, a quote that Professor Zachary said really stuck. He said that we are young adults already, and we have to start carrying ourselves as one. This fact has never hit me as hard, even though I have already turned 21. I always thought of myself as an independent person, but after this session, I am once again reminded that despite being a young adult, there are still a lot of qualities I lack that I should continue to work on. In all, this amazing race was definitely a unique leadership development programme amongst that I have attended, and considering this was largely envisioned by our seniors, I really have to give them a lot of credit. Perhaps my biggest takeaway from this session is the fact that leadership can happen any time, and in a variety of ways.

After the amazing race, we proceeded to Central Festival Mall to gather some more survey responds. Hanging around the cinema where a lot of youths hang out, we were able to gather around 20 more responses, before finally wrapping up the data collection part of the project. In all, my group managed to gather almost 100 responses and I am really grateful to my entire group for all the efforts we have put in to get such a large sample size. I have to admit, data collection for a humanities based project is not easy at all, as compared to the science based research project that I am so used to. However, some hard work also often leads to greater satisfaction at the end, and I am already looking forward to the end-product of our project.

After a shopping trip at TESCO Lotus, we returned to the hotel for dinner and a debrief session. After the session, many of the groups went out to celebrate the last night. However, our group, under Michelle’s drive, decided to all stay back to do some work and discussion. This was indeed very heartening to see. Furthermore, I have to say that the discussion went really well, perhaps one of the best discussion our group had. Everyone participated and offered their insights, and we were able to agree on several matters, the most notable being our media deliverable concept. It is almost as if the leadership session in the morning has already played its role in shaping our leadership capabilities. For one, I find myself trying my best not to always remain a supporting role, but to help contribute to the decision making process as well. Despite that, I also recognise my strength in quantitative information over qualitative information, and offered to handle that part of the research project, so that everyone can play to their strength and contribute in a way that is most comfortable to them.

Finally, the night ended with a trip to the masseur again, as I set myself to relax before the start of the next semester, literally immediately after our return to Singapore.