Day 5 – Amazing Chiang Mai

Picture from CMU, picture credit: Ng Xinyu

We started the day bright and early today with an Amazing Race!

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from it. I’ve been to a few orientation camps and amazing races are a pretty standardised part of such camps. But when we were first introduced to the professors and the leadership group, it already felt different from all my other camps.

Prof Zachary began by teaching us how to ‘properly’ introduce ourselves. While it may sound kind of ridiculous, I realised how much I underestimated introductions and first impressions. In Psychology I learnt that first impressions are very important and very lasting. But today I got to experience first-hand how vital that first handshake with a stranger is. While the mini lesson about introductions sounded a little silly to me at first, I actually thought it was quite meaningful and useful at the end of it all.

When the actual race started, I was honestly surprised at my group’s enthusiasm and finesse at completing the tasks and finding the locations. Upon getting our first clue, we very efficiently split into 2 groups – one deciphering the locations of the main tasks and the other working out all the mini tasks we could do. Then, we hurried off to our first destination. Though we did get confused and lost, none of us lost our cool and we all managed to laugh at our mistakes. Even when we ended up going to the wrong destination, we did not let it get our spirits down. In fact, we managed to prioritise and plan the most efficient way to finish the race. Towards the end, we sprinted towards the hotel. And even though I am a horrible runner, my group mates did not let me lag behind, but in fact started running with me to encourage me. I was very touched by this. :’)

This reminded me of the fact that I have made many new friends during this Chiang Mai trip. Not just with my group mates, but with the whole Healthcare group, the seniors attach and of course our CMU student attach! Having spent almost every waking minute together the past week, I feel that we’ve become quite close. I’m very happy for the new friendships I’ve formed with my fellow USPians, and I’m glad that I’ll have them to count on in the coming years in NTU.

After the conclusion of the race, we sat in our groups to do some reflections on our performance and our leadership styles. We were encouraged to jot down why we were good leaders and what we could improve on. I felt that this was a very meaningful task as it really got us to think about both our strengths and weaknesses. I had to think about how I added value to a team (not just our sub groups), and how else I could work on improving the way I work with others. Through this process, I felt that I got to learn more about myself. I realised that I am a pretty confident leader and that my best quality is that “I make my group mates laugh”. Prof Zachary explained that while this might sound like an insignificant trait, it actually is really important to have someone in a team who is able to put their group mates at ease with jokes and light teasing. Hearing this made me feel really happy with myself. ? However, I also found that I might be pretty impatient and even insensitive to others at times. Sometimes I find that I get so caught up with how much I want to complete a certain task that I might overlook a group member’s feelings. This is something that I definitely want to work on in the future.

I feel like this Amazing Race is very unique to USP. It was more than just getting to the correct locations and completing all the tasks. I felt that I got to reflect on myself, my group mates and our time in Thailand so far. It was definitely more than just the old standard Amazing Race. Being a USPian, I’m really privileged to have been able to take part in this activity. Actually, this Chiang Mai trip as a whole has brought me many new friends, experiences and opportunities. I’ve come to realise that being a USPian has truly enhanced my experience at NTU, and I’m really grateful for that.

Now that the trip is ending, its time for all of us to return to Singapore. Though I am expecting to do a lot of work when I get back, I’m also very excited to see how this project will turn out!