By: Janice Leong
The past three days of USP FOP left me feeling hearty and full. It also brought back many fond memories of the USP FOC that I attended last year. As I reflected on the events that happened from the start to the end, I realized it had not been the smoothest journey.
Being the chairperson, my role was to oversee and ensure everything was in order. USP FOP 2016 to me was a great success – not because everything went according to plan. In fact, we had to improvise and scratch out a few of our activities, which we had painstakingly planned, due to the wet weather. However, we all learned to adapt, have fun and dance in the rain. To me, this is the definition of true success.
I watched how the initial awkwardness of excited, yet apprehensive freshmen transformed into confidence and self-assurance. Through camp, they established strong bonds with one another. We managed to achieve this in three days – a remarkable feat – and I owe this success to my team. To me, this epitomized how FOP is a collective effort, and that everyone played an important role. I feel it is imperative for everyone to believe in the same goal – to achieve a united, tight knit USP family.
To those who might be skeptical of such successes, I believe it is possible to form meaningful, lasting relationships in such a short period of time. Personally, I experienced it when I was a freshman attending USP FOC’ 2015. Like most others, I was scared and did not know what to expect. However, the camp did an amazing job in making me feel extremely welcome, allowing me to make life-long friends.
I wanted to give the incoming freshmen the same warm welcome that I had received from the seniors. As a result, I felt inspired to take up the role of chairperson. By nature, I am a soft-spoken, introverted person who prefers to keep to myself, but camp opened me up to others. USP camp was so well executed; it brought out the fun-loving, competitive and livelier side of me.
It kick-started my first year of university in the best way possible: Seniors to get help from, friends to go for meals or lessons with. Most importantly, it prompted me to approach university with a positive, driven attitude and have an open mind.
I also wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone so that I could toughen up. I knew that being the chairperson was a perfect opportunity to gain leadership experience and personal growth. Previously, I did not have much experience with such important roles. At the same time, I felt like I had big shoes to fill. (Senpais Qinhui,Yijie,Gerpang)
At times, it felt extremely daunting. However, I had faith in myself and told myself not to give up. I learnt a lot about the responsibilities of being a leader. From managing expectations of myself and the team to making certain types of tradeoffs for the camp, I felt that I have grown a lot.
I urge the new batch of USP freshmen to have courage and step up. This is one of the many advantages of USP, where there are plenty of opportunities for you to challenge yourself and take on something new. Despite the extra workload and stress, it is absolutely worth it. It is one of the rare windows of opportunity in life where you can gain new perspectives and valuable insights. University is a place where you should try to experience as much as you can, and to make as many mistakes as you can. You won’t regret it.
** Thank you to every single person who helped out for camp, and my team for being so patient and supporting this event the best way you all possible can.
