By: Ng Jin Xiang
I had some expectations of myself as the head Group Leader (GL) of Slytherins. I am someone who loves camps – Bringing people together, sharing university experiences, cheering and simply having fun. My goal was to ensure that my Orientation Group (OG) was bonded as a whole and that they could have fun even without me and other seniors around.
What I did not expect was that I would reach my goal, but not because of my own efforts but those of my freshmen and fellow GLs. I made mistakes – Uncountable ones. Regrets that definitely bugged me on the night I went back to my room after activities were over.
“Why didn’t I show more care for the 2 sick freshies who were unable to join on day 1?”
“Why didn’t I talk more – one to one – with the more quiet freshies in my group?”
“Why didn’t I run to my fellow GLs to help her take care of someone who wasn’t feeling well and left her all alone there?”
I had fun every single day of camp. However, after every night, I knew I could have done a better job. I knew there were also positives, I taught them a lot of games and made enough jokes to make them happy. But I knew that it was still not my best.
But my cute, adorable, loving, accommodating freshies – They filled in for me. Trini actively took the tumbler around. Zongxuan never let the flag out of his sights. Every single freshie in my OG talked to each other. All of them helped each other out. They bonded with each other. I asked them to lead cheers by themselves and all of them did – There was no cheer IC in Slytherin. The two sick freshies were immediately welcomed into the group and I did not even need to do anything myself. It was all them. The quieter ones in my group also made good friends with the other freshies. Everything I did wrong, they made it right. During nightly HTHTs, they opened up without holding back. I think it takes a lot of courage and trust to lower your walls to others.
On the last night of camp, I realised how much I loved this OG. During finale night I just watched my OG from the outside, noting how they were eating dinner together and taking pictures of their own. They were definitely a super close knit OG because of their own efforts.
It was one of my dreams to have an extremely successful camp as a GL during my second year. I am a Group Leader for three camps but I know I don’t even need to go to the other two camps to achieve this dream.
I am pretty sure everyone knows I became emotional during camp. But I think it really says something when everyone can not only laugh, smile and have fun together but also cry together after just three days and two nights. I appreciate everything everyone said about our OG on the last night. I don’t think I’ll ever forget how real and just how impactful those things we shared were. Many of us had fears, doubts and homesickness that were all blown away because everyone cared and took care of one another.
I want to thank the programmers, who did so well to come up with excellent wet weather plans because the weather was so unforgiving. Camp was so much fun because of your excellent programmes.
I also want to show my appreciation to the main committee for organising the camp and making it possible. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to plan for one whole camp. They were inclusive and elaborated on the vision of “One USP”, making everyone feel that they were part of one family.
But of course, the love I want to give most would be my OG. Thanks for making my dream come true in such a fairy-tale like manner. Thanks for putting in every ounce of energy despite being tired. Thanks for including me in yet another family within USP.
The end of camp does not mean end of relationships. Rather, it is the start of many relationships. Whatever happens after camp is a million times more important than what happens inside. When times get hard in university (I assure you they will), having a family to talk to will help so much in the long run. So take some time out of your busy schedule to continue meeting up okay!
From an emotional senior,
Jinx
