It's my 2nd time being part of this year's D2YC. Well, I gotta say it's a total different experience this year for me, as the organizing system is different, there's lesser things I'm in charge of, and there's a new generation batch of participants this year.
Honestly, I personally think that the programs were quite good this year, but somehow, there are some mistakes here and there which disrupts the program flow. I think because of that, I felt quite emotionally disturbed throughout the whole camp. I think I tried to voiced it out during the first meeting, but it only ended up with me, in an embarrassing awkward moment. So, I thought "I guess it was just me".
* * *
Personal Emotions
The first 2 days came and go, it was nothing much. I was kinda free most of the time. The last 3 days were quite emotional for me, not sure why. I guess it started after I had a personal talk with Bro.Haw Lun. We were talking about my family, more personally towards my father. I guess the committees had already suspected that I had so many cars driven to temples. lol. I made a confession that I wasn't really certain about his job, and I tried numerous times to convinced my father to not waste so much money on things which we don't really need. I went almost into tears when he told me,"It's okay. I can see he really loves you. So, do appreciate him."
And I kept quiet, and silently cried inside my heart.
* * *
Dodge Ball
Somehow, I managed to found out my new talent after the dodge ball game, where I represented the committees to play against the girl participants. I think I was too engrossed into the game, that I even fell against the floor, hard, trying to dodge a ball. lol. I personally wanted to give up when I was all alone during the last match. But, somehow my heart tells me not to, after hearing their voices, their guidance, their cheers... which in the end, we won. I can't believe it myself either lol, was trying to make the puzzle pieces in my head make sense, while I stoned there. Until everyone came to group hug me, than it finally make sense. Well, I guess I got myself a new hobby now, I think. lol...
* * *
Mahapuja and Candle Night
Mahapuja went pretty well. Would personally like to thank Bro.Shashi for his guidance and his help. And thank goodness that the Yin Ching just arrived in time before the session started, and thank goodness that the sky was in our favour that night. Thanks to Sis.Jacqueline, Bro.Jonathan, Sis.Stephanie, Sis.JiaYin, Sis.Meng Xi, Bro.WeiEn, and Bro.WeiWing for helping me out with the candle lighting, candle judging, offerings, etc. I personally think it went really well, which includes the puja, passing of offerings, meditation, etc. Accept there were some minor mistakes with the cushion arrangements and a little too quick in one of the closing salutation bowings.
Candle night on the other hand, was a little bit out of hand, I think. I wasn't really ready with my personal stories and some explanations were quite rushed. In fact, there weren't much of elaboration on certain points which I wanted to emphasized on. Most videos were not shown as planned before, and due to the time constraint, the activity almost took up 2hours. And, I guess I was being too serious throughout the activity. But I would like to thank Bro.Sean for giving such a splendid idea on the candle night, but a big mistake was that, not many participants knew it was a candle night. =.=
Anyway, received a few good feedbacks on the activity. Participants knew what their dream was, and received the necessary feedbacks they need from their groupmates to achieved their dream. Thus, I really hope the participants will achieved what they set out to achieved after my session. Would like to thank Sis.Stephanie and Bro.HawLun as well for their help, guidance and encouragement, couldn't have done it without you by my side. Thanks to Bro.Ron and Bro.Chris for helping with the burning obstacle paper thingy. We didn't set the temple on fire at least. lol.
Hence, there's still room for improvement for this activity.
* * *
Participants
This year's participants was completely different compared to previous years. What touches me the most is when the participants said their thank you's in a whole big group during the last day in camp. Really felt appreciated and touched by them, as I don't really recall any batch of participants doing that in previous camps.
During the closing ceremony, I almost went into tears again when the participants spend so much time doing group cheers, hugging each other, and as well as the committees. In previous years, participants would just go off without saying proper goodbyes or anything. I told myself in my heart, "we have finally did it. D2YC'12 was a success, and we manage to groom these few participants to be different, with loving-compassion and loving-kindness."
Personally, I think each and every one of them was quite awesome. :)
* * *
D2Y
Hence, this marks another year for me in D2YC. It's been 2 years since I've joined D2Y. D2Y has been a platform for me to experienced all my 'first-times'. The first time I joined my first badminton competition. The first time I organized a charity project. The first time I became a camp secretary. The first time I sang in public. The first time I plan for programs.
And the first time I found myself.
