My NS Adventure: Part 2- Getting To Know

Good Monday Morning, readers! It drizzled this morning, and as we speak, the sun is slowly shining out, making it such a wonderful day to begin with.

June is ending soon (It'll be July 1st this Friday), and I did promise to continue blogging on my NS adventure that I had earlier this year, so here it goes:

- If you're hoping not to get chosen for the National Service stint but luck wasn't on your side, choosing beforehand to suffer in loneliness and have an introvert-like aura beaming from you for the entire stay isn't a very practical idea, because a) you'll probably be dragged into doing something in the end, and b) you'll succumb to a brutal attack of the demons that are lurking behind the forest around you when you sleep.

Haha, OK the second reason isn't necessarily true, but come on, what fun does moping around brings you, in ANY point in your life? I knew I made a decision once I got there to take it as an opportunity and wean off from all the technology that prior to attending National Service, was a big part of my life( Hand phones, computers, Ipods, television, etc) and just enjoy the nature of finding fulfillment in things that do not include batteries or a span life.

It is always great if you commit and take part in your team's success, which is what I did, or tried to do at least. As the previous post on this topic mentioned, I was housed into the Delta group, and how it works is that, there are a series of competitions,whether sports,or character building, that takes place subsequently, and the officers in charge will tally your house marks and, if your house makes it to the top in the end, you are crowned the champion. Simple enough.

I'll be a little biased to say I enjoyed the spirit of being in a group because naturally, I enjoy competitiveness and the rush that it brings. One of the first things we had to do as a house was to design a flag and create a motto/prospective that will represent us for the entire stint. Since there weren't many creative outlets per se, so I helped along with the design of the flag and it was SO FUN! Through the process I met Faiz, who came all the way from Sabah, and he practically became one of my closest friends there!

The final product!

In the end, DELTA got last for the first competition which was such a huge blow for the whole team, but wait till the end of my NS post to see what happens :)

Some of the other things I did included:

• Reading tons of novels/story books. Usually, it would've taken me two months to complete a book because I get distracted easily by everything that happens around me. But when I was at camp, either weekdays or weekends, any free time I spent finishing books one by one- Heh, I even got scolded once for secretly reading during a ceramah, but hey, you can't help it, right?! By the time March came, I successfully managed to complete 7 books- Kazuo Ishiguro, Tony Parson, Mitch Albom, etc. To date, I am still proud of that achievement, however minute it may be! :D

• Getting to know a new sport- Ultimate Frisbee! But before I could talk about the sport, I have to tell you about the person who introduced it to me. In camp, we were all assigned a number( Mine was 639) and 640 belonged to Adrian, a guy from Damansara, so we instantly became bed buddies and pretty close friends because we had the same interest of that a city a kid would.

• Turns out, he plays this sport for his school, and even brought a Frisbee to camp two weeks in. Since there wasn't going to be any chance of tennis in the near future, I decided to give it a go. Week after week, I learned the basics, practiced my forehand, backhand, and now, I'm pretty awesome at it, in my humble opinion. ngehehehe :D
  

That became our go-to sport along with the other dorm mates every evening and boy, did we shed alot of calories out of it.

• I wasn't at all aloof when it came to the generic sports ie: futsal,handball,netball. Heck, I can proudly say my DELTA house was one of the best in support system, for every match which included a team from our house, we fought valiantly, physically and verbally. Every time there was a match in the evening, we would gather, and cheer the best we could.

Now, I can vaguely remember the custom-made cheers our House had, but you know, one thing Melawati never had ( and this is to say I never do say anything negative about my beloved MWT High) was great sports houses, if compared to other schools. So, learning all the cheers and saying them out loud in a large group made me feel extremely excited each time we were up against battle( Ok, now i sound like a cheesy script pulled straight off from a war movie -__-").These were some of the things I did to make time past. There's really no use if you try to avoid the very fact that you get chosen, so might as well you embrace the group you're in, find something you're comfortable doing( and by comfortable, I don't mean playing Dota until 3 in the morning, that's just dumb) and join in the crowd.

Next: Friends/Family, Food, and Firearm.

Stay tuned!