This is me  |
 EnginClub 39th MC
Hello World! One week ago, internals just ended and *SURPRISE* (Both to everyone and myself) I got in! Never really expected this but WOW! Now that elections are over, it's just the beginning for us in the 39th MC. Now for a little re-cap of the journey up till now... Long long time ago (actually not very long ago), somewhere during the orientation period (probably during EnginCamp), I got enticed to join EnginClub. (Can't really remember the reason and how it hit me but yeah...). Kinda made up my mind then that I wanted to be able to do something and like contribute to the student population (considering how much I've always benefited from all the events organized and stuff back in school) So yeah, that was about when I decided that I wanted to get involved in this whole giving back thing. Then came RAG and all the drama that comes with it. Had a fun time, but that was also pretty much the time when my thoughts were solidified, that I wanted to run for EnginClub and my aim was Welfare. To my knowledge at that time, Welfare was the position that I felt would suit me the best. From being able to talk to random strangers, get their feedback, to being able to get goodies for welfare pack. To me, the job seemed pretty simple and I felt like I was up for it. People around me thought that I was joking when I said I wanted to run. Well, can't blame them considering what an 'awesome' image I had and well, I just didn't seem like someone who could be trusted (have to say I don't look like a responsible person). So when school started and EnginClub held their welcome tea, people were stunned that I was there. Like seriously, there were questions thrown at me like "Are you serious?!" and "You sure you are the welfare type ah?" My answers to them was the same, YES I AM, ARE YOU DOUBTING ME? (Still I don't blame them, and even if up till now people doubt my commitment and abilities, I don't blame them). After welcome tea would be the big period of dilemma. After speaking to the 38th MC seniors and just so happen to meet my competitor, I truly had a breakdown. Should I really do this? Will I have the support of the students? Am I even capable enough to run for this role? and of course How am I, a nobody, going to "fight" against my competitor?! All these questions were running round my head all day, but somehow, I still plucked up the courage and submitted my nomination. After that was just a roller coaster ride. From the interview which I'm pretty sure I screwed up a lot, to external campaigning, I felt inferior to the rest. I had no notable leadership experience, well pretty much no experience in all this campaigning and preparation. Everyone else was much better than me, and there and then, I really wanted to give up. But me being me could not give up cause reputation mattered too much to me, and I really wanted to be able to contribute. I knew that whoever who got in would be able to do the job, but still I wanted my ideas to be heard, and well, I felt that they could rally change the whole image of welfare. So, I stayed on. External elections comprised of many parts. Not only did we have to interact with the student population to get them to vote for us and buy Engineering products, we had to also do a case study and really like think of solutions for problems that we face ( or we would face in the future). Honestly speaking, I am not a presentation type of person, and really for me to do such things, I would need a long long period of time to like prepare and get ready my speech so that I wouldn't screw up. A week was definitely not a long period of time for me to prepare. But still I'm thankful to my group mates who did a lot to get our presentation done and really happy to have their support throughout the campaigning. During our presentation, I'm pretty sure I was too nervous and really, whatever I planned to say didn't come out. I ended up analyzing stats on the screen and didn't really elaborate much on the important stuff. I guess it was a major screw up *dang* That night I was surprised to find out that I managed to get through the external elections and woah I'm not the last on the list! But with that said, getting through would mean that I had 3-4 days to prepare for internals! Internals was like a selling yourself session where we had to lay out our plans and really 'sell' ourselves to the rest of the MC to show that we are capable to take on the job. And boy was it intense. 2D1N stay in the LT with minimal amount of sleep and lots of grilling. (and of course, not enough preparation time) I was really really afraid that I would mess up during my presentation, especially since for the director roles, ours is on the second day and we literally watched as our PCell got grilled to the point where they were dying. Honestly, it was really scary. Well, have to say that after all the formalities were over, we all got to bond and it was really quite fun, chilling over supper and stirring shit. Not to forget the potential DOTA game which I opted out from since I'm the second one to present the next morning. Didn't really sleep much that night, was rushing out the last bits of my slides and panicking the night away. (And the LT was freaking cold, so cold that I was shivering and dying) The next morning was pretty much D-Day for me. The fears and all. For the first time in my life, I didn't prepare a script or like write our what I wanted to say for a presentation. I wanted to try out and see if I would screw up and of course, I believed that if it's really from my heart, I would be able to bring across my points clearly even without preparing a script cause it's something I really wanted to do. Lucky me, being second, I had some time outside while Cheryl presented and I took that time to run through my slides once before my dear computer decided to be cranky and die on me. Thank goodness, it revived just when I was about to present and have to say, standing there with a bunch of grouchy looking people staring you down is really scary, I repeat REALLY SCARY! So I did what I was supposed to do and just gave my best in the presentation. Lucky for me, my slides and elaboration got me just nice to 10 minutes *huehue* and then came the all dreaded, Q&A session. Well, I wouldn't call it Q&A session, it should be called "make you cry" session. Like really, it was really scary and all the questions coming at me felt like knives. All the whys and hows and stuff was really overwhelming, but thank God I was able to pull through and off I go to wait for voting results. Had a little chat with Cheryl and we both agreed that we take this with an open heart and mind and we were really open to not getting the role and just being able to help each other out. So when they called us in, the announcement part was just WOAH! I got elected in!!!!!!!!!! Have to say that I never expected to be able to get the role since I, well, lacked the confidence and experience, but the fact that they gave me the role meant that I had high expectations to meet. After that we continued with all the elections and finally at the end of the day it all ended and we had 15 members of our MC elected. Really glad to be part of this new family and did I mention that Cheryl got the role of Logistics Director too! So yay! We both got in ! Well, 15 really wasn't the number that we needed, FYI there were 20 roles, and though 20 of us made it through externals, there were so many people running for conflicting roles that it made life so difficult for all of us. So yeah, we have to co-op people into the team. Just yesterday (well, Friday to be exact) we had our first co-op session where we got 2 'new' members in the family (well, they aren't really new since they were with us during internals but didn't get the role they ran for) So now with a family of 17, we'll be having another round of co-op on Monday to get the rest of the people. After that would be all the rushing to get sub-comm members (which is freaking hard to get since we all have so many commitments) and officially taking over the job. (Actually looking forward to that day so I can actually start planning my stuff because now I have no access to all the official stuff to get things done) So that's about it for now, the journey has just begun for our team and we hope that we can make a difference in the lives of all engineering students in NUS. Once again, I'm thankful to be given this opportunity to do something for the students and really grateful for the support of the people around me through this period.
*Shout Out to Wei Yin for dealing with my nonsense throughout the whole period and Hong Yan gor gor who will have to deal with me for another year haha. And of course to all of you who helped me out,be it by voting, doing the survey or just being there for me when I was about to break down. Thanks guys! Till next time, Walwus flopping off~ Labels: 2016, 39th MC, ExCo?, My Life, NUS, School Life, Uni Life |
