Fides Mid Term Retreat

I started off dreading going for it. There was just so many other things to do like study biz law and stats or edit campus TV episode or watch disney channel! But I'm glad I went (since when are there no learning points).

Things I gained out of the camp:

1) I learnt how to play CRANIUM! It's super fun! For both the times that we played, my grp was FIRST from the back. YAY! Ok this is not the most important thing but it came first because of chronological order.

2) I FINALLY did something meaningful for the season of Lent! I went for confession to scrub myself squeaky clean. Attended weekday mass, prayed the Rosary and went through the examination of conscience and the Stations of the Cross and the Compline and affirmation. Feel recharged spiritually! Oh confession was like 20 mins for me? It normally takes only like 2 minutes. Says something huh... haha! Ok ok I will TRY not to gossip so ladies and gentlemen, please do not tempt me!

3) Fr JP's talk was inspiring! Learnt about EGO, detachment, self surrender, the vocational vows of poverty, obedience and chastity etc. Fr JP said that you'd be surprised that the vow of chastity is not the hardest things to overcome, it's rather the vow of OBEDIENCE. Ultra charismatic speaker. I bet all the girls will be cat fighting for him if he weren't a priest haha!

4) Got to talk more to people I don’t normally talk to but didn’t really have the time to get to know people better. It was quite short so I guess it was expected. Coupled with the fact that there was a constant flow of different people leaving and appearing, this made it more difficult HAHA! Managed to get to know QQ better though and made a new friend Jasmine!

5) I got an envelope full of affirmation letters! I love reading these letters! People write nice stuff about you and plenty of encouragements. They always keep me smiling. Stuff like “Thank you for being my friend” or “You’ve been a great friend to me, I really appreciate having you around during our activities”. The next one is particularly meaningful to me coming from the Fides “Archbishop” “I’ve derived much lesson from the spinning endeavour: to be determined and steadfast in your aim and not to lose sight of the good.” OK fine, maybe all these are a little ego boosting but you have to agree with me that we all need a little encouragement, affirmation and LOVE from friends from time to time; allows you to know that life is not too bad and that everyone is special in their own way and you are unique. Plus writing these letters are a form of therapy too. You really learn to appreciate the people around you and not take them for granted. You’ll never know how much a simple “Thank you” would mean to the person on the receiving end.

Other things:

1) OOO I so totally enjoyed designing the envelopes for people. I came up with 10 different designs for 10 different people! It was so fun! Some of the concepts were so fresh. I could not help but to admire my own works. Haha! A pity I didn’t take a picture of them. Oh well, I hope the owners were happy with them (:

2) St Teresa’s Church is such a peaceful place to have a retreat. It overlooks PSA and the sea and it’s generally quite high up on a hill. Moreover it’s a very quiet and serene area. Perfect for a retreat from all that studying and stress.

3) Joshua is like how talented la. He conjures beautiful chords by ear and also plays wonderful improvisation for songs he has not heard before. He didn’t need any practice. Just sat there, familiarised himself with the chords and performed it after 5 mins. I can never do the inversion chords or the sticky fingers thing. I always play root chords and rely on the piano pedal haha! I should go learn how to do it.

4) The core team really put a lot of effort into organising this. Thanks to them we had a smooth running retreat and great food haha! Thank you!

5) It was also good to see the year 4s supporting our activities. Means a lot to us haha!

6) We played this like super tiring trust game (actually I wasnt feeling tired because I was well supported by Nick Tan and Shawn wasnt heavy but it was super tiring looking at the rest who almost fell apart. Felt tired for them). Essentially, all 17 plus of us were supposed to sit on chairs in a circle and then were made to face our left. We were then asked to lie on the person originally on our right and have the person originally on our left lie on us. Following that, the chairs were removed so we were all supporting each other. Best part, we were supposed to hold hands to sing the Our Father haha! The others were really struggling man haha!

7) Oh and I was also the most irritating alarm clock on earth. I switched on the lights, turned off the aircon, talked alot of nonsensical stuff and started singing above high C! "Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Presenting, Queen of the morning! ah ah ah ah AH AH AH AH AH AH" I saw flying paper balls and flying jackets and at one point in time, I saw a flying Patrick in which I made use of my super quick reflexes and dashed for my life!

Overall, it was a meaningful experience.

ANW, CHORALE IS FINALLY STARTING! I’M SO EXCITED! I JUST SAW THE GROUPINGS AND WAS SINGING THROUGH THE SONG ALREADY! I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR SO LONG FOR IT TO START!

My group looks good haha! Me, Sam, JH, Irvin, (Enoch), Gabriel and Valmond. There’s only one Eastie though. It’s alright, I don’t mind going to the North anyway. It’s only a small sacrifice. Nothing compared to the Northies coming down to Siglap EVERY WK for don’t know how many years already.

Here we come a Chorale-ling, Here we come a Chorale-ling…