THE CHANCELLOR'S SHIELD

WE WON THE CHANCELLOR'S SHIELD!!

Muahahaha!! I have alot of things to say right now, so where shall I start? Ok, let me first repeat, that we, Bizad, have once again clinched the Chancellor's Shield for the 18th year running! Beat that, Science!!

Anyway the past week has been one hell of a rollercoaster ride. Full of highs and lows, and perhaps more of the latter. At least the BIG high yesterday managed to make all the lows worth it haha. Actually I can't really remember much, except for yesterday haha.

Hmmm ok, so after reluctantly going back to school on Mon, we had the dreaded Flag Day on Tues. I went to Parkway, my hometown haha! We had to wake up at 4.30am, so I officially slept only 2 hours the day before. How to do flag like that I ask you?! But anyway, me and Boss went with 2 freshies and we reached there around 6am to book the place. But I think it was quite pointless to go so early cuz in the end Parkway was still flooded with other tin-toting NUS students, especially those people from Science. They suck la! Walao, purposely stand in front of me and steal my business!! And they specially wore yellow bands that said, "必胜" cuz they want to win us -.- For Science, they've openly made it clear that Bizad's their enemy and their goal in life is to win the Chancellor's Shield. It's so stupid. They send hundreds of flaggers, do part-time work, and divert their club funds to flag, all this just to beat us. And they wear those stupid bands. Don't they know that flag is for charity? To the public, anyway. So they're just sending out the wrong message to donors.

Anyway, I can say that doing flag definitely brings you much closer to your death haha. Especially if you do it from 7am to 6.30pm, with only a 1 hour break. My legs, arms and back were breaking man. I had to resort to squatting by the side of my spot to rest. This year was especially bad cuz for some reason, many more NUS students discovered Parkway and I had a very hard time trying to get donations. But oh well, we did what we could and each of us got an average of 2 tins filled.

The next few days after flag day were spent chionging our float, cuz it was still mainly half-done. So I slept an average of 2 hours the 2 days before rag day, which was Sat. It was so bad that I could sleep anywhere. We had to stop work on Fri, when the validators came. The 1 hour before deadline was the craziest hour of my life can. I was running around trying to finish the 3 panels for the lorry head, especially when the measurements were wrong. If not for Kaishi and some freshies who were helping me, I think would've just broke down and cried haha. Anyway, 2 students from another faculty acted as validators to make sure nobody touched the float after the deadline, and that our float didn't violate any rules. But walao, our validators were extremely ngiao can!! They picked on every little thing, and we lost quite a lot of demerit points, though some of it was our fault, like the people who touched the float. So our morale was quite low haha.

So after 15 mins of sleep, we went to Padang for Rag Day! And we saw the other floats made by the halls and other faculties. They had extremely amazing stuff man. Especially the halls, cuz competition among them is crazy. Anyway, we had 2 touchup times before our presentation, where 10 people could stand inside the box where your float is in to touch up. It's crazy lor, cuz you had to make sure only 10 are inside, and that an unauthorised person's hand or foot doesn't stick inside the designated lines when he/she is passing someone inside something. And so, I was basically chionging those 3 damn panels again. We spent the rest of our time sleeping on the grass at Padang haha. Pre-judging was scary too, cuz our presenter forgot alot of her lines, and the judges looked damn stern. So our morale fell a little bit more after that too.

And finally, it's presentation time! Stress sia. I personally felt that our presenters weren't ready, and especially after the fiasco over the costumes. But the presentation was over really soon, too soon in fact. Imagine, you work so hard for 2 months just for this 10 mins of your life. Anyway, we had a look at the other faculties' presentations and our morale just fell all the way to the ground haha. Their floats move, and the dances involved lots of throwing of people and what-not. Compared to them, ours was just blah. So we were just prepared to lose and everyone was really sad and down.

The prize presentation was really really very emotional. All of us were huddled together in a circle, hugging each other, ready to support each other in case our name wasn't called. I think I was this close to breaking down from all the expectation and dread. Science actually won quite a few of the shields, especially the rag shields. I think they got best presentation, and most creative. Which I think they really deserved, cuz their float was honestly quite impressive. They got best coin collection for flag also. Then they announced that Bizad won for best per capita collection (which means most collection per person) and overall largest collection for flag so all of us were really excited, cuz it means we have a fighting chance of winning the Chancellor's Shield since flag makes up for 60% of the shield. At the long-awaited moment when they were announcing the winner for the Chancellor's shield, I can say that it's truly one of the most tense moments of my life. All the hopes, efforts, tears, frustration, sleepless nights, and shit we went through for the past 2 months rested on the emcees' announcement. Then they said, "Busine.." and everyone just exploded even before they could finish announcing haha. And I just broke down into tears haha. Beside me, Kaishi and Juli were actually sobbing hahaha. There was much frantic hugging and lotsa lotsa tears hah. WE ACTUALLY WON AGAIN!!

Although we didn't win any rag shield, at least we won the big ass shield. And all I can say to Science is, too bad!! Actually I feel quite sorry for them too. After doing so much just to win us, we beat them again wahahha. And we didn't help them achieve their purpose in life haha. But I think the main reason why we're so elated over winning is cuz we didn't wanna let down our seniors, after they won the shield for so many years. We didn't wanna be the ones who lose it haha.

And now, looking back at all the shit I went through during rag, I can proudly say that it was all worth it. The friendships I've made, the things I've seen and experienced, the things I've learnt, they're definitely worth more than the glory and honour that comes with the shield :) I'll really treasure this experience, especially the friends. All the gossiping, jokes, complaints, craziness, and even the tension hahah. Rag Comm '07 RAWKS!!! I honestly dunno what I would've done without you guys :)

Anywya, on another not-so-happy note, school starts tmr! RAHHH. Shit. I'm very unprepared. I'm still tired and aching after rag, and I haven't cleared my notes and stuff from last sem haha. Plus I only have 2 pathetic modules after CORS screwed me again. Sigh. I hope for this sem to be better than the last, and that I'd have fun! Oh and that I'd be more hardworking of course haha.