Leadership Camp

The long anticipated Leadership Camp finally arrived! I thought as I waited restlessly for the activities to start. I just could not wait! We were first sorted out into groups of 11 each, and I noticed that they placed people of different classes together. After what seemed like an eon, the activities kick-started. There were a slew of engaging and unforgettable activities, but the one that still remains vivid in my mind is the Scavenger Hunt.

What on Earth is the Scavenger Hunt? At first I thought that it was an activity which involves looking into rubbish bins, but luckily I was quite wrong. Instead, it was a team challenge where we travelled in our groups, and find materials to build and design a group flag. The rules are simple: we can only spend $10, our flag cannot be larger than 1 metre squared, we can only go to places within Bukit Timah, and we only have 2 hours.

The discussion started fast. Smith suggested with confidence,' Let's go to Coronation Plaza. It is very near, so we could reduce travel time and have more time to design our flag.' The rest of the group nodded their heads, muttering approvals. It was then decided- we would go to Coronation Plaza, buy the materials, and then rush back to our school to design the flag. Thus, a simple plan materialized.

We hopped on board the bus, feeling energized, and confident. 'Nothing could go wrong', I thought. A matter of minutes, and we reached the shabby looking Coronation Plaza. Before entering the mall, we split ourselves into two groups, one group to look for the flag material, and the other to look for markers, glitter pens, anything that could be used to decorate our flag. I chose to join the marker group. We excitedly rushed around the 4 stories of Coronation Plaza, keeping our eyes peeled for bookshops. We were still quite enthusiastic for the first few minutes, asking the shoppers if there was a bookshop nearby. However, our enthusiasm died down when we found out that all the bookshops were closed. Bitter with disappointment, we went to meet the other group. They were no luckier than us. However, as we were running out of time, we had to use wrapping paper as the flag material. In the supermarket, we browsed through the selection of wrapping paper, and chose the whitest one.

Just as we were stuck, unsure of what to do next, one of our team members, Sam said that his uncle runs a bookshop somewhere near here. He claimed that it would only take 5 minutes to go there. We all followed him, thinking that even if the bookshop is closed, we could still return back here. After running for 5 minutes, yet another 5 minutes, sweat started to trickle down my neck, and I was starting to feel tired. However, Sam kept reassuring us that we were very near. I persisted, and ran on, thinking that every step brings me nearer to the bookshop. Meanwhile, I looked at the nearby 'scenery', the passing cars and buses, thinking how good it would be if I could take a ride there. The sweet fragrance of the roadside flowers mixed with the horrible stench of the drainage was a strong contrast. After 15 minutes, there was still no sign of the bookshop, I was drenched in sweat, my legs felt a little numb. The smell of us sweating was even worse than the drainage. I tapped Sam on his shoulder, and asked, 'Are we reaching?' He, without turning to face me, panted and replied, 'It's very near, just around the corner.' We continued following him. Some other group members were lagging behind.

After a torturous running session of 20 minutes, we saw some small shops not too far away, at the end of the lane. Sam told me we are approaching the bookshop. 'Are you sure that the bookshop is open?' I sensed that he feared the same thing, but he replied, 'It should be open'. At long last, we reached the bookshop. Much to my horror, it was closed! All of us just stood there, panting like wild dogs, feeling both tired and disappointed. We then put into plan B-look for nearby bookshops. This was a failure too. Just as we were about to go to another mall, I felt a little drop of water drip on my hand. Seconds later, the 'little drop' turned into balls of water, and we all retreated back into a shelter.

Now, our prospects do not look very good. We were stuck in a place with no open bookshops, with only wrapping paper to use as the flag. Sam now suggested guiltily, 'My Grandmother lives nearby, I can run to her house, and get some markers.' We wished him luck, and he set off on his 'quest'. We all waited anxiously for Sam's return. Following a long wait, Sam returned with the all-important markers. Now, the designing of the flag could start. We entered a quite empty restaurant, asked the store owner if it was fine if we do our 'project' there. Our group name was: Group 4 success. It actually puns with our group number, which was 4. After designing the flag, we returned back to our school. Thankfully by then, the rain had stopped.

When we reached the school, we sent a representative to present and explain the significance of our flag. Our flags would be judged on how symbolic, and meaningful it is. While waiting, I spied on other groups' flags. One of them used black as background, and the flag imitated the design of an Ace of Spades. The words 'You're good, But we're better' were written on it in gold. It looked great and we started to worry about our own chances of winning. One of our team members, Alvin, volunteered to present our flag. Alvin was very creative in his presentation. He rationalized that the white/empty parts of our flag represent purity, and a good leader must be pure. Despite his best effort, our flag could not preside over the other groups'. Surprisingly, our group was not the worst. Another group's flag was very empty. It only had the words Group and Always Okay on their flag.

Although our team lost, but we still gained the valuable experience of working together, our team also had a lot of fun looking around for the materials. If we had gone to a larger, but further mall, maybe we would have found better and more suitable materials for our flag. But still, what is done is done, and we did the best we could given the limited resources.

The Scavenger Hunt was not the only fun thing we did in the camp. The other fun activities we did included Solo Nite, Amazing Race, Sparkler Building Competition, and many more.

I hope that I can be a councilor, and serve my Consortium.