What is Volunteerism?

What is volunteerism?

"Use of or reliance on volunteers, especially to perform social or educational work in communities." (quoted by www.dictionary.com)

To me, volunteerism is purely voluntary work out of interest, passion or eagerness to help the others anytime.

I am generally fine with doing a lot of volunteer work for the deaf youth community as long as it benefits them. But I dont really find it enjoyable when working with volunteers who dont know what volunteerism is all about despite being volunteers. Suspect they join as volunteers so that they can benefit as other deaf youths.

I'm referring to people who push the work to other volunteers, just take part in the events together with the deaf youths/kids. They would say they were too busy, couldnt take on the projects and asked others to take over. even though the others were saddled with many other things.

Have never seen any volunteer who doesnt really understand what volunteerism or hard work is about. Actually we can understand and excuse them if she/he can take some time and sincerely explain why they cant really make it.

Hmm I admit that I never learnt to say no to alot of projects under my chairmanship of YouthBeat and once leadership of the CS group. Because of that, volunteer work is piling up in front of me and I cant really finish it even though I thought I was invincible in the first place. Heh, I asked for it.

Well, I dont like to force volunteer work on other people since I know it's only volunteer work. Yet, I dont understand why they joined as volunteers in the first place when they really had no time to volunteer at all. I guess, they prefer to volunteer selectively.

Anyway I am bias on these people who just push the work, never lift a finger to help their volunteer friends... I hate the kind of that attitude.

Maybe I was being too haywire coz I was swapped with too many things and I was sorta expecting someone to help lessen my voluntary work burden.

Anyway have realised that I no longer find voluntary work meaningful now, if i have my way, I want out of YouthBeat. I'm not talking about YEP, YEP is alot more meaningful. At least some team members are sharing the workload fair and square.

YouthBeat... I am glad that the CS group and XTOMIC are doing fine. But I dont think it's good to burn those dear rare and few active volunteers out since almost most of the YouthBeaters are sleeping or busy.

Some CS volunteers wanted to give up halfway coz the rest were not giving support.

Wont it be good for everybody if Youthbeat doesnt exist at all? I know others will protest but I always think the easy way out. In fact, I like to be laidback, carefree and see the world pass by. But when it comes to work (can be youthbeat, yep, or even career or anything that needs to be done), i have to be responsible.

"great power come with great responsibility" (quoted from Spiderman movie)

how true it is.... as we grow older, we have more responsibilities and if we have power on some things, we have to be responsible for them.

anyway i hope other vibrant and aspiring youth leaders will step in and change everything in YouthBeat and YouthBeat will scale to greater heights and the deaf youth community will greatly benefit alot from it. *being idealistic again*

*hoping that will happen somewhere in the future*

Back to School!

[19th Oct]

Went to meet up with a team member at my old school: Temasek Polytechnic. Wah a long time never go back to school... when i went there, my memories flooded.... reminded me of those days when i ate the popular fish & chips at the IT school's food court with my friends, went to lab, classes & lectures and library.

This team member is only 17 and is schooling at TP. He reminded me of a younger version of myself, that is when I was 17. Aw... time really flies.... it has been about 3 years since i last attended the graduation ceremony in 2001.

oh why i went there despite it being damn so far? Ah Sheng suggested going to the library since it got a vast variety of books, and we could do research on vietnam. we are supposed to come up with a game for the whole yep team. i agreed but there is another reason... i wanna visit my old school.. :)

met the course manager and she still looked the same but very good so far. also met arun in the library.

in short, i m so glad Ah Sheng gave me a chance to go back to school! ;)

Dragonboating with YEP team

[17th Oct]

Was cranky the day before because I didnt have any sleep. Went straight to bed for 10++ hrs, and woke up feeling better.

Went to meet up with some yep team members for a dragonboating activity. Some team members were dragonboaters and one of them is in the national team. Eager to try out that sport since had never done that b4...

at first it was drizzling... then there was non-stop heavy rain! it was shiok being in the rain while sitting on the dragonboat! made some friends with another team of deaf and hearing youths which have been formed recently (not another yep team but the dragonboating team).

at first, was not used to paddling by the left side. but it was fun paddling for a while... then realised that i couldnt go on after paddling sometime... u actually feel tired after paddling for sometime..... and your arms feel pain... i tried to endure and paddled on with the rest of the team.. there were 2 boats: one boat for yep team and another boat with that team, i was with the other team, not yep team in the first half.

during our break, we played some games, one of them is human chairs where we had to form together as chairs. interesting and unusual... it depended on teamwork where we had to trust our team members to support us and we in turn supported the rest as chairs.

after our break, the leader of that team, ee lee asked me to switch to another boat which yep team was in. i happily went and join them. bryan (our team member) is also a dragonboater, he taught us the technique of paddling. and there was something surprising about him. when he first joined the yep team, he didn't know any sign language. but on that day, he really improved alot! he signed so clearly and sincerely even though he was slow! he refused any help from some of the experienced terps and learnt from them how to sign some words that he didnt know how to sign. way to go, man! *cheers to bryan*

then we continued paddling with oars.. then realised that i had to paddle with my right arms! alamak... what was worse that my right arm was aching from playing badminton the day b4! argh.... i even injured my hand slightly with the oar....

then we went to the outdoor stadium to change clothes.. then went to vietnam restaurant in Plaza Singapura. We were sooooo sleepy and tired... ordered some vietnamese food... after dinner, we discussed within our sub-teams.

the best part of the night was team spirit in my very own fund-raising sub-team. it truly inspired me. we found that someone actually made an order with the pouch bag supplier without our knowledge. i was so unhappy upon hearing what she has done coz it seemed that she wanted her way, from the very 1st meeting we had together, she always had her way for example, wanted to sell t-shirts together with the bags. didnt like her at first. actually they knew how i felt coz i was sorta "lashing out at her"

then she apologised, something good happened. some spoke up for her, said it was all down to miscommunication. they didnt blame her at all. which was really a cool thing. but still i was unmoved.

they tried to come up with solutions and i helped too since what was done cannot be undone. what's the point of blaming her when there was "damage done already"?

then she explained why she ordered coz she assumed she was in charge of the t-shirt stuff.. by then, i realised, we all assume this or that, never really open up to another. pris told me that there are same miscommunications problems in other sub-teams. and we tried to discuss further on solutions.. i realised i no longer was against her coz i finally understand the true meaning of the team spirit.

no one blamed her and instead tried to come up with solutions to help her, i also helped subconsciously. in the end, we managed to solve the problem and we were satisfied.

serene went to get some nice choco desserts for us, we happily tucked in together.. it was a special moment coz the rest of the sub-teams left already and we were the ones left.

i thought i have understood the true meaning of teamwork coz i have been involved with volunteer work for many years but that moment changed everything.

in other words, it was something of a little miracle that is close to my heart always.

Ex-classmates from TP

On the morning of 16th of October (last sat), played badminton with my old poly mates at tampines sports hall. The sports hall was much different from the usual courts I played at other places. There were 18 courts in that hall!!

When I first entered the hall, I blinked.... Never in my life... I saw so many people playing badminton on every court! Shuttercocks flying all over the hall.... I met up with Arun finally after a very long long long time... say about 2 or 3 years? He was in the same class as me for 3 years and he is a programming genius. Whenever I got problems in programming, I always sought his help. :p Violet also played with me, she was my classmate in the 1st year.

It was nice playing badminton with them again after a long time. We used to play at TP together with Abby.

Realised that I really had no stamina to play singles match with Violet, I played better in doubles matches... Wah.. didnt like running coz really no stamina.. ah.. time for me to start jogging soon.. actually was planning to start sooner or later coz wanted to take part in a running marathon next year.

Met our ex-lecturer and his son. Wah long time liao, never see him... he's still teaching but this time, teaching a different subject.

Later, went to meet yet another 2 ex-classmates since it was that friend's birthday the next day. She came back from Oz after graduating with honours. Felt left out most of the time since they chatted with each other... actually dont like to be left out... i always feel left out whenever there're verbal conversations among family members or friends.

anyway, im glad that i met up with some of TP ex-classmates... :)

My Birthday!

Yesterday was a gd day.... Spent time with my parents for the whole afternoon, went shopping at Carre4 and watched a very hilarious comedy movie "White Chicks". Yah I know it's a English movie but that didn't bother me at the least. I know my parents would enjoy it since they love comedies. So do I!

Eileen organised a good dinner for us all! Glad that she organised it for me... hee actually wanted to organise for friends but right after my exams, I was still busy... alot of work especially YEP & volunteer stuff, never thought of asking friends out on my birthday till my good pal, Eileen sms me! Thanks Eileen for the nice memories u gave me! Not only Eileen but also my dear friends who turned up on my birthday.



It was quite a nice surprise to see so many friends turning up coz yesterday was a Sunday and some of them are working. Yup! We all enjoyed cooking BBQ & steamboat at Marina South. Some made friends and re-acquainted. Some observed our actions. Ha ... Some busied themselves with cooking and talking. Glad that they were also enjoying themelves.

My purpose of wanting to organise for my friends was to give them a chance to catch up with one another. Glad that this purpose was fulfiled thanks to Eileen, the super gd organiser! ;)

The fun part was that I was really clueless, coz Lily pretended to ask me some questions and I dutifully explained. B4 I knew, a slice of lit choco cake was right in front of my eyes! Then realised I was tricked by Lily!!! Then some more fun came in... that's the most fun part I enjoyed myself coz I had never been splashed with cake b4.

Again I was clueless for a while after tricked by Lily... Yiyi was right behind me, then I suspected. I turned around quickly to prevent her from doing it to me but unfortunatey, she was quicker than expected!!! Ha... then I chased her around but still she dodged me!!

Hmm, some friends especially Yiyi were so worried that my right hearing aid might be affected by some cream after I told them some cream was stuck in my ear. Thank gdness, the aid was all right.

Haha, that was the most fun and memorable part. :) The smell of cream still lingered even though I washed cream off my right side of my face..

We also had some fun playing around in the train while waiting for the train to depart from Marina Bay station.

Uploaded some photos and if anyone of u want to see the photos, let me know. Actually the url is for private use and for those friends who have been invited.

When I reached home, I opened all the presents and they were really nice, cute and lovely. And yes useful!

Thanks Eileen and dear friends for the wonderful memory u all have given me. :)

Driving Lessons

Wanted to write a blog on driving lessons yesterday, reflected alot on that topic, asked myself some questions but that "idiot" website thingy kept me at a bay, making me busy with debugging and updating the t-shirt designs.

This morning, had my 2nd driving lesson, yesterday was the first one. Started driving on roads after about 3/4 months' lapse. Realised that I have been learning to drive for about 6 months, to be exact, from feb to july. No wonder I could drive without any major glitches on roads yesterday.

Really enjoyed alot driving on roads... :) When I was starting out again, I asked myself why I wanted to drive... There were only 2 reasons for my driving: I want to drive and I want to ferry my family around. Compared to only 2 pros of driving, there were so many cons which are listed on the following:

1) Petrol expensive!
2) Maintainance fees
3) Cost of 2nd-hand car, COE
4) Safety risk
5) Insurance
6) Failure risk, thus $$ for more lessons, PDL, maybe even final theory test

Yeah, the money factor somewhat affects my decision on whether to continue driving after I pass my re-test. It sure costs me a bomb, what's more is that the money is not mine.

Yet, I still toy with the idea of continuing to drive (coz I love driving) and eagerness to ferry my family (and of coz friends :) ) around....

Maybe I should start charging my friends for a fee... haha ;p

No matter what, I gonna pass my re-test, that's my aim anyway. Wish me good luck! It's on 18th Nov.

Counting sheep..... oops... days... hee

Frustrating, when will it ever end?

Sighs, I thought I can complete the website by the end of this week and it may not turn out coz I got a message from a team member-cum-friend that we have to change the colors of the t-shirt designs! wah lau...

now i want to throw out the towel coz i had to change so many times or wait for her to send the designs for so long and yesterday, i thot that part was complete coz got all the designs already.

besides, other team members and friends keep asking when will the website be complete, i say wait wait, maybe this weekend...

I also want it to be complete... so that i can go out and play stress-free, especially after exams. actually i want to finish the website today, once and for all coz i want to do other things, instead of facing the pc all day just for that website. and it's quite worrying we didnt do anything to raise funds..

Ok. God, help me to complete it for once and all TONIGHT!

Exam + Website + Children's Hospital Visit

Just completed my 2nd paper, not too bad though... in C++... at least, better than that maths exam....

Hope I passed those papers... *hoping*

The website is almost 100% done... anyway u can view it at http://www.csconnects.com/yep-teamh3/. Without my kind friend's help, the website would be not ad-free. Thanks, Chye Soon! :)

Do support YEP 2004 team!! Buy our designated T-Shirts!! Hee...

Last Sat was a meaningful day, I never felt so peaceful and happy. In fact, I was so happy I was out in the sun like a happily-prancing dog who was let out from his home!

Cooped up in my room all day .... hmm lost count of how many days I was cooped up at home... studying for exam, doing yep website like crazy... that was one of the busiest weeks i ever had...

When I started on my "1st" website (since I last did some websites for my former co), I was so madly engrossed in what I was doing... it was scary to think of what state i was in.. it was like i worked as if there's no end of the road...

Took a short break by visiting sick kids at NUH, it was a splendid break....! Chatted with some friends... especially Jane.. whom I never saw for so long liao... even though it was a very short one. It was so good seeing her again!

Abby, my dear friend gave me an early birthday gift in advance, thanks Abby for the lovely card and presents. :)

We started wearing some nice-looking balloon sculptures and some materials as Evil Eoos and Fairies... The story's title was "Evil Eoos VS Fairies" and it went:

Boy Boy was sick... His stomach was weak... he was much in pain... Evil Eoos (bad germs) plagued his stomach sadistically, the good doc gave him some medicine. He went to sleep and good fairies entered his stomach and battled with Evil Eoos vailantly. But alas! Good Fairies lost!

An idea struck and the fairies rallied and ask the sick kids to help fight against Evil Eoos together!

The 2nd round of battle had begun! Finally good triumped over evil! yes! And Boy Boy woke up and felt so much better than b4!

The moral story is that if we dont take medicine regularly, we wont get any better and Evil Eoos will still inhabit our bodies!

ha, a nice story? ;)

Yup, we did such a skit 4 times, in 4 wards. Some kids enjoyed themselves, they loved receiving cute balloon sculptures by our dedicated volunteers.. they loved "fighting" towards Evil Eoos.

It was meaningful, knowing some of those kids enjoyed themselves, they didnt have to bear with the pain all day.

Oh yes! There was a short but nice magic show before we started our skit. Huiyi's friend's a magician and he really wowed the kids and volunteers including myself alike with his magic tricks!!! Especially coins, swirling playing cards hands-free!

After the skit, we parted our ways... some of us decided to give Jorena a birthday surprise. Went to NYDC in Holland Village, surprised her with soooooo yummmy Boo Boo choc cake! She was happy, I think... Never knew that cake was soooo sinfully good!! *drooling* So rich, creamy (yet not so creamy) and choco! choco!! Lamented to them that NYDC was well-known for its desserts, not western food. I once ate a western food at one NYDC branch the last time and it was okay.

Ah... Gophi... wow, he's really a very hyperactive and talented person, never failed to entertain us all day with his jokes!!! HI! Theatre should be thankful that Gophi is a part of it....

That night, I reflected alot... Realised that day was one of the best days I ever had! To be exact, it gave me a peaceful feeling that I never had before....

P.S Have uploaded photos of the children's hospital visit and jorena's birthday. Enjoy! http://community.webshots.com/user/twinkle_little_star

Headache & Website

I know I'm supposed to study for 2 more papers next week but I have to complete a website for YEP fund-raising asap. We need more money for YEP, so have to finish it before next week.

Started having headaches yesterday... maybe I was too engrossed in doing that website.... dunno why it persisted till now.... while making the website, realised I missed doing such web stuff.... it has been months since I last made some websites for my former company. Now I'm struggling to renew my web development skills... also realised that i lost contact with the web technologies although i have been surfing on the net regularly.

Hope the headaches will go away.. maybe I should sleep early tonight... ok. time for me to get back to "work" now.

will post the url here once i complete the website ;)

First Night Exam

just came back fr0m SIM, yeah just completed my 1st night exam... 3 hours to be exact. At first, didnt want to do it, wanted to give up and put it aside. somehow i couldnt just give up like that, i crammed all those math stuff into my tiny brain so hard in just 2 days.

i'm glad that i managed to finish the exam although i left quite a lot of questions unanswered. maybe have to repeat course despite having passed my assignments fairly well... at first, felt nothing about it coz i have done my best and nothing could be undone... but now, reality sunk in...

it's a little sad that i couldnt share this in depth with anyone tonight.... that's probably the reason why loneliness struck me.... i hate the feeling. sighs.

anyway, have 2 more papers to clear next week. hope i will do well in them. if not, arghhhhhh...... maybe i should really drop out of school.... *thinking*