2) What are the key takeaways from the motivational talk by Mr Aman ?  What tools can you use or skill sets can you develop to empower yourself?

At first before going for the induction week programme, I found myself pretty out of place and stranded because I was alone in this course. I did not have any friends and I knew virtually no one in the same course or even in the same school as me. I was also quite afraid that I would not be able to make new friends due to my introverted personality. However after going through this induction week I made some new friends and got to know my classmates a bit more. Although I do not know quite a few of classmates name as of yet I am sure that I will be able to get to know them soon. Bellow is the individual reflection of the days and activities.

17 April was the official first day of poly life for me. It was hectic in the morning as I was struggling to find the location that we were supposed to meet up but I was glad I was able to find the location before the meeting time. When I went in to the room I was scared out of my wits although there were only a few people in there and Mr Yang welcomed me into the room as there were no one there that I knew and I felt lonely. 

Before I knew it, it was 10 and the program started Mr Yang shared a video of Bob Ross singing happy little clouds and asked the class to post what we learnt from the video on a website. Honestly, I did not post an answer on the website as I felt scared at that time to post anything so I just read all of the answers that the rest were posting but what I learnt is that we need to believe in ourselves that we will be able to achieve our goals.

The next activity of that day was the decorating the jotter books and the name tags. Following the video shared previously, Mr Yang told us to create 2 name tags using 3 or more different coloured pens or pencils; one for him and one for ourselves to use tomorrow. He also encouraged us to create our own unique cover for our jotter book. I felt that the purpose of this activity was to emphasise on what the video was stressing on with the video saying phrases such as “I believe” and “It all starts by believing here (while pointing to his head)”. Therefore Mr Yang wanted us to “paint” to showcase our inner creativity. I personally feel that I could not draw and do anything artistic at all but after this activity I realised that I was just holding myself back because I was afraid of people judging me for my work. Therefore from this activity I learnt that I should trust myself and not be afraid of failure or being judged by others.

Finally the last activity of the day is a mini briefing by Mr Yang in a room beside the EE general office (the name of that room skipped my mind). He told us a little more about what our course is all about, recapped on what we did on that day as well as told us about the graduate outcome of NP. These are being a passionate learner, a big hearted person and also being a global-smart professional or simply put; learn long long, heart big big and go far far. 

Tuesday was a unique day to say the least we begun the day with countless amounts of briefings and ended the day playing a fun game of bowling. I was afraid that I would not have any room partners as I have not spoken to anyone on Monday. However I am glad that it all worked out in the end as I got my room partner.  Although there was not much that happened that day, there were still many things that I learnt on that day itself.

The Director started the day off with her speech on the school in general as well as the school core values. The school core values are R3ICG which stands for respect, responsibility, resilience, integrity and gratitude. She also mentioned about the student outcomes which Mr Yang has told us the day before. However the moment moment she played a song and the EE cohort started singing at the chorus with the hilarious “OOOOOOO” was memorable to say the least. Next up we heard a briefing about the schools services as well as how we could be debarred from an examination or even dismissed from the school. Followed by that we got a briefing about IS which apparently stands for the school of interdisciplinary studies. So from the briefings I learnt more about the school rules as well as how IS can help to increase our knowledge.

After lunch we all boarded the bus to Malaysia but unfortunately we were suck at the customs for a couple of hours. However in the meantime the class kept ourselves occupied by playing some games such as Never Have I Ever which encouraged us to open up a bit more about ourselves as the game focused on trying to expose the people who were playing it. Although I did not join in the game, the class seemed to be having quite a blast while playing the game as they expose others and were socialising at the same time. Up to this point of the trip I haven’t spoken a word to any of my classmates as I was afraid of speaking up and being my introverted self. However, this all changed when we crossed the Malaysia customs and Jun Hao came to sit beside me. He first started by introducing himself and I followed suit. After that he asked me why I’m so quiet and antisocial so I told him that I was afraid of talking to people that I do not know and that I was generally introverted. He than told me that there was nothing to be afraid of and that I should be more open to meet new people and that since many people also have the same mentality as me, all the more should I come up to introduce myself to others. So I took his advice to heart and tried to open up a little more to my classmates.

In a slight change of events because we were stuck at the customs for so long due to a jam we had to go and grab ourselves dinner at an AEON shopping centre before heading back to the hotel for bowling, skipping one of the activities which was going to the kite museum. By the time we reached the hotel and went for bowling it was already around 8.30p.m. and we played bowling at the bowling alley until about 9.30p.m. where we went back to our rooms to wash up and sleep. I made new friends at the bowling alley as well because we were bowling and bonding at the same time so it was a fruitful day although nothing much had really happened.

I was really worked up over the fact that we had to play paintball on Wednesday as I had never played paintball before and since the guide and my classmates were mentioning about how painful it was to get shot by a paintball, I was having second doubts on whether or not to go ahead and play paintball or sit out of the game so I went to text my dad and asked him whether or not I should play paintball. He told me to try but I told him I was afraid that it will hurt he than told me to not be the odd one out so I decided that I would play paintball and told him that I would hide behind someone. He than replied saying than he doesn’t think that anyone is big enough to hide me and I just laughed it off as a joke (XD).

Wednesday was a fun filled day of games and activities I was thoroughly exhausted by the time the day was over. Although I still haven’t open up much on Tuesday, I tried my best to continue meeting new people and becoming friends with them. It wasn’t easy but I managed to become acquaintances with a few more of my classmates.

The first activity of the day was to visit Zenxin organic farm. At first I thought that the visit to the farm is quite redundant as there was not much to learn about at the farm. However after the visit to the farm it widened my horizon about organic farming and also about the innovative ways that the farm uses to protect their food products against pests and the weather. The farm uses innovative ways such as growing the plants in a greenhouse to prevent too much heat and to prevent rainwater from falling onto the plants to control the condition that the plants were growing in. The farm also uses techniques such as intercropping which helps to reduce the chances of the plants being attacked by diseases as well as increase the different types of plants that can be planted at the same time. Finally the farm uses items such as plastic bags to cover their crops and also pest stickers to attract the pest of the plants to get it stuck on the sticker o that they will not attack the crops.

After the walk around the farm was over, we went back to the main hall to start on our next activity; making curry puffs. I did not know how to make the curry puffs at first so I was pretty afraid that I will not be able to make a good curry puff. But despite my fears, I still went ahead and created my own curry puff. Although it did not look as good as the one that the instructor made as an example for us or even some really nice ones made by my classmates, I was glad that I was able to complete the task at hand and create my very own curry puff for the first time in my life.

After a delicious organic lunch at Zenxin organic farm we went ahead and went to our next destination, the coffee factory. Over at the coffee factory I saw how coffee was made in person for the very first time making me appreciate the colossal amount of effort that is needed to create just an average morning cup of Joe. I learnt that for white coffee, the coffee beans are purely just roasted before being grinded to make into coffee while for black coffee on the other hand, the beans are first roasted and then a bunch of sugar and butter were mixed into the coffee beans before they were separated using a special machine used for separating the coffee beans as they were sticky due to the sugar melting. 

The next activity of the day after the visit to the coffee factory was paintball. Up to this point I was still afraid to play paintball because of the guide and classmates consistent reminder of how painful it was to play paintball so right up to the point when we were signing up into teams for paintball I was still debating whether or not to play paintball. I was kind of relieved when I started raining for a little while as I thought that since it was raining we couldn’t play paintball but it was at  this moment that I remembered what my dad told me about giving everything a first try. And with that I decided to man up and play paintball, putting my fears of it being painful behind. While I was in the felid, I felt extremely anxious and was doubting my decision on playing paintball but after I was shot for the first time I realised that it was actually not as painful as what my classmates and guide said it out to be and so I had a fun time enjoying the rest of the match. Had I had chickened out because of my fear that it would be painful, I would have never have found out how fun paintball actually was. Therefore I was really thankful for my dad’s advice of trying everything out at least once. Although I did end up getting a bruise on my shoulder, I did not regret playing paintball at all as it taught me the valuable lesson of giving everything a try before jumping to any conclusions.

The last activity of the day was some ice breaking games organise by none other than the guides themselves. The games we played allowed us to bond not only on a class level but also on an EE cohort level. The games showed us the importance of teamwork as we had to work together as a team if we wanted to win the games. The day ended with a dance off with the whole EE cohort dancing to the music provided by the guides and singing of Ed Sheeran’s song Shape of you.

Compared to the hectic day on Wednesday, Thursday was much mellower but it was still interesting to say the least. By the time it was the end of the day I knew a couple of classmates and begun sharing about our interest.

We begun Thursday morning with Mr Aman giving a motivational speech to the entire EE cohort. Although I was exhausted from the activities that I took part in on Wednesday and was afraid that I will sleep through his speech, I was glad that I was able to keep awake throughout his speech. He brought forth many interesting questions and concepts to my mind such as when he asked the cohort “Why do you wake up in the morning”. My answer to that question is that I wake up in the morning to see what the day holds for me. Besides that I learnt that we need to have a positive mindset and keep an open mind about the situation at hand. Other than that I also leant that we need to value add into our lives so that we can stand out from the norms. We can do this by doing more than what others expect of you because after all hard work put in now pays off in the future. I also learnt that the choices we make will result in consequences therefore we should make the right choice so as to not get bad consequences. Mr Aman also mentioned about how we should have a growth mindset by going out of our way to achieve our goals with no complains and taking full responsibility for our actions. He told us to have discipline and to focus on the task that we have on hand so that we would be able to achieve our goal faster and more efficiently as we will not be wasting our time doing anything redundant. Finally I learnt how to set a good goal. Mr Aman said that in order to set a good goal the goal needs to be specific, motivational, is measureable, have an action plan, is realistic and have a time limit. This is so that we will focus on our goals so that we can achieve it. He even gave us an extra tip on how to make sure that we achieve our goal saying that we need to be honest with ourselves and find out the true reason as to why we want to achieve the goal.

The next activity after lunch was to go play go kart. It was a full one hour drive to the go kart course and while we were on the bus we saw that the sky was dark, threatening to rain at any moment. At that moment in time, the atmosphere in the bus was tense as the guide told us that if it rained, we will not be able to play go kart due to safety reasons and so we prayed for the rain not to fall singing “Rain rain go away” on the bus. However sadly a couple of minutes later the rain came crashing down. We were saddened by the sight of the thunderstorm outside and we were told that the go karting might be postponed to Friday instead. The guide went down to check with the people running the go kart course to see if we got the go-ahead to continue with the activity or to turn back and in the sudden change of events, the guide came back and told us the news we were all hoping for: we will be able to go play go karts! At this point I felt very excited and happy that we would be able to play go karts as it was the first time that I will be playing go karts and also because we did not have to postpone the activity to Friday. Although I was scared while on the go kart for the first time, I decided to put my fears behind me and just have fun and that I did. This activity reminded me once again of the advice that my dad gave me on the night of Tuesday: always try everything first before jumping to any conclusions.

Friday was the last day of the induction week. I was thoroughly exhausted by the time we reached school in the afternoon due to the events that took place the past few days. Up to this point I made a few friends as well as got to know a little more about my classmates but I did not really socialise with the other classmates that I did not know as I was hanging around the people I already knew.

By the time the induction week ended I made new friends in the class so I am no longer as lost and lonely as Day 1 where I knew nobody. Although at first I was sceptical about this program and though that it was useless, I have been proved wrong after going through this program. This program sure helped me in getting used to an unfamiliar surrounding and also taught me countless valuable lessons as well as allowed me to bond with my classmates.

On the first night, we went for bowling in the hotel. That was the first time I have tried to bowl. One of my friends thought me how to bowl. It was really different and fun as my friends cheered and congratulate me when I played well. The paint ball activity was also different as I have only shot stationary objects and have not played in a team based match.

We went on a coffee factory tour and we were shown how coffee is being made and packed. To be honest it’s not an easy job. The factory was very hot as the machine was roasting the beans. And the workers there were stirring huge amounts of coffee powder every hour, despite bring payed very little. I am now very grateful as I am a coffee drinker and my day starts only after a cup of coffee.

During the organic farm trip, I learnt how vegetables are grown and how to purify the river water, which was really interesting as they used natural ingredients and shaped it into a ball. We were also allowed to play with the rabbits and they were running around us. And I also managed to carry one. It was very difficult as they too fast.

On one of the nights we were having a division based bonding activity. It was quite fun as they let us play games with random students and I actually managed to get to know friends from other classes.

On the third day, we went for a motivational talk. The talk was very comical and the speaker made few magic tricks which really made me to pay attention as I was not feeling well. However, I did bring back home few points as they were very interesting. The butterfly effect, which means that every small decision we make now may end up into a big change in the future, it may be a positive or negative change. And I learnt that we have to start focusing on our strengths rather than our weaknesses. Because we may have a very special skill or ability that is hiding inside of us. Hence if we try and trigger those attributes it may help us in the future, it can be either at work or in the physical world. 

I would like to thank Ngee Ann polytechnic, CEM and teachers for this wonderful overseas trip.

Tuesday marks the first day of Malaysia trip. We did not manage to do much that day except Bowling due to the long jam we were stuck in. I was a little disappointed when we were not allowed to room with our friends however I ended up feeling really thankful to our Advisors for forcing us to room with our classmates as I made new friends thanks to the rooming :)

During the Malaysia trip we went to organic farm and coffee factory. From the organic farm I learnt that they do not use any chemical related stuff at all to get rid of the insects thus they use a different method such as sticky tape to attract and capture the insects. At the coffee factory, I saw how much hard work the employers had to put in to make coffee and found out more about the different coffee beans.

After the whole day out on the second day I was really tired and hoped that we could quickly get back to the room to wash up and rest however we had mass bonding activities, I felt really annoyed and frustrated that we still had activities plus I was not feeling very well but in the end, the bonding activities were really effective and fun when the whole division played games together, I had a lot of laughter that night.

The last day was when we had the motivational talk by Mr Aman. I can say I learn the most on the last day. I found out that majority of people (including me) will do exactly what they are told to do hence it is difficult to stand out and show that you are more special than others. Thus, we are advised to do more than expected to excel greater,become unforgettable and unignorable. I have taken a few quotes told by Mr Aman away with me: "choices have consequences" , "only dead fish go with the flow" and "a comfort zone is a beautiful place but nothing ever grows there". This quotes pushes me to really start finding out what I job I want to have in the future, give firm answers and make decisions right away on what I want to do and lastly step out of my comfort zone, do something special, different & extraordinary from others. 

Lastly, a set of skills I can use to increase my self esteem would be 

1)affirm myself with positive words

2)be grateful for what I have and not blindly sought after what I don't have

3)focus on my strengths and not weaknesses 

The following day, we went to zenxin organic farm, a big producer of organic crops that is being distributed sparsely in many major department stores in Singapore. I learnt how various types of crops required different types of growing methods. Before coming to this farm, I thought that crops were being harvested the same way regardless of the different species. In this trip, I learnt how pests can ruin the hard work of the farmers and also how to repel the pests from destroying the crops. 

            Following which, we went to the coffee factory early in the morning. The moment we stepped foot out of the bus, the aroma of the coffee just kept coming to us in waves. We also managed to learn how coffee is being made. The coffee beans were being roasted in a very big and hot machine. It made me feel that coffee should not be worth so little as much effort is required in the process of producing coffee powder. The factory workers who worked there also put in lots of sweat just to produce that little bit of coffee powder. After witnessing how the coffee powders were made, it made me feel gratified whenever I drink a cup of coffee. As I will remember how coffee powder is being made. 

            Under the hot sun later in the day, we went to play paintball. It was the second time I played paintball, the first time I played paintball was in Secondary two during a camp. The paintball game that I participated in during Secondary School was held on a much bigger scale but it wasn’t as fun as compared to this as this time round the paintballs were of higher discomfort. 

            The next morning, we woke up to a motivational talk held by Mr Aman. I felt that his talk was very inspirational to me. This motivational talk has inspired me to strive well and do better in the polytechnic. He managed to catch my attention which made me want to listen attentively to whatever that he said and one of the things that he said which hit me hard was: “Event + Response = Outcome” which led me to think before I act whenever anything happens. 

Came in slightly late and was a little embarrassed as it was some what a big lecture theatre, I was wearing a size ‘M’ soe shirt and it was pretty big. Luckily, mr yang had an extra size ‘S’ shirt and went to change. All was well after that. The day then proceeded on with several talks that were crucial and important to our academic years. I sat beside the only friend I made , Arvind. He was pretty chill and I managed to strike up a conversation with him on Monday. Arvind and I did not attend any bonding camps like the ‘EEFOC’ or the ‘NPSU’ camps so we were like loners on the first day while everyone already had formed groups amongst themselves. After the talk , we then proceeded on with lunch and managed to sit beside some of our course people as they invited us to sit with them  and I was somewhat grateful to them by doing so. After that Arvind and I decided to follow them to check out the cca fiesta as that is the only day that we can check it out. We then proceeded to the bus bay where we are supposed to meet the rest before departing to Malaysia. I still remembered waiting super long as it was pouring very bad. We boarded the bus and I sat beside Arvind. The bus ride felt like eternity as there was a jam at the customs as it was raining. Around an hour away from the custom , a few of my course’s girls started to engage themselves in a quick activity on the bus and me and Arvind decided to join them because if we do not , we would be loners throughout the entire camp. When we reached Malaysia to our hotel/resort , we placed our baggage at the lobby and headed to bowl at the hotel’s bowling alley. From today’s experience I learnt that if you do not socialise early , you’ll probably be left out and would be difficult to made friends later on.

We had breakfast and proceeded on to the zenxin farm or something. I learnt about the different ways the farmers there use to grow crops and to fend off insects. They were rearing chickens , ducks , geese and rabbits too . We were able to pet the rabbits and they were hopping all around the place which made me a little uncomfortable. The heat that day was unbearable and I regretted cladding myself entirely black. We had lunch at zenxin and made our own pastries which was curry puffs. We headed on to a coffee factory and learnt that there were 3 types of coffee beans and also how they grind the coffee to make them to coffee powder. I bought a few packets of coffee back home for my family members. Then came paintball, it sounded intimidating at first but got better when I played it with some familiar faces. Then headed off to dinner at some tze char restaurant and had a great chit chat session with my table mates. After settling down in the hotel, the camp instructors then had a few activities planned out for the whole cohort of ee. It was somewhat fun I guess. From today’s experience , I learnt that you will always bear the fruits of your labour.

Proceeding on with day 3 , I knew that the camp was coming to an end. The whole morning was taken up by some motivational talk which lasted for 3 hours. The speaker , mr aman shared some of his life stories with us and told us how he overcame them and I thought that it was pretty useful and could apply some of the values he taught too. He then showcased some of his magic tricks and I thougth that was pretty impressive. Lunch came and I sat with my friends and talked about the go cart activity that we were going to play next. On the way to the course, it started to rain very heavy and I thought that we couldn’t play anymore and I was ok about it and when we reached there, it stopped and the camp instructor said we could still carry on with it but just had to watch our speed. The overall experience was great and refreshing as that was my first time ever trying out. We had dinner at a seafood restaurant and the food was pretty disappointing. After that , we headed back to our hotel to rest. From today’s experience, I learnt that things will always seem difficult at start but you will have to put in effort to it and then all would turn out just fine.

Did not really do much today and was really exhausted. Headed to a mall to shop but did not find anything nice to buy. Ate at A&W and the taste was just average to me , didn’t seem too fantastic to begin with. Then headed back to Singapore and reached Ngee Ann Polytechnic. From today’s experience, I learnt that we always need to cherish who we love and appreciate all the simple things in life as you would not know when you’ll perish. 

Overall , I felt that the induction programme was helpful as it helps people like me to make friends and forge great ties that would be looked back in the future.

Paintball taught me to charge ahead, but strategically. On the field, if you advance too quickly, you will be an open target for your opponents to shoot down. However, if you hang back for too long, the opportunity for you to advance may be missed, and you will never get the chance to be out on the field and fire at your opponents. Similarly, we should take opportunities when they are presented to us, but must pick which ones to take and when to take them.

Go-karting encouraged us to have confidence in ourselves, to believe that we could drive the kart even if we did not have any prior experience. It also emphasised the importance of balance – drive too slowly and you lose out on the full experience, but drive too quickly and you risk losing control of the kart.

Meeting my new classmates was a very fascinating experience. They all have a mix of different hobbies and talents, some of which I had rarely seen previously. Hopefully we can all learn new things together and from each other.

All the planned activities that we took part in were amazing, but one of the most memorable moments to me was completely impromptu. On one of the days, I bought a bag of roasted chestnuts, which I ate with some of my classmates at night. Before we could eat them, we had to crack the shells. Unable to remember or find an efficient technique, we ended up experimenting. In the end, we found the most effective method to be throwing the chestnuts at the wall, even if someone did get hit multiple times after the chestnuts bounced off!

From the talk:

There are three kinds of people in life – Those who do more than expected, those who do less and those who do exactly as expected of them. In order to stand out, one must go above and beyond what is expected, since doing as expected is just the average.

One must strive to have a growth mindset, the belief that you will grow regardless of what happens. In order to have this mindset, one must be willing to take responsibility and accept challenges.

The only person who can give you your self-esteem is yourself, though balance is required here as well. One must love themselves regardless of what others think, but should not pamper themselves all the time.

The outcome of an event should not be determined solely by the event itself, but also on one’s response to an event. Hence, we must not let ourselves be dictated by uncontrollable moments. If there is a negative situation, we should try and make the best out of it instead of complaining about it.

In conclusion, our choices are the most important. We can choose to want to keep learning, to think better of ourselves, to respond to situations in a way that will benefit us in the long run.

 

In the first day, we were asked to introduce ourselves. I was very scared and nervous when I heard this, as I do not have the confidence to speak in English in front of so many strangers. When it was my turn, my legs were shaking. But I tried to stay calm and pretend that they were all my friends. By telling this in my heart, I felt better and told them some story about myself. After that we were closer to each other, and I managed to make friends with some of them.  From this, I learnt that sometimes the task given to us may not be what we want to do. Since we do not have the option of not to do it, then why not change our attitude and complete it in an easier and more interesting way?

In the following day morning, we tried some mathematics questions. To me, they were all easy questions, it did not take me too much time to finish them. In the afternoon, we went for a campus tour. We walk around the whole school to find out where are the places that we may need to go for the next 3 years. After that we went to the CCA fairs. I wanted to join band or Chinese drama at first, but I didn’t join any of the CCAs. This is because I think that academic results are more important than our interests. I may join them in my second year in np if I can manage my studies.

In that week, I got more information about how to cope with the poly life. It was quite interesting and the information is useful as well. If I have the chance to go Malaysia with my classmates, I will definitely go with them, though.

On the first night, we had bowling. This was my first time playing the actual game, meaning I have absolutely no experience whatsoever with the sport. Never really knew how to bowl the right technique, resulting in my terrible score and finding other terrible methods to attempt to roll the ball. One of which was to literally push the ball into the pins(?) which did sort of work, except it split the pins to opposite sides. Having next to zero skills, I decided to just go for it and hope for the best. Like, I did have no chance at all to even make two of the pins fall successfully. So, I just went for it and sure enough, the ball rolled right between the pins.

I also feel that it is not solely just the bowler’s skill that will affect the results, but also the support from friends. Everyone’s first few tries were terrible but towards the end, our scores began to increase little by little, but of course still low. We didn’t mind it too much as it was a casual game and laughing at every mistake made was the highlight of our game, except for the one strike that my group had on his second last bowl. He was our group’s legend just from that one bowl. This has not taught me much but I think that this was the first main activity that brought us together as we have some experience together already. 

This is my first visit to an organic farm and it offered me chances to safely try raw vegetables for the first time. I have been to several farms before, namely strawberry farms, hydroponic farm and dairy farm, and this has added on to the list of types of farms I have been to. I grew up being taught to appreciate every effort put into making our meals and seeing the effort and time the farmers put into this farm, I feel that I have not appreciated them enough. They have to work all day under the hot sun to sell their produce to customers, only to repeat the process over and over again. Farmers deserve more credits and appreciation than they actually receive now and I truly respect them.

Personally, I am moving to an ovo-vegetarian diet as meat products are not just expensive, but it is also more tedious to grow and most animals are cruelly treated while they are alive and killed in very inhumane methods. Now, I can eat a full vegetarian without feeling any difficulties and have meet occasionally. This is also much like a treat and can feel it as a luxury.

As someone who loves coffee, coming to a factory was sort of like amazing as I get to see parts of the preparation progress of what many just say they love and gulp down in a matter of seconds before rushing off to school and work. To see how it is done I factories gives me some understanding of the efforts that is put into each of our cups every morning. Months of labour has come down to several minutes at breakfast before rushing off. I do it as well but it is nicest drank warm. But that isn’t where the appreciation I was referring to should come from.

The factory environment was extremely warm and it was rather uncomfortable, imagine working in such an environment multiple days a week, and almost every waking hour. Surely it is something nobody in a developed country would want to experience, especially when all we do under the sun is to try to get out of it. As much as school helps us to improve ourselves academically, to go further develop the world around us, not everyone of us is fortunate enough to receive education. On top being fortunate enough to receive education, we also pay extremely low prices for our coffees and food in general. Of course we pay taxes too, but those aren’t profits that the farmers earn. The world around us forces prices up but we always only expect the cost of living to stay the same, which is quite unfair to farmers and should understand it isn’t their fault that food is expensive, and continue to be appreciative of their contributions working all around the clock.

I have before tried paintball but has honestly never been fun for me(?) I never managed to shoot anyone but me being hit is so common even though the accuracy of the gun itself isn’t good at all to begin with. Or I am just bad at it myself. However, even with poor skill, a strategy was still needed before each game and this allowed us to share our ideas to actually make our enemy team fall. However, it didn’t go well for me as from the start, I had no pellets. I knew I was definitely not going to enjoy this round. Though there was nothing I could do in my situation, I just laughed it out and hope was all just for the laughs. I was fortunate enough that I was given a chance to enter again, making use of every opportunity I had at shooting them and finding pellets from the ground to use again.

This is possibly my favourite of all the activities we had for sure! I have had experience in go karting, in Batam and Mario Kart, but the one in Batam is less than 30 kph, while it obviously feels way more than that here which is definitely more fun and the circuit at Batam is probably 4 times smaller than this. As I was lucky enough to have gotten the kart that has quite a high speed, I took advantage of it / abused my power and sped. At sharp turns, I was still going at relatively high speeds, occasionally drifting for that short amount of time, while others were just spinning out. This taught me that with the speed I have, I should not abuse it as it might actually cause accidents. Thankfully my reckless driving brought no harm to my classmates around me, which is sort of why I continued to abuse my power. Furthermore, driving is not something I would get to experience often, therefore allowing myself to abuse it as I have  no other chance to drive like this even if I get my driver’s licence some time in the future.

This was one of the programmes planned for us which probably everyone wanted to skip for an activity more worth their time, including myself. However, the three hours passed quickly and had been very meaningful as our speaker was not just a speaker but a magician as well! As someone who always tries to look at details in anywhere that a magician shows signs that he is doing the trick openly. What amazes me most is that I have spotted no signs that he has messed with the cards like woah magic!

Aside from the magic, I have learnt that not only should we do more than expected, but we should also learn to give ourselves a wealth of self-esteem, or what he calls poker chips. Poker chips have been used here in this context because we must learn to actually gamble with it sometimes in certain cases so as to earn more of it in terms of respect and trust. A simple analogy but the perfect example of how we can use this idea in our daily lives.

Many ways to change the world begins from creating something out of the box as it will completely amaze everyone, drawing attention into such a new product that could lead to the great next step of the progression list of the gadgets of the future, or simple new business plans that done simply can be bring profits. Examples given were like Virgin, owning a fleet of 40, and Apple with countless products. A different approach may be risky, but will likely be for a long time. Invest big, win big. Because for all we know, people will like the new revolutionary idea that will branch out to a whole new industry.

There’s this one formula that he introduced to us, E + R = O, which tells us about how the event and response will affect the outcome. Events are normally predetermined, however our responses will mean everything when the result will be directly resulted by the way we respond. This means that we must always handle bad situations with an open mind and solve problems to make sure that the outcome will always be favourable to us.

At the beginning, I was a nervous wreck and I felt a little awkward despite knowing some friends who were in the same course as me from the Electrical Engineering Freshmen Orientation Camp (EEFOC). This was because most of the familiar faces ended up in a different class (1C21) and I was the only freshman from my tribe (GreyJoy) that was posted to Class 1C11. We gathered together at the Sandbox and listened to Mr Yang’s introduction as our course chairman and the advisor of 1C21 and Mr See’s introduction as the advisor of 1C11. 

Afterwards, we watched a remix video of Bob Ross painting “Happy Little Clouds” that was sent by our course mate. Even though the video was just three and a half minutes, I learnt a few things after watching it. For example, I learnt that we should believe in ourselves from his quote “Believe that you can do it. Cause you can do it.” and “There are no limits here. You start out by believing here.”

Subsequently, Mr Yang and Mr See handed out jotter books and two name tags to us. We were instructed to draw or jot down our ideas, write more about ourselves and our reflections in our jotter books. As for the name tags, we were instructed to use our creativity to design our names and we had to submit one name tag to Mr Yang. From that activity, I learnt that we should be more confident in expressing ourselves and our creativity. I also learnt that we should not be afraid of the judgement of others and we should learn to accept constructive criticism so that we can improve ourselves.

Then, we had our break and we were introduced to a few places in Ngee Ann Polytechnic by Mr Yang, such as the Lien Ying Chow Library and the Electrical Engineering General Office. We went to Next, we headed to a classroom and we were debriefed by Mr Yang and he told us the NP Graduate Outcomes- Passionate Learners, Big-hearted Persons and Global-smart Professionals. (Learn Long Long, Heart Big Big, Go Far Far)

On the second day, I still felt a little nervous when we had to sit in our respective course and class after we reported to the Music Box as I was not close to any of my classmates and did not know many of their names yet. We did not manage to do much activities as there was a jam on our way to Malaysia. But despite that, I was glad that our course introduced ourselves and played some games together while we were in the bus. 

The next activity we had was bowling, we had to form into groups of six and wait for the other course to finish their bowling activity first. While we were waiting, some of us played foosball together and that gave us a chance to talk a little more to each other while having fun playing. The bowling activity also gave us more time to bond even more with some course mates and I was glad that I could gradually talk and joke with them more. 

On the third day, we had a list of pleasant activities planned for us. I felt excited and ready to have a whale of time on that day. First off, we visited Zenxin Organic Farm and I was quite impressed by how innovative they were at using their resources at the fullest after hearing how the organic farm started. The Zenxin Organic Farm was originally a chicken farm and as they had a lot of chicken manure, they decided to keep the manure to turn it into fertiliser and they started selling fertilisers. However, after a while they had an excess of fertilisers and this led them to start growing their own organic crops. This made me realise that when we are facing obstacles, there is always another way out and that having creativity is very important as it helps us progress more when we are facing problems.

Secondly, we visited a renowned coffee factory and we watched how coffee is made. I felt grateful at how much hard work is put in to make that cup of coffee that most people drink every morning. This taught me to appreciate what I have even more as nothing in life ever comes easily.

Thirdly, we went to play Paintball and although I was quite afraid, I decided to still try the activity out. During my team’s round, we had a strategy suggested to us, which was for us to charge to the opponent team’s side and shoot together. I was very proud and happy that my team followed the strategy and that we won that round, from that experience I learnt that if we want to succeed we should have a plan and that having teamwork is important. I also learnt that although we might be afraid of trying, we should still give it a try as we regret the chances we did not take.

Lastly, we had ice breaking games which was an activity for all the EE students to know more students from other courses and have more new friends.

On the fourth day, I felt closer to my course mates than I ever did before. We started our day with a motivational talk “Getting Ahead in the Game of Life” by Mr Aman and he mentioned many crucial points and raised certain questions that may seem simple at first but were more profound instead. One of the key takeaways of the motivational talk was that we should have a Growth Mindset where we give our 100% to achieve our goals, accept challenges and take responsibility instead of having a Fixed Mindset where we push the blame to others, complain, give excuses and give up when we meet obstacles. Another key takeaway was that we should get out of our comfort zone so that we can empower ourselves as the saying goes,” a comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.” This taught me that if we stay at our comfort zone, we will not be able to continue improving ourselves. One other key takeaway was “Event (10%) + Response (90%) = Outcome (100%).” This taught me that although we cannot change the event that took place, our response to the event is more important as it is the ultimate thing that leads to the outcome, if we have a good response it will lead to a better outcome whereas if we have a bad response it will lead to a worse outcome. From this talk, I learnt that every choice we make leads to consequences and only dead fishes go with the flow, this teaches me to develop my critical thinking to empower myself so that I can make the right choices and have good results and that I should not just follow others blindly. I also learnt how to set goals from Mr Aman’s talk, he mentioned that to set a good goal it should be specific, motivational, measurable, have an action plan, is realistic and has a time limit. He also mentioned that we need to be true to ourselves and know the reason why we want to achieve the goal so that we will be more motivated to achieve our goals. This allows me to focus on my goals more and makes them more achievable as I would have a reason why I want to achieve my goal and an actual plan laid out on how to achieve my goals. 

Following the talk, we had our lunch and the next activity we had was Go Kart. Even though we were just leisurely driving around the go kart course, I still had a lot of fun. 

On the fifth day, it was time for us to head back to Singapore. In conclusion, the induction week was a great experience for me as I learnt many things along the way while participating in many fun filled activities with my course mates. The induction week also helped me to bond more with my course mates and it also allowed me to make more memories with them.