My Summer Adventure

Remember last year I wrote an entry titled My Summer Romance, (You can read it here.) and some of you thought I had come to California and bagged myself an American surfer dude. (No I did not, for your information, still very much single and available.) And for all of you who haven’t got a clue to what I did last year, here goes: Last summer, I decided to head to America for the famous American Summer Camp experience. After logistical nightmares, administrative battles, I made it there, a special-needs camp in a lovely valley in Cupertino, California. Was this what I had chosen? No. I never thought I was someone who could work in a special-needs camp. But I was 21, and who would turn down California at 21? No one. Besides, three seasons of The O.C. later, I was filled with fantasies of California, a single state in the West Coast of the USA, that is more than 600 times the size of Singapore. (Not kidding, go Google it yourself)

Halfway through winter this year, I looked out of my window; the grey clouds pay their daily visit to English skies, the more than miserable weathers that consist of rain and sleet. I used to tell myself that I’d handle sub-zero degrees if I had the pleasure of playing with snow. Didn’t happen. I looked at my fading tan and started yearning for the sun. Having been brought up in Singapore with Sentosa just a bus-ride away, the sun is almost a given in my life. After two harsh winters in England, I decided that I wanted sun.

If I said I came back to California only for the sun then I’d be lying through my teeth. Besides, if I wanted the sun, there’s always Singapore, and I get easy access to prata at home!!

If you are a Trybe volunteer then you’d definitely know what I mean. You don’t go back to Trybe sessions just because you enjoy waking up at 7am on a Saturday morning, jump on that MRT and travel across the island just to meet a bunch of students. You don’t go to Trybe sessions just because you enjoy hanging out with other Trybe volunteers (even though they are the coolest people in the world to hang out with). You don’t go to Trybe sessions just because you think the Trybe logo is cool and you want to wear the Trybe T-shirt. All the above might be a part of the bigger picture, but most importantly you go to a Trybe session because you believe in the programme. Because you believe that you can make a difference. Because you believe. And here I am, back at Camp Costanoan because I believe. I believe in this 13-acre land that makes me so happy. I believe in the people here, the wizards who conjure up magic every summer, people filled with love, not here to glorify themselves but everything other than that.

This place has seen me at my worst, my total and utter breakdown, it has seen me sitting in a corner, sobbing and crying for mummy. It has seen me sitting by the payphone trying desperately to call a friend but constrained by time difference. But this place has also seen me at my best. A place where I conquered fears, won personal battles, made people that I’d never ever had the chance to meet, fall in love with people that I’d never even speak to. Last year’s experience gave me a new pair of eyes to look at the world with, and it taught me things that I’d never otherwise learn. Like I always say there are so many things in life that you never knew you could until you did and things fall into place as quickly as they fall together.

The holidays are a good time for you to go and try something that might just make everything fall apart. Think of it this way: you’ve got a month (or more) on your hands (I know you’ve all those holiday assignments but no one does them anyway) you’ve got nothing better to do except sit at home and watch TV (don’t get me wrong, I love watching TV), so why don’t spend all that time going on an adventure. I came to America last summer because I wanted an adventure, but I got more than what I’d bargained for. Most of the times this is what you’d get, and I am not going to lie to you, most of the times it’ll make your world fall apart. But I reassure you, it will fall into place as quickly as it falls apart. Perhaps not the way you are used to, but it will fall into some sort of a ‘place’.

So do me a favour, let me feel that I am all cool and inspiring: do something new this holiday. Be it taking part in more TRYBE sessions, or doing another flag day or old news-paper collection, or even just packing out your room and donating things that you’ve grown out of to the Salvation Army, or fund raising for the earthquake in Sichuan and the disaster in Burma. Just do something this holiday, something that you won’t normally do. Go on that adventure that you never thought you could take on, you might discover something new about yourself.

This little adventure might just spark off a change in you that causes a domino effect, and before you know it, you are that one single person who changed the world. Go on, roll your eyes and think I am being idealistic again. But give me one second after you’ve rolled your eyes, just one little second: and realize that there might be a chance for me to be, actually, not that off the point.

So good luck on your adventure, and write me to tell of tales and exciting stories! Have fun! I am sure you will.