Sharings

Leaving Message

TL Justin Soon 2018/19

Hi guys, I’m Justin and I’m here to share a little bit about why Scouting means so much to me. I would like to begin first, by asking all of you, how many of you actually want to be here right now? How many of you are sitting down, thinking about how your time can be spent somewhere else? How many of you are genuinely thinking “I’m glad I came for Scouts today. I’m not going to single you out, but the question I would like to ask all of you sitting here is, why are you here? Surely everyone of you has a reason why you chose to put on that scarf, that uniform and turn up for scouts today? It may not be super deep and profound, but I find that no matter how lame or shallow your reason is, we all have one. For me personally, It is the friendships that I have forged in Scouts, as well as the experience that I have gone through, that keeps me coming back, ever since I was in year one.

Honestly, the only reason I indicated Scouts as my first choice on my CCA preference form in year one was because my brother had shared so many interesting and exciting sounding experiences as a scout then an SPL that I so longingly wanted to be a part of. Hence, when the time came, I had my decision set in stone. What really made me question this so-called “rock hard decision, was my first scouts session. I was never a Cub Scout, so I had no idea what to expect. From my brother’s stories of his massive burly seniors inventing knots and cooking French Fries for them, I had a rather vague understanding of what scouting really was, hence on my first scouts session, I was rather disappointed to not be able to start my own fire or “burn a chicken alive’ in his own words, and started to ahem question the stories he told me.

I have a friend, whose name I shall not mention, and who is sitting among you right now, who constantly asked me the same question over and over again. Like literally almost every time he saw me, not so much now, but there was a period of time where I would see him, talk to him, and eventually our conversation would lead up to him asking me, “ Why is Scouts so useless, what does scouts bring to the table that other UGs do not? why can’t we be a Christian based community like BB, or center ourselves around first aid to potentially save people’s lives, and so on and so forth” today, I would like to answer that question, at least to the best of my ability. I have attended enough international exchange programmes, campfires, area events and HQ-organized events, (maybe too much for an O-level student) to know that Scouting is not just a UG, although it may sound cliché, It is a community, a family, a place many people call home, not just here in the gates of ACSI, but all over the world, with over 28 million brothers and sisters from all walks of life. This means that there are so many opportunities for you to experience the culture of Scouts from different parts of the world or, if you want to start small, from different parts of Singapore, you just need to grab them. On top of this, we also take part in almost everything that the others do, so if you ask me, we incorporate so many life skills, like first aid, crime prevention and occasional Christian education, together with our own scouting hard skills, into not a UG, but a family, community and movement we call Scouts.

Standing here, as your TL and addressing all of you, was never something that I , as a year 1 scout, first putting on my Scout Uniform imagined I 1. Had the balls to do, 2. Would even be given a chance to do. Right now, as I think and look back on my journey, I will never regret going on 3 40 km hikes with my seniors, bearing the burden of having to plan one and endure another 40km with an idiot, sorry two idiots, stay up till 3am during midway to learn that Stephen Hawking is the founder of Scouting, eating pig’s blood and enjoying it with Taiwanese scouts, doing pushups for my main man Mr. Waqiuddin during SLC, freaking out about ghosts at the toilet in Pulau Ubin during VFC, and so much more stupid experiences that if I were to talk about now, we would be here all day, and I was privileged to have done all of this with the best bunch of people I could have ever asked for.

Right now, I want you to think about your purpose for coming here, for the year 1s to 3s, and really focus on that purpose. I have told you mine, but I hope all of you really do keep that purpose etched in your mind the next time you put on your scarf, focus on that purpose, treasure it and make the most of your time in the CCA, because your time here is short, whether you want your scouting journey to be “useless” or ‘empty’ is up to you to decide. With that, as a troop leader addressing his troop for the last time, I would like to thank the teachers, my fellow graduating batch of year fours, and all of you, for being such a great group of Scouts to lead, and for teaching me so much that I could not have learnt anywhere else. God bless, and be prepared. Thanks :)

Leaving Message

TL Nicholas Ng 2017/18

When I first became a Dragon I had so many big plans - raise the drills standard, clean up the scout store, increase discipline and many other things. And yes there were areas which we didn’t really improve. But we all ask ourselves, what is our legacy gonna be? Raising the standard? Yes, that would be good, but you will never be able to fully accomplish it in your service time. If you think about it, we will never be able to perfect what we set out to do as Dragons in our time. And neither will the next batch nor the batch after them. And it’s not because we’re not good enough but its the fact that no one can ever make this scout troop perfect. And no that’s not a bad thing, you see. The greatest impact we dragons can ever hope to have on this troop is to inspire you guys, the future batches so that you guys will have the passion that we do to continue the work we couldn’t finish. Our greatest hope as seniors is to see the next batch of dragons to be better than us to excel where we failed to be better than us and all the previous batch. In this we continuously work towards making the troop better and better by year as our school motto says The best is Yet To be. The dragons do a lot of work behind the scenes that you guys don’t know and all the time we spend doing it is for the troop, its for you guys every single one of you. And that is our aspiration as dragons, to inspire you. It has been an honour to lead this troop, thank you.

Community Service @ Telok Blangah

ATL Wo Zhen Hao 2017/18

Sharing on Community Service @ Telok Blangah

TL Lawerence Yuan 2017/2018

My experience with the Community Service @ Telok Blangah has truly been a fulfilling one. This is true not only in terms of the activity we did, helping the old folks, but also in terms of the things we learnt, from the activity as well as the people around us. The activity, I felt, is much more important than simply the act of donating money. We are just much more involved and we get to interact with the people as well. The short 'thank you' that they give really means the world and makes the sacrifice of the Sunday afternoon worth it. I think that the people who were there were also very inspiring. For example, Mr Desmond Yap, who would constantly be walking to and fro, carrying the bags for those who were less mobile, and generally trying his best to help them. The organisers of this event, I felt, were also very inspiring due to them not being supported by any big organization. They are just doing this by themselves, with nothing in it for them, through the goodness of their hearts. And I think this is really what strikes me the most. The care to be genuinely good to others and trying your best to help is what I have learnt from these great examples.

Hong Kong Jamboree Reflections

Samuel Ong 2016

This Jamboree has really been a blast. From the preparation sessions to the pre-Jam program, to the actual Jamboree, the whole experience has been exciting, fun and eye-opening. Needless to say, it has been an unforgettably amazing journey, and if given the chance, I would definitely go for another Jamboree.I am extremely glad that I got to go for this Jamboree as I have learnt much more about scouting in other countries, especially Hong Kong and China. I have also had more exposureto more scouting activities. This experience has made me a lot more interested and enthusiastic in scouting, and I hope that I will get more opportunities to interact with scouts from other places in future.I am also especially thankful for the chance to interact with scouts from other schools in Singapore. From the first awkward preparation session when we didn’t know each other at all, to the strong bonds we have now, sharing this experience with them has definitely forgednew friendships between all of us. I look forward to us encountering one another again in other scouting events like campfires or gangshows, where these friendships will continue to grow. On the whole, I feel that the entire experience has changed me. I will always cherish the memories made from this Jamboree, and I am really thankful that I got to go on such an amazing ride from start to end. The preparations, the activities, and most of all, the people, have made this trip so enjoyable and unforgettable.