Saturday, May 17, 2008
Ok, I know I wrote "tomorrow" in my previous post but I was too busy rushing my Masters thesis research proposal so I couldn't find any time to write that short piece I promised. Anyway, now is a very appropriate time to write it, as I have just spent a most enjoyable night out with the Anime Club alumni community (or the "old" people, as Yanhua puts it) at Marina Square.
~~~
I don't remember much of the interview I went for when I first applied to join the committee, except that Adnan insisted that I should join the Publicity Sub-Committee because of my experience in Cedar Press and Synapse in AJ, even though I told him "Publications" and "Publicity" were not the same thing... But I ended up in Publicity for 3 years out of 4 anyway (though the last shouldn't count 'cos I hardly did anything =___=;) and I did gain a lot of valuable experience in planning and executing events publicity. Moreover, if I wasn't put into Publicity all the way back then, perhaps I wouldn't have had the chance to make cosplay costumes. More about that next time ;)
I don't remember much about the first AGM either but I do remember Alex, ZQ, Chonghan, Qianhao and I sitting in a row and laughing at the supposed mistake in Adnan's name on the powerpoint slide... It turned out to be really his name after all =___=;
I guess one of the most important things that has happened in my NUS life is meeting Adnan. He is by far the most capable student leader I have ever met before and he has certainly been a much better one thanI have been and will ever be. His planning for events was meticulous, he knew how to distribute work evenly to his subordinates, he made decisions quickly and decisively yet not without due consideration, and strangest of all, he had this charisma that somehow made people want to work for him even though most of the time he looked like he was merely sitting there devoid of all expression and drinking too much coffee. I used to think he was simply stoning, but I soon realized that he only LOOKED like he was not paying attention when he was actually fully conscious of - and OBSERVING - whatever was going on around him. And I always found it rather creepy that he would often present strange imaginary scenarios to us and ask for our response.
I suppose that might have been due to his being a Psychology major, but although he was weird and was possibly using us as his experimental subjects, and I know this sounds pretty embarrassing, but I absolutely idolized him. He wasn't only a great chairperson, he was also a great senior and friend. I was pretty lonely in my first year, but even though he was already in his third year, he often chatted with me online (I will never forget how we stayed up to 3am once talking about the ethics of casual sex...), gave me advice on my schoolwork (I owe my A- in PH1101E to him), guided me along when I floundered in my first year as Publicity Head, and always welcomed me into the small but close-knitted community of the club comm.
I remember walking along the dark AS1 corridor one hot afternoon early in my first year, and glancing up at the dazzling green trees outside, and all of a sudden I thought, "I am going to marry myself to the Anime Club and give it everything I can give for as long as I can. They have accepted me when others have rejected me, and have given me a place to belong to in this world where no one seems to care whether you live or die, and I am going to stick with the club through everything, forever."
And it's been four years since then and I still love the club as much as did at that moment. Although I now play a much smaller role in the committee and I understand that it is time to let the new blood take over and do things for themselves (no matter how worried I am for the club), I'm still going to help out when I can and maintain contact with the club even as I graduate and move on to other things. After all, the club has given me four years of great experiences and wonderful friends who have grown up with me and whom I hope to keep for life - how can one fully repay that? Being an NUS Anime Club member is a lifetime commitment =)
kaoru said at 9:04 PM
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