Ulu Kia: IIUM 8th Interschool Debating Championship 2009

[Pictures in partial chronological order=) Some stolen from Sean]

Hi, I am from Sarawak. I have never touched a phone before. How orgasmic.

First of all, I'd like to clarify a few misconceptions about Sarawakians that were raised during this competition.

NO, you don't have to use satellites to track us remote ppl in Sarawak.

NO, Sarawak is not part of China wtf.

NO, we are not china imports.

NO, we do not live on trees.

NO, just because we are sarawakians does not mean we automatic got Melanau blood.

NO, Kuching is not =cultural village (so cute la annabelle)

YES, we have tvs here.

YES, we used the airplane before.
YES, we spiak English (and a smattering of ULU birdcalls teehee)
YES, got electricity la.
YES, we got Spring.

NO, Spring is not an actual spring. Its a shopping mall.

And finally,

YES, Sarawakians CAN debate.

With that cleared, lets start the ball rolling.

Unexpected.
Overwhelming.

Quite like a dream.

That sums up the gist of it.

Of course, something as significant as this deserves a longer post than just that! I am still figuring out how to start this post. Let's start with post-swinburne, shall we?

Sean was director of photography. Taken during opening dinner because we were feeling down. Left: Me and Sean. Right: Sam and Arianne.

The last post ended with a bunch of green road squirrels staring at money with Sam and Ced to sooth a very bruised ego. That evening, none of us had the time to lick our wounds as we packed up for our next tournament.

It is indeed a very crazy idea to exit one debate tournament into another in less than 24 hours. That was exactly what we did. In a way, it was a good move. None of us wanted to go to school and having to relay the less than exciting news about Swinburne. We treated this trip as a getaway. Almost like a vacation, only with debate in context.

For all those who did not read the title, I am talking about the International Islamic University Malaysia's Interschool Debating Championship 2009. It is a 6-day competition, open to high schools nationwide. Why in the world is Green Road suddenly in this competition? Mr Latiff, as CA for WSDC 07, had invited our seniors over for the competition before but there were some issues that could not be ironed out. Hence, the last 2 years saw our school letting the competition pass by our noses.

Of course, that does not mean we did not face complications prior to the competition. In fact, there were many problems that propped up. For one, we could not get funding from the school for our trips. Madam Ng, once again, exhausted all outlets to find us some kind of financial aid but 'NO' was all we got from the school. The school would not even certify our sponsor letters. The trip almost went down the drains because of the lack of sponsorships. I don't know about you but I was sore about this problem. Shouldn't the school be backing us up? Its not like we never achieved anything in debate before. Karen mentioned dryly that we should go as MDM NG A and B rather than GREEN ROAD. We were abandoned by our main source of support. No worries, WE FUND OURSELVES.

Secondly, there was the problem of who is going to accompany us there. Not that we are one bunch of undisciplined kids (I can testify that afterwards in the competition, we were very well-behaved. We might as well just went without a teacher-in-charge). So Madam Teresa and Madam Iris would come along. The catch is: we have to pay on behalf of the teachers. Fine with me, not like we can do anything about it.

Like the adage, 'when theres a will theres a way', we actually found ourselves gathering at the airport around 11am on Friday (24th April). Honestly, I was abit lagging that morning la, swinburne just habis wad. I had some doubts and fears then. It was, after all, the 1st time I was going away without my parents. You would think that i would be worried about more serious matters such as safety or belongings but no, the 2 things that I was worried about were:

1) haunted rooms

2) KL highways

Laugh la, Ced, go ahead and laugh.

Clutching my bagpack, we headed for KL!

AIG: Stability and financial strength. Irony.

The CAC where registration was held.

Many of us thought food would be served when we reached the IIUM campus but we were so wrong. By the time we got there, it was 5. As we made very groggy steps into the CAC/registration hall,we came to realise that we would not be having food till 9pm.

Lets talk about the campus. IIUM has a history of a very strong debate club. The campus is huge and resembles an arabic version of Disneyland. For more professional pictures of the location, head over to Sean's blog.

Sam is patriotic. Hannah's jeans commercial.

We were tired, sore and quite disorientated after the whole journey. The ordeal was made worse by the fact that we had to drag our luggage around with us for registration, then carry them up several flights of stairs to get ourselves our blankets and pillows, then carry THOSE things as well into our hostel. We were abit down at the fact that girls and guys were split so far apart. If you don't already know, we consider Sean and Sam as partially girls. To split with our gurlfwens just broke our hearts<3

No worries no worries. At least we get a decent hostel room...RIGHT?

Not really. There were 5 of us, and png ning was joining us the next day. That makes 6 girls in a room...with 4 beds.

My 1st reaction was: 'Holy cow, the room so small can suffocate ar.'

2nd reaction was: 'Holy cow, how to sleep with 4 beds??'

So we arranged our sleeping strategy and decided that I would share the single bed with Julie while Arianne shares with Png. Karen and Hannah, like lil miss princesses, get their own beds. Sometimes I wonder if Karen and Hannah were planning to stay at the hostel for 2 months or something. They brought their bedsheet and pillow cases and Karen even brought hangers.=.= For the next 6 days, these six girls have seen each other's morning hair, seen each other naked (well not really), and have argued with each other every morning to see who should get up 1st. Funny to note that Julie and I always had the energy to argue with each other on who should wake up to turn on the lights but none of us wanted to actually wake up to turn on the lights.

Then there was that exceedingly perky night for me. It was 2 am and everyone was just about to doze off when I produced Sqmoo (thats a sheep plushie, mind you) and proceeded to attack Julie. Oh the screams =) Karen eventually came over to shut us up with a 'YOU RETARDS'. Then there were also the nights we spent interrogating Png Ning. I still think she is lying about her lack of a love life but this is my Boss I'm talking about. So I shut up before she butchers me.

I think I just strayed off but hey, I just summed up 6 days of hostel life for 6 girls for your ease! Paragraphs not wasted!

But back to the 1st night at IIUM.

There was no time for cleaning up as we quickly put on our best formal attire. These are a bunch of highly grouchy, hungry and tired greenians you are dealing with. Naturally, we were not very eager about the dinner.

It was worse for Karen who suffered from gastric. You don't realise the pain and paradox of having food displayed in front of you which you cannot touch until 9pm. And when it was finally time to eat, the food was too weird and too spicy for Karen. Now thats not a very good way to kick off a tournament! Luckily, it got better.

We came in here small. The biggest ever tournament we have been to is Swinburne WSDC09 with 36 teams. And that, even in itself, was only my 3rd ever debate competition. So as we entered the dinner hall, we were gripped with a sense of nervousness and awe.

How the fishsticks did we transition from a 36-team tournament to a 114-team tournament in less than 24 hours?!

Sean contemplating and a jerky Fook Ann. The packed hall of about 200plus teams(bm+eng)

We chatted with the girls of our table and found out that MRSM has been dominating the bm category for a long while now. What happened in English we never knew. Which was a good thing, because it made us totally clueless about what to expect. Ignorance IS bliss in this context.

Green Road debators plus Fook Ann minus Png Ning. We look good but trust me, we stank.

By then some of us were doubting whether we did the right thing of coming to this tournament. We felt quite helpless and looking at the chances of us going far, we felt quite screwed. I think one of us commented: 'If I don't bloody do well here, there goes my bloody money out of the window.' Nonetheless, it was a passing comment. We laughed at that and didn't think much about it.

The next day was the tournament. And boy, were we in for surprises.

The Tournament Itself:

Demo debate on THW ban violent videogames. Gov-IIU debators. Opp-combination of high school debators.

First up was a short debate workshop to refresh us on the art of debate=) Then there was the demonstration debate. This was where we saw a vast difference in debators in WM as compared to back home. What happened was this: the debate would be comprising of IIU debators as well as any volunteering high school debators from the audience. At the prospect of going against a more experienced team, most of the people I know would shrink in their seats back home, but here, WHOA, hands were shooting up. Courage and confidence: something green road debators still lack.

The demo was great, especially on the IIU side. When Zamir and Faiz finished their speeches, Julie and I exchanged bewildered looks. Everyone was thinking the same thing: Are we actually expected to debate LIKE THAT?! The logic, and the quick wit, we were wondering if we could keep up with them. Plus, the eloquence on the side of the opp. In the famous words of Samuel of Lodge, greenian debators are known to be JERKY when we speak. Fluency is not our best ASSets *cough* so to see the west Malaysian debators throw words out as consistent and fluent as that..erm ball-shooting machine thing...my confidence went down a notch. Haha.

Rollcall for 114 schools took about 7 minutes. Usually, there were claps to accompany schools being mentioned. And these were big schools, elite schools and really strong schools we are talking about. MCKK, MRSM, SDAR, STAR, RMC, Damansara Jaya etc. And when you go from announcing those schools to an ulu Sarawakian school called SMK Green Road, imagine the reactions of the audience. All through the rollcalls, I got the feeling that Zamir (we nickname him Sebastian from little Mermaid because he sounds like him) punctuated 'SMK Green Road' with a question mark every time, making it a question rather than a statement. You know, like 'SMK Green Road...?' Gosh it was so fun to be invisible!

Debate overdrive kicked in after the workshop. A summary of the 1st day:

Prelim 1- THW punish pregnant mothers who smoke (OPP)
Prelim 2- THW replace all public exams with a standardised university entrance exam (GOV)

There were some delays so the day ended late. In fact, the subsequent days also saw us crashing into our rooms at 10pm or later. Whoever said debate was not a sport clearly never went through hardcore drills like those=.=

We lost the 1st prelim. Yes, it was not a good start. But we entered with a Swinburne low, so technically we were immune to disappointment. I did not agree with the oral adjudication. The more I listened the more I got the feeling my speech was not getting through to the judge. I value OA more than the verdict. No matter whether I win or lose, I just want a very thorough review of the debate for improvement's sake. But I have had my fair shares of unsatisfactory oral adjudications. So no complains there. We came out of the room thinking "Oh wells, we'll try again the next round."

Directly after the prelim, we hounded the judges and the IIU debators in the hall for tips. Julie and Karen had minor panic attacks on how to do a proper 3rd speaker speech while Sam and I were fretting over mechanisms etc for 1st speakers. Methinks we are pretty adept at hunting judges down for debate tips ever since swinburn 08. =) I know we were probably a teeny bit annoying but when you're at that moment, eager to learn, you don't give a damn whether you are being annoying or not. Its a 'you give me oral adjudication. you don't satisfy me, I hound you summore' thang that we possess.

Ooh, by the way to swsdc debators 2008, MR HAFIEDZ WAS THERE HAHA. And he recognised me! Still as sarcastic as ever=)

2nd prelim=mild exhaustion
It was clocking over 8 when the 2nd prelim started. We won but again, very blur adjudication. Png arrived to watch us debate. Still don't know if its a good thing or not that she was staring at her bottle like it was the most interesting thing in the room when the debate was in progress. But hey, BOSS ARRIVED!

IIUM's beautiful architecture. Julie is actually positioning her camera on the ground but it looked like she was sembahyang-ing. I got your butt picture to blackmail you Juu, teehee.

Summary of the 2nd day's debates:

Prelim 3-THW pay morbidly obese people to lose weight (OPP)
Prelim 4-THBT our children are not learning enough about whales (GOV)
Prelim 5-THW stop football matches if racist chantings occur during the match(OPP)
Prelim 6- THW pay stay at home mothers (GOV)

Due to time constraint on the 1st day, prelim 3 was pushed to the 2nd day. Oh yes, 4 debates. Such excruciation=.=

I sat out for prelim 3 so that Png Ning can stretch her debate wings and utilise that long-hidden 1st-speakerness in her.We won the round.

IIU-ers played a prank on us by releasing fake motions beforehand for prelim 4. Our faces were screwed up going 'what the duck do those motions even mean??!?!!' until they pulled a 'you just got punk'd' on us. Apparently, we would be doing a humour round. The thing about putting humour round as part of a tournament is that everyone tends to take it too seriously. Since Png is the most serious out of us 4, she refused to debate. The only way Green Road A was capable of being funny was when we jugged Coke and Mentos in class, talked in Ulu voices and when we argued about inconsequential things. But for humour rounds, you're supposed to be funny AND have substance. It was ayepic whale phail. Still, we won. At least we didn't get the Christiano Ronaldo's eyebrows motion. Shucks for Green Road B haha.

Prelim 5...SEAN PWNS THIS MOTION
Again, I alternated with Png. Sat out and she debated. This is a sports motion. The only one capable of sports motion is Sean so even though he planned to sit out, he could not. Unless he was heartless enough to leave Png, Me and Julie to spoil the beauty of the football game:D And this was sean's round. I was noting the debate down. Then when Sean went up to speak, it was like A RAIN OF INFORMATION. My hand could not keep up with the speed and VOLUME at which Sean was speaking. Fuiyoh Sean geng man. Can tell he was so darn excited when he ranted on about stakeholders. Yes, this was also a win, how blessed we are.

Prelim 6...PNG'S MOTION
When the motions were released, you can already see the fire in Png ning's eyes. A little background on this motion: It was the motion for the SWSDC 07 finals, the round which Png Ning's team lost. It was retribution for her. Obviously, she was adamant to be 1st and reply speaker. Sean was tired so I went in as 2nd speaker on a whim. What can I say, it was png's round. We made some potentially fatal flaws, which were pointed out by our awesome pawsome judge Faiz, but we came out unscathed. As for me, I have only done 2nd speaker twice in form 3, so it was a gamble to go into the final prelim as one. I bet Sean had a field time judging my speech lol. In the end, I think I stick to 1st speaker better la. More like home liddat.

More of IIU. My teammates.

Summary of the 4th day:

The breaks were announced. Green Road A broke into the double octos (top 32) at 13th place. Back then, we were already satisfied at achieving our sole goal of going to double octos. Green Road B was placed 33rd. IMAGINE THAT. Oh you guys should have seen Karen blowing her head off. But in a way, GR B was relieved that they did not break. I remember turning around when they announced the final breaking team, only to see GR B waving like mad, sticking their tongues out at us and yelling: 'SHOPPING BABEH'.

So while GR B, under the stellar:D care of Fook Ann, our babysitter, eagerly dashed into shopping malls, GR A was stuck in the hall sulking.

There were food poisoning cases that day. As a result, some matches were delayed. Speaking of food, my diet since Swinburne was very unhealthy. Mdm Ng was abit concerned with my diet then, which consisted of a piece of bread for breakfast and lunch. In IIU, I ate cocoa crunch and milo to survive. I have an inbred fear for food poisoning so I'm overcautious about outside food when I'm on foreign land. People kept shoving food at me which I could not stomach. Make no mistakes, I love food. But I can only debate with an empty stomach. If not, I'd termuntah=) The sunny side of the food poisoning cases that happened was that food quality improved tremendously after that. So I was more willing to eat.

I was hoping that when I come back, I would lose weight but meh, still stuck like this.

The sore faces of breaking into the next rounds and not being able to shop

Double Octo: THW ban paparazzis (OPP)
Octo finals: THBT the Malaysian Prime Minister should only be allowed to serve for two terms (OPP)

Our performances improved greatly starting from the breaking rounds. Speaking for double octo, I thought it was a very fun round. We were against Mahaad Hamidiyah(my bad, thank you fzain!), and their 2nd speaker referred to us by our physical characteristics when we poi-ed them. Erm, if Mr 2nd speaker is reading this now, can I ask:

Who were you referring to when you accepted the poi from 'the speaker with the shiniest shoes'?
We were staring at our feet and we thought all 3 of us had very dirty shoes.=S

We won. And we broke to octo finals (top 16). I remember Danial coming up to us saying, "this is the very 1st time that when I announce the results, the winning team looks down.Whats up with that?' We gave him sheepish grins. I mean, it would sound abit childish if we said it was because we could not go shopping=.=

Octofinals was deja vu all over. It was a similar motion to the semifinals of SWSDC 09, the one we phailed, only with slight tweaking. So we headed down to work during prep time, modifying some of our points from Swinburne and trying not to repeat any mistakes we made during swin. I texted Kevin the minute I saw the motion to thank him for putting this motion up for semis. If not for the loss in swsdc, I don't think we could have improved in that octofinals round. Of course there were several points raised by the opponents which caught me offguards, ones that were not raised in swinburne. And sitting there biting my pen, I did wonder if we did a good job at defending ourselves. Still, I had faith in Png Ning (I sat out again:D).

Earlier, Fook Ann made a bet with us about going to quarterfinals.

Maybe that bet helped us just a tiny bit because we won the octofinals and progressed to quarters.

Cake. Fook Ann and thw squirrels back from a day of shopping.

That night, the squirrels came back with bags full of food to celebrate us going into quarters. A big big thank you to all of you guys for thinking about us even while you guys were out. The cake was awesome! And Samuel bought us lucky wristbands and keychains, not forgetting to remind us to do our very best the next day: ) Because we could not possibly eat together in a dorm (girl boy mah), we squatted by the carpark and stuffed ourselves senseless with glorious guilty food. Fook Ann even bought sparkling juice, which came in a champaigne-like bottle. We were paranoid because it was after all an Islamic uni, and even though we were not consuming alcohol, the bottle was kinda misleading. So I would take a sip before shoving the bottle at Fook Ann or Sean and then we would cover it up=.= Like drug addicts mangs.

Sitting by the roadside, I realised I handled being away from home better than I thought I could. I had 8 very wonderful people staying by my side, singing Enrique Iglesias's 'Hero' at 11pm. They were my physical reminders of the reason I persevered in debate.

And also because got cake la.

*

Final day of the tournament:

Quarterfinals: THW increase the interest rate of loans made to purchase foreign cars. (OPP)

Semifinals: THBT CIA staff who commited torture during the Bush Administration should be prosecuted. (OPP)

Quarterfinals was like stepping on unknown territory. We were not sufficiently equipped with knowledge on economics. And surely, we were not one of those people who carry a 5-ton dictionary around with us. I was berating myself for not talking with dad more about eeek..onomics. Oh gosh the confusion and hyperventilation during the prep time. I reckon Png Ning was exasperated with explaining the mechanics of AP and so on so forth to us. We went in the quarters with tightly-closed eyes, praying 'pls let us not get thrashed not get thrashed'...

Only to come out wide-eyed at our win.

It was the semifinals!!

To be frank, we were not looking forward to anymore debates. Having debated approximately 16 rounds so far since the beginning of SWSDC, it was taking a toll on our eager beaverness at debate. Kevin can testify to how tiring it was for him in Worlds. Imagine how dead we felt. But Png was right. We have reached so far, why not throw in a couple of extras?

In for the penny, in for the pound. *grin*

The rollcall for the semifinals was awkward. The other 3 breaking schools were clearly tons and tons more well-known than us. Zamir did not even have to look at his paper to announce the 1st 3 names. Ruptures of applause tagged along with each announcement of names. But when he got to the 4th breaking team, it went along the line of:

'And the 4th breaking team...SMK...*pause and turn around* apa tu? Oh yeah, SMK GREEN ROAD A'.

Silence.

Then some boos.

I cringed in my seat uncomfortably, but the day got better with videos of 'tuts my barreh' and a rendition of 'baa baa black sheep'.=)

Semifinals: the room was jam-packed with people. I agreed that Png should speak. SDAR was an outstanding team. I stopped noting the points halfway through the debate, walked over to Fook Ann and asked him for advices instead simply because I did not expect the debate to be that close. Props to SDAR, it was a great match to watch.

After the semis, we were excited at the prospect of going shopping (AGAIN) but lo and behold:

.

.

.

GREEN ROAD A WAS GOING TO FINALS!

Everyone was in disbelief. I texted Kevin, Agu, Matt, Ced and immediately, I got a call from my class and I could hear friends going hysterical at the background. Wuiyon passed the phone to Mdm Ng and she was so so happy. Do you realise how happy I was to hear her sounding so happy?

Closing ceremony: we had to carry our luggage with us.

Several moments before the finals: Blurriness. The sky was tinted yellow and there was a drizzle of rain. We sat in Fook Ann's car as he attempted to find the way to the finals' venue (which we did, with Danial's help).

Sean: Is this real? The sky is yellow. Everything looks like a dream. Did samuel come to my room today? (He did. after spending the afternoon sleeping under the hot sun because he got locked out hahaha)

Half an hour before the finals: Sitting in the hall. Its filling up. Casual chats with some debaters. Not feeling very casual. Teachers fussing about our hair, our ties and our overall shabbiness (Note: Greenians had the commonest uniforms there, methinks. Every other school had formal, smart and sleek attires. We looked the part of ulu swakians=3 ). Satish lent us his digital watch. Finally, we could keep track of time.

Releasing of motions: We vetoed the 1st one which was about boycotting Israel companies' products. We were gov, and opp team was from Hidayah (consisting of 3 muslims). Do you see the irony in them being opp? In the end, the motion to be debated on was:

THW let prisoners shorten their prison sentences in exchange for donating organs.

I thought it was a very interesting motion. Standard pre-debate butterflies in my stomach. When we were called up to the stage, with those really de suspense music ala Maxim, I somehow shut everything out. I felt oddly calm. And that helped=) The debate went well. I thought we did fine. From the stage, I could not tell who were the judges but I could spot Faiz, Mr Latiff and Adam (Adam =3 ish =3 cute. If he sees this, I die.) And the fact that we did not disappoint Mr Kong more than cheer us up.

Prior to finals, I felt like I was rocking on a boat, almost ready to fall off the edge into a bottomless lake. I always had doubts about my debating skills. Always. And I was afraid I could not match up to png because she was, after all, my senior. Kevin rescued the day by helping me through those moments. Sean's reassuring smile and words to 'just do like you always do' seized the rocking. Because of them, I successfully rowed the boat ashooreeeeee.

After that was picture time.

Danial, who cut his hair before finals.

Mr Latiff.

With Meor and Faiz.

On a side note about my name, yes, I know. Its spelled Ida, but its pronounced A-i-da. People rarely get it right. So get it right now, pretty please?

Faiz has the advertisement smile. The kind of smile that fits a Darlie ad.

Meor: Now I would like to call upon the 1st speaker of the opposition, Ms eeda thien.

Me: Its A-i-da.

Meor: Oh. Excuse my malayness.

So legendary.

BM category finals on enforcement of law is the best answer to curb moral degradation or something like that.

Closing ceremony/last day:

Results were announced during the closing ceremony. There were the formalities and standard procedures of a closing ceremony. Then, there was the bm debate finals. I have never watched a bm finals before. But my bm is abit fail, so I could not catch what they were talking about entirely.

Sean's and sam's playmates for closing ceremony:Shigure.Sqmoo. Sqolf, octopi and Sqmoo.

Soon, the verdict was announced. With a split decision of 6-1, the IIUM 8th Interschool Debating Championship Munsyi Abdullah trophy goes to:
.

.

.
GREEN ROAD A. I SHOULD STOP USING CAPITAL LETTERS.

We just looked at each other and grinned. We, the underdogs, who failed in swinburne, who were preparing for failure, who was coming in with nothing and expecting nothing, who were amongst 114 teams (114 teams!), were suddenly:

National Champions. I still cannot get used to that word.

Of course it was joyous. I texted the good news to several people. Cedric choked on his lunch, mum was laughing to no end, Dad's response was 'Walao, u sarawakian ulu kia really can can', Matthew quickly rang me up, Mdm Ng was on cloud 9 and I...

for some reason was not squealing or jumping around in joy. It was just a sigh of relief.

Backstage, I held hands with Julie and I think she felt the same way as I did. This was not the relief of winning, this was the relief of having something to bring back to people who supported us. This was relief for not being disappointment exhibit B yet again after swsdc. This was relief that small insignificant people like us can achieve something worthwhile. Relief was such a great feeling.

The squirrels. Our mock cheque[Taken from The Star]. 1st-speakerness (Shoutout to Sam for your wristbands that gave me luck in finals!!!Wo hai shi hen xi huan ni]

There were no time for celebration as we headed to the airport for home. We dragged our luggage out of the hall in one hand, and delightfully carried the heavy-as-hell trophies in another. Oh imagine Sam's glee at displaying the mock cheques everywhere he went from the LCCT to Kuching Airport. A guy saw us with our luggage and commented that we must really thought we had no chance in this competition because we scheduled our flight so early in the afternoon. Aye aye.

With MRSM Kuching. KUCHING PEOPLE UNITE. With SAB, KL: Izzat, Amir, Me, Annabelle and Shafiqa (correct me if I spell your names wrong). I sad because the picture came out blurry. Hey any of you SAB people, if by any chance you are reading this, can you send me the photo pls?

Funny thing happened when we arrived in Kuching. Madam Ng was going crazy hugging us and congratulating us while her husband snapped away with his cameras. That was normal. The amusing part was:

Hm, the school sent teachers to welcome us back.

Now, hold on hold on. Backtrack backtrack, didn't they say we were going to the competition on our own accord? Did they not care about us all throughout the debate? Did they not back us up when we had financial problems? Wow 180 degree shift. They took the hugeass trophies from us. Then they proceeded to congratulate us. Then they said that the school might compensate us. Soo, all these because we won? No win, only Mdm Ng come is it? I hope the school feels guilty for abandoning the very people who brought them glory. Damn realistic la the school.

Ok, I'm not that mad la. I'm just highly amused. A week ago, they told us not to use the school's name when we participate, a week later, they announce it big big through the radio system in the morning.

Funny funny world.

They can take the trophies. They can take the glory. They can tell us a million and one ways how the school has inadvertently helped us succeed. But in the end, they cannot take from us the experience and wonder of learning. Of starting from rock bottom and clawing our way up. I felt like an amateur in IIUM, constantly asking for advice from people above me. And there many information overload moments. I am still currently absorbing them one by one.

There are so much I want to say to the people who formed the backbone that we could not get from certain parties.

Mdm Ng: For loving us and having your handphone constantly with you so that you can check up on us. For encouragement and for seeing us through the dark periods.

Fook Ann: For being the most kickass babysitter and senior we ever had. I'm glad we did not disappoint you.

Kevin: For giving me a bit of honey wisdom that eventually pulled me through finals.

Kay: For being our 'flashnews' on people's blogs. Gosh your updates cracked me up.

Png Ning: For being such a great boss, 1st speaker and best wake-upper

Debators and friends: For the support, the regards, the texts, the screams and the calls.

Hannah, Karen, Sam, Arianne: Do your best next year. I have faith in you guys.

Bibiana, Avery and Esther: currently still obsessed with debate? Haha, keep it up. Its your turn next year. So never stop debating.

ULU KIA SURE CAN!

Yeah, and I got best speaker in the finals.Happy? Quite. =) I still stare at the mock cheque from time to time and pretend it might just disappear. And all of these never actually happened. So far so real : )

Julie,Sean:

We made it. :)

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Post note:

IIUM is a pivotal part of the year for me. My achievement in it makes me a little bit more confident in myself.

Life granted me less than 15 hours to rejoice in this win.

Then, my grandfather passed away.

I was obligated to not feel happy. Yet, I was not sad purely because I was never close with my grandfather. The 'sad' I am referring to is the kind of sorrow that grips your heart and makes you weep at the thought of losing someone you loved so dearly. If I cried, it would be fake tears. So it left me with a numbing sensation.

I never thought life would pull such a crappy joke:

To receive congratulations in the morning.

And condolences in the afternoon.

In just two weeks, I went from low to high to not very sure what I was supposed to feel. How can gain come after loss only to be followed by loss yet again? It puzzles me.

In two weeks, I finally understand why it is possible to feel ambivalent even after receiving an earth-shatteringly good news.

That does not mean I'm not fine.

On the contrary, I'm very fine now. And very at peace.

So keep those happy comments flowing.

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Keeping this as one of my most precious memories,

A-i-da signing out.