Let's rewind to one year ago!
The academic year started with Earthlink Camp where I was tasked as a GL for my OG Kiwi hehe...I'm quite lucky to have a bunch of ON freshies. I know I'm no where close to MSA FOC's GL standard haha but it was a fun experience. The whole camp was pretty much a eco-sightseeing tour, where we went to Labrador Park and Sentosa.
Day 1 games at Labrador Park where you could see the sentosa cable car lines behind.
LOL Playing with pink dolphins, no i mean the model only haha... while we wait for showering at the Underwater World.
Best part of this camp, sleeping with fishes and we have the whole underwater world to ourselves at night for all the fish-gazing :P
Me staring Jellyfish
Next, took part in International Coastal Clean-up where we had to pick up trash on the mangrove shores. Picking up the trash is one thing, but understanding how and where all these trash came from was another important lesson. All sorts of things you find there and you start feeling sad for the ocean for swallowing all these items :( Going down the mangrove and picking up all the styrofoam bits and plastic containers really prints out a stronger image of marine pollution in your head. I guess that was the "kick" i need to get fired up for my plans.
Just a short while after our handover, the Students Affairs Office organized the Student Leader's Night which was an event for all previous and present excos of student clubs to mingle around. I was lucky enough to be one of the participant! To me the event was more of a bonding kind of thing between me and Earthlink's excos. and I got the chance to know and chat (okay I admit I was listening most of the time haha) with some of the SAO's officers, and they were kind to give advice for my plans.
Then there's Southwest Eco Day Out! Well I forgot why did I join this LOL But still it's also quite a fun experience. It's where you get to speak and interact with all the uncles and aunties and also to teach them a lil' bit about Recycling :D Not an easy task because most of them pretty much only care for the free gift: cactus, but some of them are really funny and I love their "owhhhhhhh I see" faces when I tell them receipt can't be recycled (which many thought it can be). Besides that, there are many booths that showcases environmental friendly efforts like clothes re-purposing booth, lamp recycling companies etc
Then there's the fun Subcommittee outing at Pasir Ris Park! I guess it's my favorite subcomm outing. The games were great, nature walk was fun and beautiful, my GL Basil rocks LOL
Chilling out at the coastline
Before I knew it, it's Sem 2 already...
And we started our busy sem with an outing. Owh yeah it was one day where we gathered but resist the urge to talk about Earthlink stuff and enjoyed the sun instead.
And there's also E-Waste campaign to begin our semester. Got to learn about electronic waste and why they should be recycled instead of just throwing them away.
Subcommittee outing again and we went to the beautiful Macritchie Reservoir Park! It's super pretty but I didn't get to do d nature walk as I was one of the game masters.
Collaborated with Heritage Club during their Heritage Week on collecting Singapore Environment Story!
Photo credits to Heritage Club
Next, the event that was almost equivalent to mission impossible. World Water Day. Yes my task was pretty much planning and typing down microplans, admin programs and stuffs but all these can choke you when you have to do them at the last minute with so many uncertainties. Of course it was never about whether the event happened or not, but it's about whether the event went well or bad, which I was really stressed for. To be honest if I can choose again, I think I wouldn't take this up. Not that I regret, but I don't think I'm suppose to take up this when I can't handle it. Big thanks to my partners and leaders who made the event possible and sorry for the mistakes. Anyhow, it's still a learning experience, one more event to my portfolio? haha
With the stage PICs.
Just the day after, we attended the Watermark Awards Ceremony which is an appreciation event for WWD supporters. It was a night with many influential figures who supports WWD.
Final event before exams, the Earth Hour Outreach program. It's my second year joining but I still feel nervous when I knock on doors. Part of me was secretly praying no one answers but feels sad when really there's no one who answers.
We had a workshop before doing our outreach. I guess I was trying to be Panda, which I don't really need to try i guess? judging at the diameter of my dark circles.
Owh there's also Recycling drive, which I don't really have a photo. Anyways it's an event where we did door to door collection of recyclable items like papers and plastic bottles. Usually many students would like to get rid of them at the end of the semester and that's why we're doing this to prevent all the recyclable items going into waste.
Yeap that's pretty much all the Earthlink events that I joined last year. It's a lot? not really, Earthlink has much more events on the calendar and I missed many interesting ones. It's too little? Certainly not, I guess I fulfilled the subcomm requirement as well. haha
Okay now moving on to the next part of the post:
Being a Director in Earthlink...
As I'm thinking about what the previous year was about, it's a lot to talk about and one thing is for sure. I really learned a lot from being a director in Earthlink. Really gotta thank this club that offers so many opportunities. Some of them were unexpected ones and though I'm not sure whether I welcomed them, they are still chances to learn.
Some of you might ask, why did I choose to stay in Earthlink.
Earthlink director has its perks, that's undeniable hehe...
Get to organize events where you could meet the minister.
I think I've met Dr. Vivien for 3 times on separate events. The lady in the photo is Ms. Grace Fu btw, Second Minister of Environment and Water Resources in Singapore.
Hehe have your face on a website :D
Have your own name card (ok not just my name tho) and your a t-shirt with your name.
Indulge in great sights of Singapore's Nature Parks.
Involve in the design of a eco-friendly mobile app!
POWERZ - an app that awards you points when you do eco-friendly actions
Attend an event with awesome dinner served :D
Working with people from other universities and organizations
Collaborating with a club for an event and treated as GOH. Sorry I have to brag on this haha, never have I dream of sitting on the front row of an event.
Photo credits to Heritage Club
and of course, work hard and play hard with my committee!
Really wanna thank this bunch of ppl!
Plan your own event
Lots of perks huh? But that's not it.
At my very first year, I kind of knew that Earthlink is a place for me to do things that I never expect myself will do. When I was in year 1, I had to choose between joining a club that I'm interested or joining a club that will allow me to experience new things. Trust me I never knew anything about environment and in Malaysia, particularly my school, environmental club was not a major one and I was surprised by how Earthlink is a Tier 1 club in NTU. Then as year 1 starts, there were many events and most of them had me hesitated for a while before I sign up.
Knocking on stranger's door and telling them about climate change.
Bending down to pick up bits of rubbish in the muddy mangrove area.
Talking to uncle aunty, who probably have been used to throwing their garbage straight into the dumpster for their whole life, about recycling.
Telling the younger generation that they should forget about using disposables and should make a bold change of bringing their own food container and cutlery all the time.
Leading a group of subcommittees to create a roadshow from scratch
These are not things that I could immediately say YES to. Which is exactly why, at the end of the day, the best part of joining Earthlink was really about stepping out of your comfort zone, doing things that you don't feel like doing. But once you've done it, the sense of achievement is really overwhelming and the fact that you did something meaningful that will benefit the environment really makes it better! Our environment really needs help but not many of us are seeing the problem, why not take the first step and be an example to others?
I'm glad that I'm part of Earthlink and until this very day, I am still learning how to change people's mindset, including myself. It's a challenging task and it will change the way you think.
Just to clarify here, this post is purely an opinion from me and has nothing to do with Earthlink's standpoint.
Btw, would like to share Ecoventure's video here. Well compared to them, I dare not say I have totally stepped out of my comfort zone. This group of people really committed themselves into something meaningful. Salute them.
All photos in this post belongs to Earthlink NTU unless otherwise stated.
