Sunday, August 12, 2007

withers away @ 11:30 pm

It's something Mystical

Just decided to set the tone of this entry straight, so... there:)
To quote Jianhui, I couldn't really believe it. Though I know it was really very near us this time, and I keep telling everyone we've got a good chance, but it just didn't really seem real.
When I reached back hall late last night, the main float was already gone, and so were the side props. The entire comm hall was so empty, but it still didn't register that the day is to come in less than 24 hours. It still seemed surreal when I helped Cyn with some painting till 4am. Even when I went down to the lobby to get my tickets from Gilyn/CK/Minghui, it still didn't exactly sink in.
When we reached Padang and we went to look at all the floats, I really thought we would have a very high chance. I didn't think any hall's float was superbly fantastic, as opposed to last year when we saw KR's float. I told everyone that we would do it this year, because I am truly proud of what we've all done.
I had quite a shock when I saw Peifen hosting our Rag day. I was very near the front this year, in fact in front of the SWOCs, so I had a really good view of our performance. It was sensational. The way we participated in it was so cool. When the entire hall kept our eyes on the heart and waited for Nigel to pump it, when we all leaned back and went "woah", I was sure everyone was looking at us. When we paused for a second time, the entire, and I mean entire, audience kept so quiet in anticipation, and we did it again, cheering our hearts out.
The dances looked really impressive, and the stunts my freshies were doing looked fantastic too. The first time I really felt like crying was when I saw Kane flying. Oh man. Our main float is a pumpkin, and he's sort of attached to one side of it in a "Superman" pose. I remember how Cyn was telling me how it might not work. Adding Kane to one side of the pumpkin meant adding 50kg to one side, and that meant upsetting the entire mechanism, which was what happened before. To be frank, I was really scared that it wouldn't turn out okay. But when I saw the pumpkin turn round after round, with Kane in that pose each time, I saw those tears coming to my eyes. I really didn't expect that.
I was really touched after the entire performance. Not to mention tired too, from all the screaming. But I really enjoyed it. And then came the waiting of faculty floats to be over, the various guest performances to be over, and it was the annoucement of results.
The entire hall got really tense, and we started putting our arms around each other's shoulders, or held hands with each other, and got into little circles. Everyone looked sombre, as we waited for the emcees to release the results, and at the same time screaming for the other halls to shut up with their cheering. Even I screamed shut up straight in their faces because I got so tense.
When the emcee started to name the award to be given, we held on to each other tighter, and you see white knuckles due to how tight we were holding each other's hands. I think the first award we got was for Flag, something about Best Progress in terms of percentage. We went hysterical when we heard "Sheares Hall". I ended up crying. Really hard. Everyone was telling me "good job", "well done" and it really felt good. We had some kinda Best Progress for Flag in terms of absolute amount too. I know we did well for flag, but how well I really don't know, because Gilyn wouldn't say. Then I heard the amount from Ernnie, and we really think we have this high high chance for something we wouldn't even dream of before.
We broke NUS's record for the highest flag donations collected. So did KR. When they were going to give out the award for highest flag donation and they revealed how much the hall collected, we knew we lost. We did so well, in the entire history of Sheares, yet we still lost to KR. It wasn't that hard to swallow, because we knew from the beginning that KR is a tough opponent, but Gilyn was already crying on Caroline's shoulder.
We lost Best Flag, but we still had our Rag. The shields, the shields that we lost to KR last year, we are going to take them back.
We lost Most Environmental Friendly Float and Lowest Cost, as Cyn and I expected, due to the huge amount of paint we had to use. But we won the Best Float Design and Best Float Performance. Every time the emcee declared us as the winners, I just felt those tears coming and we were just hugging each other like crazy and screaming like there's no tomorrow. It was deafening, like what you hear when the planes zoom past during NDP. I screamed and jumped as though I was on drugs. I think the entire hall looked like that.
Next up was Best Float. We really expected ourselves to get this. Really. So when the emcees declared the winner to be the hall that went to Fong Seng to eat the most, we just went stunned. Eusoff just went crazy. Eusoff didn't win anything but Best Float. I really couldn't believe it. What's this?!
The last thing was the Chancellor's Shield. Basically, this is the highest award you can achieve, meaning the best flag and rag combined. We held each other so tightly, and came so close to each other our heads were touching as we all looked to the ground at our dirty feet and the grass full of litter. I was already crying even before the results were released. We knew it would be ours. We just knew it.
But we wanted to hear it for real.
And when we did, nothing else seemed to matter. Look at the SWOCs, look at the Raggers, look at Master, look at every Shearite. It was all a blur, because I was already crying like crazy, again. For so freaking long, we haven't touched the Chancellor's Shield. I can't believe we got it, in my batch. My gosh. And I actually played a part in it. I was actually part of that 60% of the marks that went into tabulation. And I actually worked late nights with Raggers too. I still remember how Joey was sad over her under-performance after Dance practice. I still remember how tired Samson and the other Engineers were because they sacrificed sleep. I still remember how Darius asked the whole block to go down to help out after SWOC. I still remember how worried we were when the main float wasn't completed even two days before the deadline.
Of course, we went hysterical. We went on stage and sang our Hall Anthem proudly, albeit forgetting the lyrics and doing the actions with off-timing. Block C did our traditional tunnel for the Raggers, and it was much fun, as the tears turned to smiles. I can't believe the first guy I hugged in my life is Jianhui. Why him out of everyone? Anyway, we were congratulating and thanking everyone. Even people you don't really know, people you only know by name, people you only know by face.
This is a success, because we all made it to be. We Shearites made it to be. And I am truly proud. Rag and Flag 0708 at the Padang. I wouldn't forget this day.