F5 Camp for F5 Phi, F5 Sigma, 1 – 2 October 2020
The students of Form 5 Phi and Form 5 Sigma attended the Form 5 camp held in school from the 1st of October to the 2nd of October. Due to the SOP in place, the camp was not held outside of school with the whole of Form 5. However, we still enjoyed the camp and took away many things from it.
The camp kicked off with a dance session led by one of the beadles followed by Mass in the chapel. The theme for the first day was “gratitude” and we had Father Alvin as our first speaker. He talked about how we should be grateful for everything around us; the people, the memories, the experiences and even the pandemic which has pushed us into uncomfortable situations. This was then followed by “The Cup of Life” session after break where students had to write down the things that occupied them this year on pieces of paper and put them into respective cups. Though many of us wrote down many things, we were asked to choose only the ones that mattered to us in the end, and seeing the pieces of unchosen paper being torn felt liberating as it meant that we had let go of our baggage.
After lunch, our spiritual journals were returned to us. The chapel was filled with silence as we recalled our memories and we flipped through each page of the exercise book. It was a good 30 minutes when everyone was just occupied with their own thoughts and was busy pouring their hearts out in their journals. However, the mood was quickly lifted as the pensive silence was followed by the much-awaited games and recreation. We were split by our classes and competed against each other in two rounds of Frisbee and futsal. It was an intense match with the boys pitted against the boys and the girls pitted against the girls. In the end, the competition came down to a draw with 5 Phi winning first place in Frisbee and 5 Sigma winning first place in futsal. Both parties demonstrated excellent sportsmanship, and everyone went home with hearts filled with pride for their respective classes.
The next day of camp started off with yet another dance session led by the students as well as a quick 5 minutes of meditation. The second day focused more on our relationship as classmates and batchmates and began with a very fitting game of finding puzzle pieces as a class (or “tǔ lóu” in the words of Father Alvin). Similar-looking puzzle pieces were scattered amongst each team and it was the job of the members to retrieve puzzle pieces from other teams to piece their own puzzle. Since we were short of one team, the teachers had to make up the third “tǔ lóu” which added to the intensity of the game.
The day came to its peak with the determining match of badminton held after break. We sat at the edges of their seats as the two classes competed against each other in five matches of badminton for first place. In the end, 5 Sigma won by one point against 5 Phi and were crowned the champions for the overall games between 5 Phi and 5 Sigma. Since we had time to kill, we also went to the football field for a friendly match of Frisbee. Everyone was involved in the match and there was a surge of pride seeing classmates work together as a team to compete against the other class. Though it was tiring running across the football field under the hot afternoon sun, everyone felt content as it was a good match. Afterwards, we had our last session of the day after lunch which was undoubtedly the highlight of the whole entire camp. We were given the chance to sit together as a class and share with each other our thoughts and feelings for the past two years. The rainy weather outside and the quiet atmosphere inside the chapel provided the perfect setting. We expressed our gratitude and asked for forgiveness from our classmates. Many also cried as we learnt about the struggles of our classmates. It was a touching and wholesome sharing session where we got to learn so much more about our classmates, and it is definitely a moment we will cherish in our hearts forever.
All in all, this year’s Form 5 camp has definitely been one of a kind experience. Though it was a shame that we could not spend time together away from school as a whole batch, we still learnt a lot in the span of these two days. We laughed, we cried, we screamed, we cheered, and in the end we all went home with hearts full of love and gratitude.
• Lim Yu Jie
