With many friends complaining about how torturous 2010 is, I find it the most rewarding year so far. Or I should say, the most rewarding year to become.

The most obvious reason is my participation in the L’Oreal Brandstorm Competition. I love it, I totally LOVE every single bit of it.

I don’t care how crazy people think I am, or the way they criticized my team mates' lack of interest and commitment level, I am VERY proud of them.

Like what I’ve told many, my ultimate aim at this point is that I want to present what we’ve spent months to materialise to the judges. Because this is what we’ve built from nothing to something. Something which we have so much faith in, as a team. Something which have brought us thus far.

Indeed, there were deadlines we barely met, preparations we scarcely done. If there’ve been more time and commitment level, we could have done much better. However upon reflection, I realised that these so-called failures were our greatest achievement.

After the Semi-Finals, I felt terribly disappointed and frustrated. I vent some of these frustrations on Peiwen, whom instead of blaming me, subtly taught me one of the biggest lessons in my Uni life. And I’ve to admit that it took days to fully digest and accept what she said.

And I have also to admit that after the competition I broke down and shed tears of resentment, frustration and disappointment in front of a kind, patient and longstanding friend of mine (Thank You). I resented at the lack of practice, help and initiative from my team members, as well as the outcome of our performance. I was intolerant to the incompetency of the team. I was disappointed at what could have been above expectation. And I hated to lose to factors other than capability.

However however. I soon realised that it was how the 3 of us again and again met the requirements at the very last minute when we could easily give up that spelt out our greatest achievement so far.

We could have given up right during the Preliminary Round, but somehow we managed to scribble out the report and PPT.
We could have withdrawn when we knew that Dominic will not be there for the Semi-Finals and there were gonna be 60 more slides to do and tons of props to make, but we managed to complete the filming and proudly done up all the props and slides.
We could have flared up at one another for the workload each have to bear and the sacrifices each have to make, but never once we brought it personal.
We wanted to make the best of every meeting, which all indeed turned out to be effective and efficient.
We complained we dreaded, but we’ve each performed our roles in a perfect way to complement each other.

Now that we’ve been fortunately granted a second chance, I am extremely grateful and relaxed (surprisingly).

I would want to prove ourselves and better present our ideas again.

And prove to other teams that if we managed to get through to the Finals, it’s simply because we are better.

Here are some words of enlightenment and encouragement from the firm helping hands which I knew I could hold on to:

Peiwen: You need to understand that we each have our own priorities and we’re not paid to do this. It is our responsibility to contribute as much as we can, but if someone can’t perform to expectation, we can’t put the blame on them.
The reason why I like my Chingay team so much is because even if someone screwed up the event, we would all give one another a pat at the back and say, “good job done!”
I believe you’ve learnt much from this experience, in terms of people management, time management, and the different skill sets.
And Christina, I realised you’re actually very capable.

Dominic: You know what, Christina is the motivation for Peiwen and I to continue in this competition. If not we would give up long ago.

Michael Ng: The most torturous experience is the best experience.

Michael Tan: It’s okay, I understand how it feels. Some people want to make things happen, others wait for things to happen, and many don’t know what had happened. So it’s good that you’re driven. I call this intolerance to incompetency.

Huiqin: It’s good to see that you’re so passionate about something again. Like how you used to be about journalism. It’s rare, and you should keep it up.

Alwin: Take it as part of leaning. We learn best when we make mistakes. Getting there is not easy, give yourself a pat on your back. Remember most importantly is the lesson you took back from L’Oreal.



Also, not to forget Daniel, Chen Chung, Jonathan, DC, PG, who have also helped substantially along the way.

I am grateful.


But more importantly, I’m always reminded of the conversation I had with Jerry Tan:

JT: Tell me your greatest strength.
Me: I do not give up.