So I was searching the Internet for quotes about Farewell to start this blog post off and stumbled upon this one, which I thought was so apt and amazing :') (oh and featuring yellow helium balloon from Karyn!)
Indeed, how lucky I am. So so very lucky and fortunate.
So, we had Student Leaders' Investiture on Thursday (1 August 2013 - it is August already oh my goodness!) to invest the new batch of student leaders for 2014 and during the investiture, there is always a handover ceremony for the outgoing heads to symbolically present gifts to the incoming heads. Having such a ceremony officially marked the end of my term as House Captain of Waddle for 2013 and it's such a bitter-sweet feeling.
Channel 5 exchanging gifts with Wi-Five (yes that is the name of the new captains of 2014, folks!)
During the investiture, there was also a new segment where the Year Three leaders had to perform a short performance and it was so so so amazing seeing the batch of 14 from The Duck Side 2013 because it showed that they had truly stepped up and were ready to take on being the seniors of House Comm. This is probably because I didn't have a hand at this performance at all but they did amazingly :') And it was apparently super last-minute as well (last minute isn't a good thing but if you're last minute and good, it shows that you are incredible)
Proud of dem yellow babies - look they can even be so syncro!!!
Apart from Waddle House Comm, I huge part of my Year 4 life is also the Prefectorial Board, especially my department - SIMU! Even though I admit that I don't spend so much of time with PB nor have I contributed as much, it's still important to me and it felt surreal leading cheers at the end of the investiture as well because I knew that it was one of the last times I was going to do it with Angelica and Cheryl - we only have National Day and Year 4 Graduation Concert left if I'm not wrong.
Cheryl, myself, Angelica and Alex (the new SIMU head for 2014 - so proud of 小 buddy - Alex was my buddy last year); I believe SIMU is in very good hands with Alex as well! :')
Unite! :-) (It's funny because we look like we are all yawning and I actually just yawned while looking at this photograph)
4 generations of Waddle Capts were present at SLI this year! So so glad they came back to visit :-)
(Ashlynna, Anissa - Capt'11, Karyn - Capt'14, myself - Capt'13, Louisa -Capt'12 & Jiaying!)
Ash and Jiaying were/are amazing Waddle Vice Captains - Ash was vice capt in 2010 and she went on to become vice head prefect in 2011 while Jiaying is going to be an amazing vice captain for 2014 :')
YINGfinite :')
(jiaYING & karyn ooi pei YING)
Lovely Waddle Captains for 2014, I know that both of them will do bloody amazingly and Waddle is in two pairs of wonderful hands, really! There is no doubting the passion the both of them have for Waddle and House and I know that this passion will keep burning ever so brightly and never, ever burn out, especially not in 2014, even when things get tough and times get rough (because trust me, it will). Thank you so much, the two of you (and Jing En too of course but I will probably write another JELLO post when the time is right), you guys have been wonderful vice capts for me this year and I don't know what I'd do without all of you! Also, next year, things might get crazy because there's only 2 captains, down from the 4 we have now but I know you guys are adaptable and YINGcredible :') I trust y'all, and love y'all so so much.
Go out there and show them what Waddle's capable of :') Ooi will ooi will rock you!
Handing over my position meant letting go of two very symbolic and important things and passing on the legacy to the next Captain - Quack the duck and 'The Persistence of Yellow'.
Quack has grown to become a huge part of my life over the past year. Some of you might know this but I treat all my soft toys as if they are real and have feelings (yes I have yet to outgrow from this phrase) and I have tons of them on my bed. That being said, every single one of them have their own individual names and receive individual attention from me once in a while. Of course, I hug them a lot as well. Quack meant a lot to me, always being the star in Waddle videos which I filmed over the past year, such as this one and he is one of my favourite soft toys. So it was particularly difficult for me to pass Quack on to Karyn - I know it sounds super weird but I cried the night before and I'm was actually quite confused as to whether I was crying because of the duck or because my term as House Captain was coming to an end. I hope it was the latter because I would seem less mad.
I'd also like to stress that there is a need to pass Quack on because through the years, he has grown to become a face for Waddle and it's nice if this face doesn't change (like if a new duck fronts the House every single year, there is an inconsistency and this Quack persona would seem less real).
Quack surrounded by the wonderful friends he made over the past year staying in my house :') Hopefully he is now making more new friends over at Karyn's!
The other thing I passed on is 'The Persistence of Yellow', "a book of recipes for life" and it's a legacy book, passed down from Waddle Captain to Captain and the person who even found this book must have been amazing because this book is so apt and contains quotes that means a lot to the role we hold. Also, it's yellow and it's just incredible. Although the book is very abstract (I deduce that the true meaning of it is actually heavily influenced by feminist thoughts and views), if you read the quotes separately and think of it in the context of us and the responsibilities we have, it contains something that would resonate in us.
The first page of the book - I left a bit of my legacy there by replacing the 'P' that has fallen off when I first received the book from Louisa.
Here are two of my favourite quotes from the book:
This book's amazing because it contains a message from every Waddle Captain that this book has landed itsef on and it's nice how we get to read the messages from previous Captains to previous Captains and it's nice to see that the advice they give still applies to the context now and it's crazy to know that we all share the same experiences. Though we might not know each other personally, we are really bonded by this shared experience of leading the most amazing House ever.
Left my mark on the bottom right hand side (in green because I wanted a new colour that hasn't been used before)
Apart from these two legacy gifts, I gave Karyn a duck bag because she should nurture a love for ducks and yellow! Of course, I paid tribute to her love for pink too by placing all these in a yellow box with a bright pink cover :')
She, in turn, gave me a bunch of yellow things, a golden heart-shaped helium balloon, a kiddy table tennis set (it's an inside joke but basically it's to develop my amazing potential as a table tennis player because we won Table Tennis IHG - come on Jing En let's go play together!!!) and a beautiful card :') I can tell that she put in so much effort and I really appreciate it so much, thank you Karyn!
(also, I really like this photo of us)
SLI 2012 and SLI 2013
It felt absolutely surreal being entrusted with Waddle by Louisa last year but I can safely say that being the Waddle Captain is the most amazing experience I ever had in my Year Four life and perhaps even my entire secondary school life. It has been a crazy roller coaster ride, with its ups and downs but never did I once regret getting onto the seat of my ride because through it all, I have definitely learnt so much. Also, I was never ever alone on the roller coaster - I had JELLO with me, I had Channel 5 on board, I had The Duck Side 2013, I had my parents' support - indeed, I had a blast! There were times when things got a bit difficult to control and I felt like breaking down (which I allowed myself to because it makes one feel better) but I always stood up from it and remained positive because I know that there is more to everything than just myself.
Thank you Waddle for giving me the opportunity to serve y'all for the past year and even allowing me to be a part of this big yellow family because you guys are the most supportive bunch of Waddlians I can ever ask for - participation for Inter House Games is great (and should be continued!), House Practices were amazing (thank you so much Year Ones!) and win or lose, we are champions forever.
At this point in time, I'd like to insert a beautifully made video that was made for screening during the last House Practice and features clips from the Year One House Practices as well as farewell "speeches" by Channel 5. As House Practices were one of the most important highlights of this year's House journey, I think it's appropriate to have it in this blog post :')
Credits to Waddle's House Pract 8 OT for putting this video together!
Finally, I know that Waddle (and Quack) is going to be very well taken care of :')
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