It's been four days since I arrived home from Brunei; and I must say it's awkward finding myself in this position in front of the laptop. How exactly do I squeeze all the memories I have of Brunei to come up with something cohesive enough for a summary? There are so many things to tell, so many lessons to share and so many experiences I, as an 18-year old, would never forget. Brunei was great! In fact, I think 'Great' was an understatement; I have to admit, I found Brunei to have exceeded my expectations.
Educational Forum on the Youth Declaration. Was serious and heavy -- not really blog material. So i'll leave it to that. Ha ha.
The Young Speakers' Contest was what brought me to Brunei. The first round of the young speakers' contest was held last week thursday (May22), and the six finalists out of 15 were: Don from Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Pheareak of Royal University of Phom Penh, University of the Philippines, Kaixian from National University Singapore, Kaan from Chulalongkorn University (Thai) and T from Mahidol University (Thai).
The second round was held last saturday (May24) and it was undeniably incomparable to the first. We were brought to UBD at 8:30 am; the finalists were 'quarantined' in a room and waited for the lecturers' decision on the topic. And...wabam! Come 9:00, they gave us the topic and we speed-walked our way to the library to research and come up with a good enough five-minute speech. Farrah, my beloved Liaisons Officer, helped me throughout the research and was even more nervous than I was. When the clock struck 10:30, we all returned to the senate room and delivered our speeches according to the sequence we drew lots for. I swear, an hour and a half is never enough for a speech preparation. Especially when you are to deliver it in front of ASEAN people. Ha ha. Those five minutes of delivering my not-even-half-baked speech must be the worst five minutes of my life!
People are spectacular, and good friendships were formed. When Nikko, PH's Young speaker contestant last year in Lao PDR, told me I shouldn't be too focused on the competition because the congress was more than just that, I saw exactly what he meant. I didn't bag the first prize for the contest, and I was awarded 2nd runner up. To be honest, I'm very content with the turn-out of events. T/Tanawat championed the contest, Kaixian was awarded 1st runner up, and Don was awarded 3rd runner up. I can still remember Mena broadcasting (since she really has a loud voice ha ha), "Let the winners come from this table". Ha ha. We got what we deserved; and because of the people I learned to care for in those nine days, winning was demoted to being a secondary thing to me -- second to the experiences and friends I gained there.
Tuesday of this week was emotionally heavy. It was excruciating (yes, that's the word) seeing everybody go, country by country. Tears were adamantly shed as it was the only thing we could resolve to doing - well, besides abducting everybody else so they'd miss their flights; but we all know that's a baaad idea right? The liaisons officers, those who delivered our wake up calls, looked for us when we went missing, and practically took care of us for 9 days, broke into unimaginable tears as well. Seeing everybody emotional, I had to stop myself from crying because I didn't want to make the situation harder for anyone to bear, most especially when my singaporean and thai friends were already hours before being home bound. Truth be told, that morning was one of the most bipolar moments of my short-lived life in Brunei; Feeling crushed deep inside, but still managed to laugh and smile on the outside; hence, the feeling of having a rock stuck in my throat.
What happens in Brunei, stays in Brunei. I won't go into details here anymore since I'm afraid the experiences I had will never be quantifiable in a blog entry. It'd take millions more of this to be able to let you come close to what I went through there. As for us, my dear friends, we brought a bit of Brunei back to our respective homes, missing every single day of it and being emotional when faced with our pictures. Those nine days were the best I ever had, and I will cherish every single one of my friends in my heart. I miss the 'Pusit Gang' and our moments together at the hotel's lobby and in practically anyone's room in the hotel. It all started with Nash cracking the pusit-opposite (Filipinos you know this) joke to the gang and Kayjal and T just couldn't get over it. From then on, we were what you may refer to as, inseperable. Coincidently, the top four of the young speakers' contest also came from our gang! I dunno about everybody else, but I'm clearly very happy about that Ha ha.
Now, how do I end this? It's hard cutting a trail of thought that has been going on since I arrived here in the Philippines. It practically took me four long days to absorb the fact that I have a life and daily routines to get back to (yes, even the morning blog entries). But even though I have now returned to the life which defined who I was before Brunei happened, I have come to a realization that I'm more than that girl now.
Who knew it'd be this extraordinary? I didn't. But I'm happy it turned out this way.
I was awarded 2nd runner up. 