Personal Blather!

I've neglected posting since orientation began. It ended just yesterday, so now it's time for me to give a good update.

IMHO, the freshmen this year was a lot better than last year. Just like last year, the freshmen were allocated according to nationality, meaning there was an overwhelming number of Singaporeans and PRCs as compared to other years. The quota for Singaporeans were raised too, probably because they found out that a lot of people staying in halls end up getting attached. It's just SDU at work. A lot of people have yet to move into hall, so there are quite a couple of empty rooms around. Still, freshmen turnout for orientation was much much better. It was shortened too, starting only in the afternoon. The freshmen were less exhausted, so I guess it's a good thing.

The initial part of orientation was standard, with games and other funny events that simply got freshmen to laugh, play and cry together. Block Orientation was strict albeit toned down. I'm not a very big fan of ragging, but to be perfectly honest, there's something about ragging that makes people end up bonding a lot more. All the previous batches, mine included, endured relatively more 'tortuous' block orientations, and turned out more united, fun loving, 'stronger'. Times have changed I gather, most poignantly in attitudes. Freshmen seem to be 'softer', with lower thresholds for anything. They seem to be more rebellious, demanding that everyone give in to their wants. Surprisingly, this applies not only to girls but a lot of guys as well, even those who went through army training. Shouldn't they know by now that things are done a certain way for a reason? I guess most can't see past the bridge of their nose. =/

No, I won't say all of them are like that. No, it's not a complain or a generalisation. It's merely an observed opinion that I have for the past two years. Talking to a number of freshmen, the common response is "They shouldn't have had to do that, or They nothing better to do is it (They referring to seniors) etc..." but they don't realise we went through much worse and still survived. I believe I got the same response from freshmen last year. To be honest, I think it might even have happened to my batch. The key issue is that, whether we like it or not, university students (myself included I believe) are a lot less matured than our fathers when they were our age. I credit that to the comfortable lifestyle we've all had.

Nevertheless, orientation was fun! It was definitely an improvement from last year, and this year, the activities saw a lot more participation. I helped where I could, like in the games, or in float, or for MOAH... It was quite cool! I won't go too much into details because there's just too much to say, but I enjoyed myself, and I hope the freshmen did too.

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time to write much. Suffice to say, it seems to be a good start to a new academic year, but classes start tomorrow. Let's hope things work out for the best!