the lazy streets so undemanding...

Saturday, March 12, 2005

Open House Man
Time to feel proud, and move the crowd

It's NUS open house today. I didn't sign up for anything in particular (well, me, never been interested in those CCA points crap), but I did decide to help out in our department's road show. It's time for me to give something back to the Industrial and System Engineering (ISE) community.

Being one of the two smallest departments in the engine faculty, ISE had to share a booth with the Mechanical engineering department. Despite the pathetic hardware arrangement, our ISE team treated this open house very seriously. Six professors, including the HOD himself, were at the booth, serving like on-site engineers. (I could hardly see more than three professors for any other departments.) There were also the student club members, fulfilling their duties. and there was always person like me, ready to talk good stuff about ISE.

As mentioned, ISE is small, and it is relatively new, many never actually heard about it. So my strategy is to deal with small crowds. Basically, I gather a group of passers-by, of usually 3 to 6 people, and seize their attention with some fancy opening line. Well, I couldn't think of any, so I borrowed one from my professor who said, "ISE is In Search of Excellence." Once I engaged them in a conversation, I would pick out one of my prepared speeches according to the audience (whether they are parents, JC3s, Poly grads, Army boys or pretty girls) and bombard them with all the pro-ISE information.

During my three hours at the booth, I met quite a number of ex-classmates and school friends. It's kind of funny that all those guys whom I went to high school and junior college with are gonna be my juniors as they enter university in this year. and believe it or not, some are giving ISE a serious thought after they heard me bragging the shit out of it. Well, that's always the thing I like the most about the open house. It's about how to influence people and make an impact. When I was graduating from Chinese High and had to decide between Hwa Chong and Raffles, it was the open house experience that settled me down.

The two schools have been such rivals that their open houses always fall on the same day. I remembered going to Hwa Chong open house on that morning, and it was cool. There was a band playing really loud at the central square with the help of a powerful sound system. There was plenty of space and the buildings were new and colourful. The classrooms were well furnished and they get to access the swimming pool in chinese high. Nice.

And then I went to RJ open house in the afternoon. (well, I realized I have digressed from the NUS open house theme, but when it comes to my beloved Raffles stories, hell, I am gonna go on!) After a 20 minutes of bus ride and another 10 minutes of walk, I arrived at RJC -- a school situated in a quiet Buona Vista neighbourhood. Most of the campus was surrounded by tall trees. The green and white coloured buildings blend in well with the surrounding, and it's kind of solemn. Nevertheless, my first impression was that the campus looked a little shabby. But as the guide showed me around, this impression had slowly given way to something appealing -- There isn't a square in RJ for outdoor performances, but that was evened out by making use of the hallway between two lecture theatres (LT2 and LT3), which they creatively named it as LT2.5. There isn't a gym big enough to accomodate the dancers, but the problem was again solved creatively by their dancing in front of the reflective windows of the notice board. There isn't much space for the outdoor activity club, but again the club members utilized the buildings and hung ropes and tires down from the second floor to simulate wall-climbing settings.... So after seeing how the Rafflesians get the best out of the very humble facilities, and how their creativity and passion transformed the run-down school settings into a vibrant campus, I was very impressed and really wanted to be part of it. Perhaps it was this X factor that made me determined to pursue an education in RJC. It was great.

Ok, back to what I was saying. The other reason why I enjoyed being involved in open house, be it in Chinese high, RJC or this time in NUS, is that it always filled me with a sense of pride. When I was listing out what I like about my department, it wasn't only meant to be a persuasion to the audience, but also a reaffirmation to myself that I had made the right choice. It is always during such events like open house or job interviews when you have to justify your choices of school or major that you discovered how important the school you attended or the choice you made have become, and how deep the sense of belonging is. For people who have known me for at least three years, you probably knew that NUS was not my first choice for tertiary education, indeed it was kind of my last resort. To cut the long story short, I ended up in NUS rather unwillingly. And I doubted my choice of major in ISE too. But after almost two years here and now I have finally been given a chance to leave NUS for oversea internship for just one year, I looked back and thought to myself, I am really gonna miss this place. I have many friends who came to NUS with me and all I can hear from them for these two years is "NUS sucks", but I bet we are all gonna miss this sucky place once we leave NUS.

So today when the "little ones" asked me if I like what I am learning now, I said yes, with all my pride and sincerity. And for the very first time in my life, I am gonna say, I love NUS!

GXL got high at 5:55 PM

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