<3

hcanoe girls celebrated the last day of the year by invading the cardio room! :D haha for some reason i always think of the gym as our property and the cardio room as x-country's.

x-country would die if they see what great use we put their equipment to,lol.

this is my frontman whom everyone says looked extremely sexy today HAHA. pucca and yeelin are waiting for their brother-in-law!

look at their faces full of anticipation haha

i've said this a zillion times but...i'll never regret the day i entered hc. back in st nicks, i was the typical o-lvler who thought, 'wow, hc...best jc. i wanna go there! get good results, leadership posts, scholarships...etc.' but when i really became a hwachongian, and even more importantly, a hcanoeist, i realised there's so much more to being a hc-ian than just stupid pointless mugging. the school spirit, making friends with half the school (with ip and super close sports ccas, i love the way making friends usually means making friends with friends of friends :D), mr ang's perfectly pronounced speeches (i kinda cant recognise his face yet though. smart), having incredible freedom during CT + PE + breaks, late night studying, feeling damn proud everytime i wear the school uniform/ badge. i never felt the same way in st nicks, cos i never worked that hard to fight for a place. back in st nicks it was just...mugmugmugmugmug. and guides, that's all. but there's so much more to hc, and i dont want to waste my 2 years here. yea, the way gossip and rumours fly around this place, sometimes i still feel the need to watch my back and all. but i'm sick of watching my step/ being so suspicious of people/ hiding my friendships so others wont criticise. next year i'm going to be open about almost everything because i really dont think there's any point being/having half a friend.

and joining hcanoe...haha. imba coolness cos i never thought i'd ever reach this stage today (: i love our morning dates at pullup bar and being able to eat all i want without watching my weight (but argh pocket burn hole). and what the seniors said about bragging rights...it feels great to be able to say i'm from hcanoe girls, and (this is kinda mean) thrashing even my guy friends when they doubt the prowess of our team HAHA. i like the way we sport our jerseys/ jackets with pride, the way shar and i stroll in the rain when everyone thinks we're crazy, the way our team can balance training, work and play so well. i never thought i'd be a sportsgirl, but now i love the confidence it gives me. knowing my team'll be there to back me up no matter what.

one year's zoomed by, and nats is looming up fast. 2009 will be our year, our fight, OUR RACE. when the starter says 'ready in 10 seconds...' it'll be us with paddles held high and ready, eyes straight ahead, keeping our drift in check. 'GO'. and it'll be our team that leaps to life. left blades in, starting burst, POWER. nice and steady, fight the waves, lean in front, lower cg, lower wind resistance. dont think about pink elephants capsizing. keep in lanes. stable. powerup. BURST. soar past the finish line. and maybe, just maybe, we'll have pieces of metal to show for our feats. jc told me that in the kayaking world, we're actually known as sprinters. hcg sprint team ftw :D

we max out, we pia, we fight the sun rain wind water. if waters suck, we know it's training for bedok, we know our opponents are struggling too. if our boats go slow/ unstable/ screw up, we think how honoured we are to even be allowed to handle such equipment. (haha for the record, tiger! i'm sorry for always bumping your nose against the pontoon/ bashing your body with my paddle/ scraping your bottom against the rocks etc) and if for some reason, giving it our all doesnt work...we know that, always, it's mind over body. if physical strength fails, if waves threaten and our boats dont listen and we cant feel the catch and we're that close to giving up..we'll just take it as mental training then. grit our teeth and fight on, being grateful knowing that this'd be one more training where we're given the chance to build up our determination. resilience. courage. faith. we'll understand that it wouldn't feel so satisfying if training was easy peasy and everything falls into place effortlessly. and when hx's words cut sharp as knives...we know those razor edges are just slicing off our flaws and problems. one more step to perfection.

c'mon teammates. we dont earn the title hcanoeist without shedding blood sweat tears for it (:

posted by xin! @ 2:45 PM