~JcZw

This post was inspired by over-exposure =) to st. john in the past two days... Dedicated to the members and instructors of a very special competition team.

AC2 2002, 2003, AA2 2004 March, AA6 2004 June

My team, unique in the sense that every year we gained one new members, and lost another.

It started in 2002, the original team being myself, Wei Lun, Zhi Ren and Boon Chao. Wei Lun, whom I had already known for a long time (and with whom I was beginning to share telepathy with after BHN in June) became the team leader and I his number 2. Boon Chao and Zhi Ren were numbers 3 and 4 respectively.

Training progressed. We learned more first aid than we had ever learnt in our lives. But when it came to the crunch during mock competition, the cracks that came because of a inter-squad team showed up like an ugly stain. Members did not attend. The team split up, a rift opened by anger, disappointment and a feeling of betrayal. For with only four members, every person counted. If not, then there would be no way for the team to be as effective, no way for it to exploit its full potential.

Soon members left. New ones came in. We were not the only team breaking up. Other teams fragmentated too. And from one of these teams came Wei Quan, another friend from the start of the year (relative to the others anyway). And he became a new and reliable number 4, integrating quickly into the team and proving himself a capable team mate. But then again, he always was.

But the blow that the team had taken was too great. No way could we go for competition for that year. Not with my handicapping my team with third lang, not with all of us committing the odd silly mistake... once wei lun directed wei quan to do CPR on a sofa for instance....

So the next year, we started training with this team. With one new addition. A new number 3. Xuan Cheng, from Sec. 1 HP group. And with his arrival Boon Chao left the team.

So AC2 was complete. 4 different members, forming a new team with a potential to perform and to hold its own with the rest of the division's teams. And hold it we did. Proven ourselves we have. With the mock competition of 2003, zone competition and national competition of 2004, we proved our footdrill unrivaled by any other team in the division until today.

What can I say to describe our team? Its like we share a special bond that no other will have with us. We've worked together, suffered together. Won together, lost together. We've been through so much, and to me, its as though we could almost trust implicitly in each other to carry out our own tasks in a stressful situation to the best of our capabilities. We know that the others would cover our backs and watch out for us, and they know that we will do the same for them. Its this trust in each other that allows us to coordinate and work well together.

3 of the best friends that I have to today, they come from this team. And in the same way, the different instructors that have trained us we remember them too. If it weren't for them we would not have been able to acheive what we have (not to mention the telepathic communication I now have with my number 1).

Friends usually come about because we work together for a common goal, no matter who we are. In this way, working towards being a service to other people, we have fufilled this in a most satisfying way. The bonds that we share will now be difficult to sever.

Even now, I've moved to Victoria, and when I see my team mates, wei quan now carries the green pin of Temasek, while wei lun and xuan cheng bear the silver insignia of Meridien. But even when we are spread away from each other, we will always be in contact, and we will always be team mates. Its hard to imagine living without them around, for they have influenced me in many ways, whether it is or is not st. john related.

To wei lun, xuan cheng and wei quan: Thanks for being such great team mates! Really felt compelled to write this thing while I'm stilll under SJ influence.

Yup! Thats it for my team! Thanks for reading =)