~JcZw

Heh just read FM's website... Didn't know that VJ Fencing got third for team event in Under 17 =)

Sigh but the news I get from reading or hearing bout VJ's fencing team just depresses me sometimes. With the departure of my batch and Mrs Chan-the-principal who was just beginning to support us a bit, everything's gone back to worst that square 1... Now my juniors can't even register for some competitions under VJ's name cos ahem the teachers-in-charge cannot go down to support. Like what???

I mean, so what if we're jumping into competitions over our head? We were the only JC who's present members registered for FSI and willingly fenced a team from the Indian Army at SMU last year and lost 35-45 but it was still a marvellously fun experience hahah.. You won't get better by just fencing people from other JCs!! Just like all the best crossers, water polo players and soccer players also come from say, the junior national teams and blahblah cos they get much better exposure outside!

Not that it was fun getting our collective backside kicked by fencers from Thailand, Korea (heheh kim chi style!), Malaysia, Kuwait and etcetc, but its an experience! At very least it shows you where you stand and how much more you have to go (you can't win A-division and be happy with merely that!)

Sigh... but the abandonement of a CCA (or "abandonment", to be more politically correct) by the teacher seems to be near fatal doesn't it? I for myself don't know what's going wrong. When we left VJ I thought things were pretty good already... Maurice, Daniel and I seemed to have put on a credible show, we had sweated and bled (the bloodstains on the inside of my tracks haven't gone away and neither have the scars on my knees) for what we were rewarded with as much as any other CCA.

Yet during competitions VJ STILL gets out-cheered by any other institution, whether JC, ITE or university, and VJ NEVER EVER gets out-cheered!!

And no, leadership by the student leader can only go so far. All the commitment in the world won't get you anywhere when you're not recognized by the school, or your own teacher-in-charge.

And I can write this with a clear conscience cos I'm no longer a student heheh.

So there you go. As the cliche goes, I though we could "leave a lasting legacy", but apparently, when forces unravel and cover up your legacy as fast as you make it, everything's for naught.