☾: Journey to Inner Space

July 21, 2014: Dearest dear whoever is reading this; I would like to take a little of your time to read my story on everything that happened during my journey into my inner space. Along with this tale are my thoughts, opinions, realizations and learning during that amazing day. Please keep an open mind as you go along reading this very long piece of words and bring with you a little patience too. But if ever you find this senseless and boring to read you are free to go as soon as possible so you do not have to waste your time with this. Thank you for trying! Now let me start my story by asking you, when was the last time that you had a talk with yourself? Or the last time you found yourself contemplating with your soul? That same question was thrown to me by the speaker of the activity (it is not the exact phrases but it has the same thought). And on that instance I found myself a little bit panicky by the spontaneous question that was given to me which I was not prepared to answer. I was wondering when was exactly is it. Then when I found my words to give as an answer to the question I directly said "During my communion" and as I saw the speaker's facial expression it was obvious that my answer was not right. Poor me. Then the next people around our circle were asked with the same question. And one of my fellow classmates did answer the right respond - Everyday. Then I realized, it does not have to be too much emotional, does not have to be in a certain event or a place and does not even have to be a onetime experience. It was really too late for me to realize that I had always been doing my journey to my inner space during my spare time and most especially at my downfall moments, too bad that I had not realized that I should have said and answered "last night ". And a lot of things happened during that day that has given me a lot of answers to my questions, a lot of realizations, a lot of learning and a lot of memories and experiences that is worth keeping. Underneath is somehow a detailed story of what happened in the event or activity that I am talking about.

As I was saying, this activity is what we call "Interpersonal and Team Building Activity". This kind of activity has always been a traditional requirement in every batch of Field Trip and Seminars. We started the activity with the usual preliminaries in every kind of events and then the speaker of that day, which is Mrs. Emily P. Madrona, questions started to give her to us. We were asked to form a semi-circle seating arrangement and a moment later the formation was divided into 5 groups. It so happened that I belonged to the group that has four girls and four boys with such a great kind of different people that I am somewhat not familiar with, for short they are the people that I am not super close with. We named the group as #TeamBangan (homonymous to the word Timbangan which literally means in English as Weighing Scale). At first, it really sounded a bit odd and weird but we were able to explain and give details about our reason of choosing it as our official group name. In every first time encounters, first time class meetings and any other first time events we are normally asked of what are our expectations in the event and on our activity we were also asked the same question plus our possible contributions to the success of our group. I had nothing to complain to my given group, it actually felt like a blessing to me because I really had fun doing every given tasks with them. It was in fact a company with full of fun and humor. And all the time that I was there I was just really enjoying with my team laughing and knowing them. The next thing we did is we made the "Paper Clip Story" wherein we made symbols that best describes ourselves with the use of a colored paper clip and shared it with the other group members. I really find it hard to know what best fits me. I do not know. I think I am still not sure if I have enough already known myself because at this moment, I do not feel that I know myself too well. Maybe I am a positive kind or negative one or both or a bipolar one or I do not know, I am still discovering things with in me. But in order to accomplish the activity I did the "Hakuna Matata" symbol. We all know what hakuna matata means, it means no worries for the rest of the day. I know it does not describe one person but it is one characteristic that I would like to imply in myself and keep this famous proverb as my every day reminder for good vibes.

Later after the morning session, we had another sharing that was quite emotional and sentimental to a few students that had shared with such great stories about their experiences Family Dining Table when we were young. I had a hard time doing this because I forgot my family's dining table set-up before and the situation long time ago was kind of complicated. I was too young and to forgetful though. Anyways, I heard a few great stories and the people I least expect to have such stories had touched my heart dearly. I saw inside the four corners of the room, people wiping their tears away because of too many emotions they kept for so long and the nostalgia makes them blown away by the fluids flowing from their eyes. I would like to quote one of my classmate's words in relation to the activity (not the exact one but has the same thought) "Childhood is one of the best experiences and we are never going to experience them all again. We will never experience the running around the house to escape from your mother who's holding a hanger or a belt and the forced nap-times in the afternoon. Experiences like these are all worth it."A lot can relate to this, and I know you do too! Apart from that melodramatic moment, we had so much great time with the games and activities that we had on the afternoon (which was proudly prepared by the officers of the class). There were three childlike games that we all played (except for the class president who facilitates the games) namely War of the Fishes, Connect Me and You Belong with Me. For every kind of game, there were random groups created and put in ordered by one of the officers. The reason for that is that each one of us could have the chance to get along, interact and mingle with different people during the game. This helps a lot for me to familiarize other people I had not had a chance to know from the morning session. It was really super fun participating in the games (officers were exempted to join the War of the Fishes). We had a lot of laughter connecting ourselves by inserting inside our uniforms the long plastic twine. I am glad to know that no one dared to or seemed not to participate in this activity especially the girls. As far as I can see, all has the eagerness to be the first group to be connected. On the last game that we had, we all looked and sounded crazy stupid young person shouting different animal sound with eyes covered by our handkerchief searching for our other teammates. I totally enjoyed the ting ning ting ting sound of the fox but I still love my moo moo sound. I am so happy that we were the first group to have found our other teammates. Have I told you the prize for the winning group per game is? The winners got a marvelous clap and yey! As an officer I was actually worried that no one would participate in the games since we do not have prizes to give but we successfully come to an end without any complains or any protest related to that. It gives the impression that all of us do not look for the prize but everyone would love to have the joy and fun playing the games. What a great example of simplicity it is! The last thing that we did is to put pen to paper our commitment in life. We were asked to write the things that we would like to stop doing and the things that we would like to start doing. I note down that I would like to stop nagging, being negative thinker and prevent giving wrong judgments to people. Then I make a note of the counterparts of everything I want to stop – become a positive thinker and stop being judgmental when it comes to people. We ended our activity with a lot of picture taking and it feels like a photo shoot. I never imagined I would have a new group, a bigger group of new friends like this, that is so happy to be with and very active, participative, approachable, welcoming and crazy as them. All of my first impressions to them were left as a first impression only.

Here is a list of all my learning and realizations from the activity (Interpersonal Skills and Team Building):

- Be open

- Be optimistic

- Start to stop the negative vibes

- Worry less, enjoy more

- Be happy

- Socialize

- Know their stories

- Don’t judge people

- Understand people

- Appreciate them

- Make stuffs

- Learn new skills

- Discover

- Go on adventures

- Make new friends

- Learn to reach out and touch someone

- People are made to be perfectly imperfect

- Enjoy simplicity of life and people

- Smile as much as possible, it is not expensive

- Live for today

- Understand no one is perfect

- Sometimes act like a kid a again

- Take nothing for granted

- Stop comparing yourself with others

- You are what you are

- You are unique

- The past, mistakes and people from yesterday makes who you are

- Make mistakes and learn from it

- Make the most of it

- Learn from what they learn

To end this very long note of my learning and everything I gained from the Interpersonal Skills and Team Building Activity I would like to leave you this quote I found on we heart it website “In life we do things. Some we wish we had never done. Some we wish we could replay a million times in our heads, but they all make us who we are. And in the end they shape every detail about us. If we were to reverse any of them we would not be the person we are. So just live. Make mistakes. Have wonderful memories. But never ever second guess who you are, where you have been, and most importantly where it is you are going to be.” I just look forward to put into practice and apply in my everyday living, especially in this coming field trip, all of the listed things mentioned above. I would not say that I had a complete list above because maybe I have forgot to note it down. But one thing is for sure the most important learning I have learned that day is that I still have a lot to learn about me, life and people (which I will soon add on my list). Sorry for my crappy piece for my thoughts are mixed up. If you happen to reach up to this point reading this, Congratulations and Thank You!

P.S. Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other is gold.