Some recent epiphanies: You get as much as you want to get out of university. Ok maybe I'm just saying it to comfort myself over the amount of work I have to do, be it the social work video presentation or the preparation for the theatre practical exam, but I've come to realise that the best thing about being in NUS is that it allows for so much flexibility as to the amount of work you want to put in.
Take for example, my social work project - we were given the option of choosing to do a video presentation/role play/ powerpoint presentation. My group decided to do a video presentation which ostensibly is the most insane task given the amount of effort that has to be put in, as opposed to a powerpoint presentation, and being the natural slacker that I am, tried to persuade them to change their minds. However, it ended up that I was swamped with work, from writing the script to acting to editing the video and coordinating the slides etc.together with another girl, in a group of 7.(probably they resented my slackness..just kidding...)
Initially it was really frustrating, especially since filming took 3 days and editing took another 4 days (4 hrs each) of sitting in front of a huge computer screen watching all the takes and retakes, cutting the video, (laughing at the NGs), adding the voiceovers, filtering the noise, adding the transitions, timing each slide to coordinate with the voiceovers etc. Basically a painstaking process after which you come out feeling extremely retentive.
But yesterday when we finally exported the video into a VCD, it was such a satisfying moment, kinda like giving birth I imagine, to see something through from scratch all the way to the final product, knowing that at every stage you had a hand in making it what it is now. On the other hand one can say that it's really narcissitic because "Wow it's all about MY artistic sensibility" etc but I really think there is no way a narcissist will consent to crawling through the mud and doing all the dirty work...There's too much at stake for his/her image. Unless of course, the narcissist is a sadist.
And I think I am learning so much more this semester, not only because I learnt how to operate a medium sized video camera, how to use adobe premiere etc, but also how to really enjoy working (myself to death), and seeing really how much more there is to learn of life, of people, of God who constantly amazes especially when we least expect it.
Another case in point: yesterday's masterclass by the Australian String Quartet as part of the Singapore Chamber Music Festival. It really exceeded our expectations, not just because we haven't been playing with each other for very long, but we never expected it to sound like we were having fun, especially when we were still struggling with tuning during the rehearsal and trying to get our tone correct. But the tutors were really nice, (we got the cellist and 2nd violinist). I almost died when I knew the cellist was going to be coaching because normally the coaches will focus more on the people playing their instrument, but it went well and he actually demonstrated on my cello which really helped!
Actually we thought we wouldn't manage to get into the concert tonight (which is basically the showcase of selected chamber groups from the masterclasses), because the other groups had 'connections' (eg the organiser was an ACS student and his son was playing) but surprisingly it turned out that it was the ASQ who was doing the selection so we got in amazingly! What was even more surprising was that after the masterclass, Leslie (the T'ang Quartet cellist) passed his name card to Judy (our adhoc coach) and offered to coach us for free! It was really surreal. The T'ang quartet has a really dynamic coaching style - I watched their masterclass last year.
And so what I meant to say was, as much as I went in and played with Zech3:4 in mind, I came out of it experiencing Jeremiah 33:3. Totally unexpected, totally unbelievable. Totally awesome God is.
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