A tribute to days gone by...

For the past 5 years, i have lived the life of a dgnbtr. When something's been a significant part of your life for so long, it's inevitable that you sleep, eat and breathe it. A lifestyle of great tans, intense work-outs, food bans, heart-pumping races, regiment, discipline and most importantly, great pals.

2001,
I found a new family

2002,
I said goodbye to the seniors I had grown to respect so much,
seniors who thought me all I know about and what it means to be a member of the ladies team

2003,
I experienced the effects of ugly team politics

2004,
at 16 small, I learnt that numbers didn’t matter as long as you had the heart

2005,
I realized in Penang I’d gotten the concept of competitive sportsmanship wrong all this while

2006,
after searching all these years, I finally finally found the true meaning to the phrase
‘1 stroke, 1 boat, 1 heart’

Pw once told me when I was at the crossroads of deciding to stay or not that people never stay because of the sport itself. It’s more than just keeping fit, maintaining a tan, but about the people you row with and row for. That’s the very reason why I constantly plunge myself into crazy self-torture. It’s never about the addiction to the sport but need to be around the people whom I go through thick and thin with, people who’ve seen me at my worst and lowest. People whom i’ve experienced the high of a good race set together and the lows of not winning despite all the hard work put in. People whom I know I can always rely on and trust. People who know when I’m pissed, how hard to push me. And of course the select few who know me the best, can read me like a book and know what I’m thinking and feeling. No one can understand what it’s like to have to sign up for something like this voluntarily, train up to 5 times a week and still need to juggle everything else, and look as though you are still surviving. Only them.

Mong-na’s gonna say I’m having a major hangover. Perhaps that’s just it. But you can’t deny 8 semesters, 5 teams, 6 captains, 69 girls and 12 races. That’s a lot of memories to hold on to and not something that’s easy to let go of. Coz once you’ve been in a team, it becomes part of you and never leaves.

You never forget.