My Glasses Broke (See, I?)

Perhaps it was timely that my glasses broke right on the cusp of a new year. My vision had been a little blurry, no matter how many times I rubbed at the lens with a cloth. Mind a bit fogged up as I trotted along the path –– a path towards the new year.

You’re going to have heard this sentence many times, so just spare me one: It’s been a long year. And amazingly enough, the pivot from the adjective ‘crazy’ to ‘madness’ seemed quite clear. August. That’s when it all got a bit zany.

Because for the first time in my life, I want to talk about school, and I want to talk about it in-depth, on a professional platform.

When I was in secondary school, and then junior college, I enjoyed recess times and lunchtimes as much as the next kid did. I savoured every pocket of time I could spend with my friends, and by that logic, I enjoyed classes with group projects, because pushing our tables up to form a discussion square, or ‘fishballing’ around someone else’s desk meant that we were having a conversation. And within this larger conversation, there’s smaller ones. There’s the loving buzz and hum and thrum of thoughts whirring around. In a single classroom or lunch break, a friend could be divulging important details about a relationship while someone else picks up on the tail-end of a conversation on their political alignment. And everything in between.

So school –– or rather, the conversations within –– makes up a large part of my life.?

And now, even larger. Recall how I said that August seemed to be that ‘pivot’ into madness. That’s because I, a humble peasant, decided that perhaps there was a way that I could fully, truly love and cherish our school community more. My best friend and I ran for our university’s student body club, or WKWSCI CI Club, and got elected. And that’s when the true madness really began.?

Our first semester into leadership as President and Vice President has just ended. With the arrival of a new year, comes the entrance of our second semester. In fact, we’re (our committee) slated to run a university-wide event in less than twenty-four hours.?

And so far, it’s been rough. We look at days in terms of numbers: either the number we get to sleep, or the number of meetings we have. Our Telegram messages have never fallen below 2, 000 in the past three months.?And here's why I want to talk about school on a professional level: my school community teaches me so much about project management, about interpersonal skills, about deadlines, about rushing to meet deadlines, about elevating ideas and balancing pitches. And with WKW's innate connection with various brands, I enjoyed pushing the limits of creativity with different brands to convey their own stories, into the worlds of young adults.

Yet, one semester spent working with an amazing committee has taught me so much –– and given me something that I truly craved.

You see, I’ve always said that people are what motivates me. And throughout my educational journey, I looked forward to every opportunity to chat with friends, to converse with other people in my life –– in the same school-life we were sharing. Now, as someone who helps bring student life activities to life, or can be a part of amplifying a student’s enterprising dream: to me, that opportunity is priceless. The chance to become an open ear for friends and their friends’ friends, for coursemates to tell me their troubles and work together on something for everyone else.

That’s kind of special to me.

I chanced upon the Russian theory of Ostranenie when I was eighteen, and in August of my A-Level year, I focused on this topic for my H3 Literature paper. Ostranenie is based on the idea that one’s perspective must be shaken into the unfamiliar, distorted to the point where you can’t simply make an assumption of something, to truly gain a full experience.

To be thrust into understanding what leadership means at a level I am still working to be better in, and to overcome the pressures of certain perspectives of the role –– I felt that Ostranenie had somehow found its way back to me this year. For somewhere along these twelve months, I was walking an unfamiliar path. They always say that each committee puts its own chapter in the story of our school. And for a team I love as much as ours, I hope that our chapter’s characters never lose their love for writing their own stories.?

Sometimes, your lens has to pop right out of your glasses-frame to see you through newfound clarity.

I wrote this for gratitude – for the heartfelt thanks I feel to our students, to people who have been such a huge part of the journey, for the partners we've worked with, and for that 'filler chapter' bridge sending us to the next part of the story.