Until next time.

So my internship has come to an end…

Let me start by saying that I really, really loved my job. Writing is something I could do in my sleep (or, as is the case now, while I am hot and delirious from the flu), and I really enjoyed covering Residential Life events and interviewing the RL team. At the start I said I’ll make it my mission to make residents think of our beloved RAs and RADs as more than landlords. I think I succeeded, because now I believe that too.

In the course of my work I saw the cool lives you all led outside of the RL world. And I was really happy to share your fascinating talents and passions to the rest of the RL community. In fact, there is one particular interview which I will fondly remember as my “Bridget Jones moment”:

But don’t tell anyone.

I have interviewed people so fascinating yet humble, and I sincerely thank the people who found time off their schedules to share with me – and the rest of the RL community – a bit about themselves.

I could not have done it without the Residential Life crew: Ann, Bell, Guan Hock, Syah, Victor. Our slogan is Better Together, and that speaks for our crew as much as it does the entire NUS Residential community. I would like to especially thank Bell, a great editor and motivator who always told me if I was thinking too much or if I wasn’t doing enough, and Syah, who knew everything and everyone (if I needed to fact check or identify an RA in a picture, I only need to crane my neck and ask her).

Team Residential Life (-Victor).

The internship made me so much more aware of my strengths and weaknesses. This would probably be true for all who went for the Residential Leaders’ Camp. Until we did certain things at the RLC, we’d have no idea we could do them – climb a coconut tree, jump off another coconut tree, jump off a ship, over and over again. For a girl who’d seen all Final Destination movies, completing these risky tasks – or attempting them at all – was an achievement.

On the flip side, the camp also served as a reality check for me. In as much as we’d like to believe the camp activities were all Mind Over Matter, that isn’t the case for an overweight girl with zero arm strength. I only made it 3/4 of the way on the wall climb, and that made me very sad. Imagine – your teammates, your own brain, and the belay person you are torturing cheering you on…and your body just refusing to budge. I slipped and I tried and I slipped again.

Not me, but there is (fortunately) no photo of me on the wall.

At that point, I felt that I let my RL team down. My mind was in it but my physical limitations took over. I cried, and you all were so nice. The RAs and RADs told me that at least I tried. Some people don’t even try. Thanks for cheering, guys – I’m working on becoming stronger.

The internship helped me grow so much, even from the get-go. When I started, I was also doing 7 mostly “top-heavy” (CA, no exam) modules. You can imagine me, studying and squeezing in work between classes! That experience gave me so much discipline. I got the work done, but the part I couldn’t squeeze in was office time.

And that’s what I regret the most. It wasn’t just that I wasn’t able to “take ownership of my cubicle” as I often joked; it was more of I was not able to get into the groove of how things were done at RL. And it took me longer to get to know the awesome OSA team. In the latter part of the semester, when my academic calendar cleared up and I had more time to sit in Cubicle #20, I began to really feel like part of the RL family.

Now, I think about how much I will miss that cubicle. How much I will miss writing about people who were so worthy of praise, how I will miss being coached by a team of passionate people who embraced me as one of their own, even when I was just another intern. And I am sad.