In short, NSSCC has been one of the most stressful but meaningful experiences of my life so far. Been an intense one month filled with ups and downs, emotionally taxing yet so... fulfilling. It's been a long time since I felt like the words I use were inadequate to describe something but this is one of those times. Practically living in Onsight as we trained our asses off, going there almost every other day. Fretting over the Gri-gri and other stuff, naming our favourite staff member (SS *coughcough*). Matthias always being the one who kena some incident, the numerous scrapes and cuts on our knees especially, and trying so hard to cut down our timings. The feeling of elation when we broke our personal bests, learning from the very best Judith senpai, and so much other stuff I can't remember it all here. But in the end, it felt like it was WORTH something, because we weren't just stronger physically, but it drew us that much closer together. For that moment we were our own little family and I care so much not just for them but for the entire team as well. I wish we had one, two more years together but life moves on. I just never want to leave these people.
As for the actual competition, it was supposed to be on Sunday in the afternoon. We were supposed to start at around 2pm. But everything got delayed and the SMF took so damn long that the speed wall was only up around 6pm. Delay a bit more and the actual climbs only started around closer to 7pm. Then it started raining and it had to be postponed. Was really really irritated because of the terrible organising by the SMF. Oh forgot to mention that our lead teams did damn well :D Had 2 girls (Sarah and Shantel) and 4 guys (Jia Zhi, Gabe, Hubert and Haziq) in the finals, which was better than all the other schools. Finals on Sunday morning went pretty well also, with Sarah getting 3rd and Shantel did quite well too. Guys was really exciting because frickin Jia Zhi kept nearly screwing up but I swear it was his mental that kept him holding on for so long. In the end he managed to top the final route and secure 3rd place. Gabe and Haziq got 4th and 5th respectively. Overall, it was one of the best showings by the team in the last few years. Ah well, speed got moved to the Saturday that week in the end. Managed to get a shot on the actual wall on Friday and was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was actually almost exactly the same as Onsight's. Stayed over at Jasmine's house with Yi Xin that day :P Actual day rolls around and we were all pretty psyched up for the comp. Saw Emmanuel and David climb for their own finals and they're both pretty sick themselves. When A Divs was up all of us managed to get into the top 16. Had a good first run timing of 12.5s so was pretty happy with that. Turned out it helped a lot because I slipped in the 2nd qualifying run. (Annoyed and distracted that the belayer was belaying so damn loose). Top 16 round, was up against this MJC climber, wasn't too much of a problem. Top 8 round was so scary, because I was going against this SRJC guy whose timings were really close to mine. Slipped badly at the start of the ladder, but thank God so did he. Managed to recover fast enough and keep pace with him before pulling away at the last 2 moves. Was so happy just screaming out after securing myself in the Top 4. Went up against Vincent and lost (obviously haha) and went down to the loser's bracket for 3rd/4th placing. Faced another SR climber, Ryan, who was really good. Wellplayed to him, and I fell near the end too so lost to him. But all in all I prayed that I would leave the place happy and I did:) Was just so happy for the chance to prove and redeem myself. I said I would not fuck this up and I'm just glad I didn't. In the end though, Vincent lost to Gavin by a small margin, taking 2nd place, and both our Boy's and Girl's team took 2nd place overall because of the scoring system.
I think I might just shed some man tears when farewell shows its ugly face, but that's for another time. Just grateful and glad for this opportunity to be part of this fucking awesome team. A year ago I believed that I didn't make it into ODAC for a reason, and this just proved everything right :) Going to relive these moments for years to come.
Good Night
Cos I'm on top of the world
