I raced against time... but I lost.

Quote of the Day

"There is no such thing as a long piece of work, except one that you dare not start."
-Charles Baudelaire, Intimate Journals

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Woke up early in the morning yesterday to attend the Flag Day which commenced at 8 am. Although, I would usually be reluctant to service for Flag Days, this one is considerably quite enjoyable. This Flag Day is targeted to help Lakeside Family Centre to raise funds to help needy children and families. The shift took 6 hours altogether but we did only 3 hours then we went to eat and shop around at Far East Plaza. I found out a rather weird trend during the first 3 hours. I was stationed at a bus stop. What I discovered was that the first person whom I approach plays an important role. If unsuccessfully, the first one I approach decides not to donate, there will be a high tendency that all others who came down from the same bus would not want to donate. Whereas if the first one donates, many or some will follow to donate. I think this is some form of human psychology. Also, I discovered another bad trend. Among all, Indians are the ones who would prefer not to donate than to. I am uncertain whether this act of theirs is due to them being racist or they are being educated or brought up to think donating generously is a bad thing. Their reactions would uniformly be to act blur when you approach them then they would just walk away in split seconds as if you are invisible. I think this way of rejecting to donate is rather ill-mannered. A rather appropriate way would be to make eye contact with the volunteer then perhaps make hand gestures to turn down the offer. Apart from these minorities, most did donate generously and it is willingly and not by force. This lead me to have an idea to address another issue i.e. donate willingly versus donate by force. I think many would have encountered one or two times being stopped by a volunteer who is trying hard to persuade you to buy the donation coupon at the bus interchange. I can understand it is not easy to sell those coupons because there is a limit amount the donator has to contribute. Most volunteers will resort to "psycho" whoever they have baited upon and wasted 5 to 10 minutes persuading the unwilling beings. I think this is not the right thing to do as making a donation is a very subjective or personal thing. It is better to see someone opening his wallet willingly to make a donation than to see the former doing so with a bitter-ground face. Okay, enough of personal opinions. Back to story. The 2nd half of the shift was like a breeze as we decided to stop asking for donations and go for a break but time was hard to pass. We (ah ling, ah xia, ah ong, eilin, peishan, weitian and I) even had a neoprint-taking session. At the end of the day, we went back to hand the tins. Eilin and Peiling went for work and the rest of us bid goodbye and went separate ways.

Weekend is about to end yet heap of tutorials are still awaiting for completion. It is pretty ironical to think of holiday to come when you are schooling and vice versa. Tomorrow is only the start of week 4 and there is already a class test for us. I am beginning to lose faith in the things I am doing again. No one can help me to build up the once lost confidence but myself.

Off to clear the work.