HCI's Secondary One Orientation - [Day One]

The title says it all. So, we briefed the buddies again at 7:00 and did 2 cheers loud enough for the Sec 1s to hear. I think we impressed them. Or they thought we were crazy. Either way, we felt good after cheering and started off on a high note.

Today the Sec 1s came early. Very Early. Some came at 6:45, way before we told them to come. On a side note, I arrived at 6:50. Moving on, we went to set-up at Kah Kee Hall (KKH) and were observed by at least half of the Secondary One cohort. It was kind of creepy, because we had to move the required logistics to the registration booths while the Sec 1s were scrutinizing us. However, we managed to start registration on time, which was at 7:30.

The original plan was for the Sec 1s to take their temperature, go to the registration booths and proceed inside KKH. This did not happen. Some Sec 1s completely ignored the registration booths and went directly inside the hall. They had to be chased out again to collect their souvenirs. Anyway, our AOS Jun Wei was trying to hype up the Sec 1s to no avail. They were very unresponsive. In the end, the hyping up failed and we had to usher them up to the auditorium for Mr Vincent Tan's address. I do not know what he said because Nicholas Kek(sharing the same surname as me!) and I were tasking with rounding up the late-comers. It was tiring work.

After the talks, it was 8:45. The Sec 1s were brought to their classes and given a proper introduction to their buddies. They also had to get familiar with each other through a series of Ice Breakers, as well as learning most of the cheers in their "syllabus". Our job now was to patrol the classes and make sure that nobody was causing any trouble. There was surprising little to do, other than demonstrating cheers and initiating them.

Next was staggered lunch cum seniors' talk. There's really nothing much to talk about here, so I'll be moving on. The Sec 1s were led to the auditorium for a music lesson by Mrs Chan, in which they learnt the school song. Diresctly after that was Dr. Hon's address to the Sec 1s, and I didn't know what happened there either. After the talks, it was flag painting. This tests the Sec 1s' creativity to come up with a design which was original and outstanding. Though most of them used our Secondary One Orientation Logo or the Hwa Chong badge, some really came up with good designs.

For the 2nd last event of the day, there was Mass Games which involved - you guessed it - water bombs. The different groups were supposed the bombard the other groups' newspaper-covered hula hoops and protect their own, but no prizes for guessing what happened. Here's a hint: a lot of buddies and OT members, including myself, got wet. Go figure. Mr Tok spoiled the high note with a preliminary CCA briefing and the day ended like that. Sounds anti-climax? Well we had a great debrief but the details must remain confidential. I sincerely apologise to all readers.