Breathtaking isn't it? But, as much as the picture above infers, I DID NOT take a trip to the Maldives. Neither did I went to Club Med Bali, nor the one in Cherating Beach. The Club Med I went to however, is one of the world's FINEST, not to mention, CHEAPEST. *teehee
If you're still reading, I really hope it's because you were overwhelmed by the grabbing suspense in the last paragraph. :) Anyways, I took part in a camp, or as I like to call it, 'Club Med'. It was a 3 days 2 nights camp, organised by my school's Buddhists' Club in partnership with the town's Buddhist Association. Before I continue though, I want you to know that I'm not in any way trying to influence your religious views or beliefs. I just purely want to share my experience and thoughts with you guys about what I went through during the camp. In fact, this camp is minorly(I know its not a word, but you get the point) associated with religion.
Right, now that I've made my intentions clear, lets get back to our topic. I bet you guys are wondering
"What's up with Club Med if you're writing about a camp?"
You see initially, the post title was "Buddhist Youth Camp"........BORING, and then I thought of "Camp"......BORING-ER , but "CLUB MED"-itation ......... BOOM! POST TITLE GOLD!
To be honest, the night before the camp, I actually thought of not going. You know, with tons of projects and assignments to be completed, tuition to attend, plus, school reopens in less than 5 days. On the other hand, I thought, I finally took part in something by the Buddhist Association after all these years living 10 feet away and I want to bail at the last minute? And after all the promises I made to my friends about going? What kind of Buddhist does that make me? There was this dilemmatic argument going on in my head that night and at last, I chose to go. Boy am I glad I did!
I loved what the camp was trying to bring forth and instill in us. The main theme was '如实的接受自己' or 'Honestly Accepting Yourself' in direct translation. My first thought about this was:
"We should all totally dance to Born This Way!"
Unfortunately, we didn't. Instead, they had this AWESOME camp song in place
The best part was that they even came up with weird dance moves for it.
Let's all be freaks! Yay!
One of the people-in-charge asked if I would like to help with the performance of the camp song a few weeks before. I agreed, and so, on the fateful night of the opening ceremony, standing in the spotlight, with a fedora, a guitar and the crowd cheering, I ..... I am JUST KIDDING. I mean fedora? Spotlight? No way. But I did had lots of fun performing the song on my guitar with a few other guys and an arguably responsive audience.
And speaking of performance, I relived my superstar days in the Interact Club dancing to the Korean hit 'Nobody' on stage at the camp. Not one of my proudest moments but at least it gave everyone a good laugh.
We were also taught some important religious gestures and procedures which for me, took some getting used to. One that I really liked was meditating. I never knew something as simple as sitting leg-crossed, eyes closed, and body relaxed can be so calming and peaceful. The feeling it gave was surreal and almost magical. Every time I meditated, it was like I was floating in an undefined space free of worries and troubles, it was my portal to inner peace.
They also had this 'Night of Appreciation' as a wake up call for people who take their parents for granted. The night brought many to tears as the pain and regret most of us felt was to hard to hold back. I really admire the people who had the courage to stand up front and share their touching stories with all of us. There's one thing that is still burning in the back of mind till now. A friend of mine whom I've know since elementary but drifted apart during the high school years turned to me. He was sobbing and he said:
"Why aren't you crying?... ... ... ... ... I don't have any parents you know."
For that split second, I was taken off guard. I didn't know what to do, whether to comfort him, to give him a pat the back, or a hug. I wished I could've just told him that it was ok but, I didn't, because I didn't know if it was. The next thing I knew, tears rolled down my cheeks. It was weird because it wasn't sympathy I felt, but anger. I thought these people shouldn't be going around saying that every parent loves their children and wants the best for them when cases of baby dumping is on the rise, orphanages are filled with children and child abuse cases are making into the headlines. Is that what's best for these children then? They can't just generalize "every parent love their children" off the love they and their friends feel from their parents when in fact this isn't true for many. I know their intentions were good and I'm not saying that what they were doing was wrong but they could've at least thought of what people like my friend will feel.
Ok, let's not darken our moods with this. Right, games! I've to admit, I got to give it to the people who planned all this. The games we played weren't only fun, they actually had life lessons behind them. I thought it was a great way to instill 'the way of the Buddha' in us instead of just lining us up with boring and tedious talks. Also through these games, I found out that my group was actually really good in luck oriented games. We totally owned the 'rock-scissors-paper' round.
Hmmm... what else did I miss out? Food. Well, like one of my friends said, SPLENDID. Accommodation. Well, I'll say it's not Club Med quality, but it was livable. Oh my group, how can I forget.
Viva la group 2/group sunshine/group maple leaf. It's complicated.
We were a quiet bunch but you know what they say, "still LIPS runs LOUD". I'm not going to elaborate further for fear you'll be blown away by our AWESOMENESS.
All in all, the camp was without a doubt GREAT. Loved the vibe, the people, the food and my ultra-thin, back-ache-giving mattress. I couldn't be thankful enough for being given the chance to be a part of this wonderful camp. I am finally enlightened!
