Basket.

In the end it all came good. Once more I have to bid farewell to a CCA, and I can never get used to the feeling. It is a strange one, very mixed; a tremendous sense of accomplishment mingled with a great sense of sadness. Accomplishment, of course, in that I have survived so much hard work, weathered so many crises and can now hand over to juniors we are picked and whose abilities we are largely confident of. Sadness, in that I have to leave this CCA that I have grown so attached to. I always dread the feeling, despite that immense sense of accomplishment, because the sadness can be overwhelming.

The last time I felt anything approximating what I currently feel was in Sec 4, of course, when I left that last guitar camp. Yet this time the feeling is stronger, much stronger. It all comes down to what I have done for HISSOC the past one-and-a-half years, and that is much more than I ever did for the RIGE. From the messy opening months of 2003, when we scrambled to prepare for RMUN 2003 while still uncertain of whether we were even going to remain in RJ, to the last hurrah tonight, the close of RMUN 2004, so many things have happened. Then, I neither expected nor aimed for a position on the society exco; now I know I would have been much the poorer without it. I know I have written this before, but forgive me, as tonight is the night for reminiscing.

So, I got the position. Small-minded at first, I was very quickly enlightened that in this exco, position did not matter. "Everyone does everything". No strict delineations of duties. On hindsight, I think that was one of the greatest things about it. We never squabbled about duties and who was supposed to do what and who was doing more than who and all that. We all worked together (including to sack the lone exception to the rule) and truly gelled, truly integrated, as an exco. No tension, no petty quarrels, no cliques. And what really moulded us into such an efficient entity was our first RMUN, 2003. So many late nights spent on it, so many meetings, so many preparations that involved staying in school so late we had to beg the cleaner lady to keep the school gates open for us - the result was more than worth the cost (including of the present we later bought aforementioned cleaner lady). In the end it went off so well. I can only speak for mysely, and I know I came out of it much the richer in life experience. Learning to work with others, to accomodate, plan, organise, brief, think on the spot... the list is endless. In all this my abilities were enhanced by that RMUN of last year. And it was all put to very, very good use this year.

RMUN is an experience. For both staff and delegates. Never having been the latter, I came to RJ clueless about Singapore's largest student-run event. In the end it gave me so much, and I came from knowing next to nothing about it to growing so attached to it that after Wednesday's disastrous opening, I could not sleep for worry of its future. "Why do you put in so much effort...?" We were thus asked by one of our successors this year. Because we have grown to love and appreciate this event, to recognise the vast benefits, both tangible and intangible, it confers upon all who in some way get involved in it. It was an honour of the highest order and a great experience to have participated in organising two of them.

Without it, our exco would not have become what it did, and be able to handle all the other lesser events, which posed myriad troubles of their own, so well. I am proud to have been part of such a grouping. This, indeed, is a CCA worthy of all the effort and dedication we have put into it.

So the time has come when we must bid goodbye to both CCA and event. Today was a success, definitely, and we are proud of our juniors. They have indeed heeded what we have told them and risen to the occasion to create such a success. Credit to them, indeed. We are reassured that the society is in safe hands.

Personally, the past one-and-a-half years in this CCA has been an incredible experience. So many people I have met, so many good memories will stay with me for the rest of my times. Always, I will recall this period as one of the happiest times I have ever lived through. Truly, to the remarkable bunch of people whom I have had such an honour to work with on so many occasions in this period of time, a sincere thank you.

And it is with a heavy heart that I must sign off, in more ways than one.