Rewind (part 2): Freshman Year

This took a while, so sorry.


I have been quite busy with……. life as an undergraduate + unemployed lol. Everyone is traveling all over for their grad trip and here I am, presenting Cammy stuck in SOB SR 2-8, thrice/week every mornings hurhur. Anyway, here’s Part II that stupiak beatt92 has been pestering me for!!!

Welcome to SMU, Year 1: Aug 2011 - April 2012

I never knew I had so many fond memories in my first year at SMU until I dug out all the pictures from my external hard-disk. On the one hand, I am happy to have had those memories. And on the other hand, I am also sad that some of the memories will have to stay as memories and will never have its chance to be relived. RIP, Malcolm. :‘) I guess that’s what they mean by living in the moment? You don’t realize how sweet the experience is, until after it’s gone.

1. Convocation

To be honest, no matter what squabbles or petty arguments and disagreements the three of us may have, I soompa, I will never trade my siblings for anything in the world. Because my parents were in China and could not attend my Convocation ceremony, I had my siblings to come along and witness this momentous start of my SMU journey. If you guys ever come across my blog post somehow, I just want to say thank you for always being there for me. <3

2. FTB

Here is my FTB Group. The first few friends I made in SMU. It’s funny how the World, and how God works though! People like Veron used to be my Secondary School classmate back in CHIJ. But I never once managed to reconnect with her on her life and everything after we split ways to go to different JCs. And then SMU brought us together once more to start talking and being friends again. Then, there’s Andy, my FTB facilitator who’s not in this picture but who also eventually became my Sports Camp Clan Head when I was in Year 2. Josie, who was my first few friends in SMU and was also in the same Sports Camp Clan. Till today, our friendship as a 'Justice League’ Clan is going on strong! (Really proud to say so).
Lastly, there is Mok who eventually joined SMU Sailing and we became team-mates and crew-mates on the same boat. But I’ll leave that for later :)

My point being, the first few friends I made in SMU became constants in my life thereafter.

3. Bondue

Though this group of us did not remain very tightly knit after the orientation camp, I must say it was an engaging journey nonetheless. Lijun became my Dragon Boat teammate while Nick Yong & Bernice (both my facis) were some of the few seniors whom I really enjoyed talking to in school.

Then there’s Malcolm ( L ) and Gavin ( R ) . I recall this photo because we had a Bondue picnic after Bondue camp to kinda just catch up and solidify the friendships made. So we celebrated both their birthdays by surprising them with the melted-y cake. I was really saddened when they told me Malcolm had passed on during my OCSP in Vietnam… (Sorry buddy, I didn’t go to your wake nor your resting place. But do know, you will always be in my prayers. Thanks for also inspiring me at every of my sports race xx.)

4. LTB

This was my first module I had in SMU. Okay, kind of minus AW since that does not require any group work. But this group of koksters (well, some of us) still keep in contact so I thought it’s nice to go dig out the young and good ol’ pictures of us back in those days.

If there is something I have learnt from Y1 until now, using LTB as the reference point, I feel sorry that I kind of exploited the organization below just so that we could “clear” a module. In fact, I honestly think institutions albeit trying to impart civil morals through education, the short time-frame plus grading variable affects the true meaning of ‘volunteerism’. If you want to know, there was no follow up with this organization (as pictured below).

This organization provides children from broken families/with minimal income levels with a conducive place to study and a community of friends. They were all adorable kids whom I hope will grow up to make it big one day.

5. SMU Sailing


Well, I was actually really into this sport but sad to say, I had to give it up for Dragon Boating. And maybe also because travelling to Tuas was really a bitch. (Side track: I think I am quite pampered where this is concerned??? Haha I recall there was this once where I willingly wanted to accompany FF back to the East side to grab dinner but immediately regretted my decision when the bus was stuck on a heavily jammed ECP………………. Honestly, I don’t really stay stuck in transit for more than 30 mins on average #justsaying #centraler)

Anyway here’s probably the only legit SMU Sailing Team photo I really have. It was my first race as a Main Sail trimmer on board Calvin’s boat. On hindsight, I realized why they put me there but I guess sparks don’t just get generated by being in the same boat (quite literally I must say).

My awesome JMM crew and my first overseas regatta! (JMM is the boat’s name in short for ‘Jangan Mayan Mayan’ - okay it’s Bahasa Melayu and I obviously do not know how to spell it)

And remember how I said I was coming to the part on Mok? Well, here’s featuring Mokky again! Hahaha and also the same crew. I guess looking through the old pictures of Sailing makes me miss the sport quite a bit. Oh wells. That will be left for next time as I share with you guys on my next race with SMU Sailing ;)

6. SMU Dragon Boating

If you followed my previous post closely, you would know I entered SMU through the primary help of Dragon Boating. (But in the end, Andrew from OSL kinda bumped me into a dual-CCA diversity group due to my past sailing experience).

Anyhow, my batch of SMUDB girls started off with the 3 of us as pictured above. Limmy, Lijun (who was in my Bondue group) and myself. Stella was busy with National Team back then. So it was just the 3 of us who trained together and we grew closer. I used to call it the DB Love Triangle hahaha cos one out of the 3 will always be like “left out” and I guess eventually that was me since I ain’t no Hwa-Chee baby. And I was a left paddler while both of them became righties!

Then as time progressed, I made a new buddy. Hailey was my DB buddy in terms of our gym programs and albeit being 1 year my senior (cos she joined late), I never once felt undermined or less important. We grew stronger together and became closer since both of us were lefties. She always looked out for me especially since I was nursing a shoulder injury just after rowing ONE PM CUP :0

Here’s our first overseas race in 2012 in Hong Kong! I really enjoyed this trip a lot :) 买东西，吃东西 (repeat) lol.

Truth be told, the greatest memories and lessons I have taken away from SMU are from my CCAs and all these sidelined activities such as Sports Camp etc. And SMUDB is truly a place where you can grow individually, as well as one team. I have never felt the desire to want to achieve anything so badly before. And it happened at every DB race I paddled for.

Knowing you would willingly push your mental and physical limits for that one race which is only a max of 5 minutes (ahem PM Cup). It’s insane. You want to know what’s crazy about this sport? You train all your life so hard, clocking in the hours and sweat and tears. And at the end of the day, when you lose out to your opponents by mere seconds or a split of a second, it feels as if your whole world crashes upon what you tried to build up. And the fact that there are 21 or 11 other equally crazy girls who are willing to die just so we can pass that imaginary line……….. (“Just die for this set” was our mantra) Oh! The thought of it brings goosebumps to my arms. :‘) T'was good times, indeed.

7. Fei Fan


Okay, truth be told, I don’t know where to put this under, but our relationship happened in my 1st year in uni. I know, I know. Everyone tells me “Wah so fast ah, Camelia??” But it wasn’t as if I went hunting down for boibois. And neither did FF go hunting for xiao mei meis. I guess things just happened??? And how it happened was not really because of DB. Though our mutual friend was a current member back then.

Anyhow, here’s us at our first date hahahahaha okay bye, no more.

STAY TUNED FOR PART 3! (which may occur sometime next year maybe lololol. #iTry) No guarantees though.