Uniquely Singapore Clipper arrived in Victoria finally

As I was reading the newspaper this morning, I stumbled across an article on Uniquely Singapore Clipper that has finally arrived at Victoria, Canada before embarking the next leg to Jamaica.

As I was reading through the article quickly, it was said that this leg was one of the toughest legs of all these legs that they have encounteted. I thought to myself. Sigh I missed out the real challenge of having sailed the roller-coaster waves, freezing sea temperature and no stops over along its route to Victoria from Qingdao. But I thought to myself, in my opinion, my leg was certainly the most eventful of all the legs that people shared with me during my sailing. Who had anticipated the boat rudder problems that plague 7 out of 10 boats and forced us to make emergency berthing in Philippines? In Singapore, Singapore clipper received the most rousing cheers and wonderful welcome for all of us that we feel at home in Singapore finally. It was a best homecoming experience in my life where my fellow Singaporeans cheered for our successful arrival at our own soilt. And the most memorable event was when we left Singapore, colourful confetti was rocketed skywards and showered upon us like an imaginery meteor shower.

Though I, admittedly, did not really like these team people there, I must say that they have actually shaped my thinking and changed my habit. In the past, I did not bother to make my bed or to keep things neatly. I did not bother to help out with the housework or to volunteer to wash dishes. I simply took many things for granted thinking someone will take care of it. When I was on the boat, everyone had to do a lot of dirty chores, washing toilet bowls, fixing the spoilt toilet bowls, fixing the water pipe that forced us to ration water as much as possible, pumping out oil from the hull, carrying heavy stuff, washing decks, maintaining equipment and others which amounts to thousands times the household workload. One time, during our mother watch and when we woke up from our rest, to our horror, the kitchen was a huge mess with so many food leftovers, unwashed utensils and we were rushing for time to prepare breakfast. I was cursing people for giving us so much work but we had to do it. We practically cleaned up all the mess taking us more than 1 hour before we actually prepared the breakfast. I thought to myself at home what about at home that some of us are not cooperative with each other, dumping unwashed utensils and someone would have to clean up. I realise that one person doing all these household chores has really a lot of things to do, leaving little time for his own personal stuff. When I came back, I decided to myself not to take things for granted anymore. I would make my bed neatly after I got out. I would wash my utensils and others after they completed their meals. Every Saturday, I make it a point to clean the house and wash toilet to keep the house as clean as possible, thus chipping in my effort to help everyone of us. I thought to myself, what makes me change. I thought to myself, Clipper experience which is akin to my National Service experience certainly improved my bad habits. And also, it certainly helps to shape my perception of people. I shared with one of the mates that she was feeling frustrated with some other mates whom she could not get along well. I told her that she has 2 options

1) Stay on the boat and endure all these unpleasantness. See good things only in unpleasant situation

2) Jump off the ship and swim away from here.

She laughed at it and she felt better after that. She has her power to select things that are good for her and not to bother about other people.

Lastly, when I looked at the article, I feel a sense of pride ballooning in me that I am very lucky to grab once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Even though my career prospect is not very bright and I am not from the rich family background, i only know to myself that I have only one life to make full use and I decide to take a biggest risk that I have ever had because it really involves a huge cost and some kind of impact on my career. I told myself, either I go for it to chase my wildest dream or to stay on to collect pay on daily basis while eking out on a mere existence.

In life, it is a matter of options whether we want to exist to live or to live to exist. It is really up to us. I decide to exist in order to LIVE. So, I grabbed it and went for it. When I saw it, I am glad that I am part of the team and i could recall beautiful moments that I have never seen in my life. Like seeing dolphins frolicking in the golden sea with magnificient sunset scenery. Who will have a chance to experience this rare beauty on this boat?

Because of this experience, I went to the one of the most remote place in the world, Mongolia. Who has a chance to go to Mongolia which has a few transportation network to outside world?

All these myriad puzzles of experiences come together to form a tapestry of my whole experience which no one can buy or no one dares to own it. It is like a song "Whole New World".