Finally after a year of everything, I finally done with my asasi. Pheww what a year. Well, of course I had fun and whatnot, making friends, making memories, yadayadayadayada all sappy and goofy...
So, to cut to the chase, we had our pre-graduation dinner.
A nice evening spent to dine with and meet each other for one last time, together as a whole batch. I heard people said it's a great and wonderful night where everyone made their farewell speeches and took many photos, often group photos or class 'family' photos or even selfies with each other dressed in their respective suits, dresses, and whatnot.
For me? I think it's pretty.....good. Well, it didn't go well as planned..... or nearly as I expected.
I imagine there'll be dancing like prom night or people sobbing and crying together, holding each other's shoulder while reminiscing the memories. I guess I expected too much then.
I did made those things as I said. And I kept thinking, up until now, that I could have done better.
I am absolutely not satisfied with whatever transpired that night.
First up, as member of the TESL committee, I felt that it is my duty and responsibility to be assigned to do something since everyone is doing things and I'm not. So, me being a goody-two-shoes thought it would nice for me to volunteer myself as a tribute /lulz/ to help the entertainment department.
I did my fair share in this department. I made the trailer, my class' montage, helped Naem with the montages, used my humble companion (laptop) as one of the main source to render and generate the montage.....
When I did the 020P2D montage, I used two songs - Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) by Green Day, and It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday by Jason Mraz, and I personally think hese two songs are great and wonderful for farewell montage.
I was well informed by Naem that each class rep were required to contribute their class' photos, or even better make a montage using those photos. Me, having so much time in my hands, did just that - using the photos I had with me and some shared by my classmates, combined with two songs, to create a lovely and nostalgic montage.
The first half of the montage was a remembrance to our 'time of our lives' being happy and all, doing Readers' Theatre, performances, presentations, studying in class.... while the other half was the sad part, as I used the videos from the individual performances and slowed it down half the original speed to create a sort of flashback, overlapped with fading transitions, the kind they used in films to create the emotional setback of a story. The ending of a beautiful story.
The very last one: the ending is even more emotional - I combined all five performance and I found out that all of our groups have this common choreography of skipping and dancing around which makes me cry sometimes (true story) when seeing how well we got with each other through this sem. And that's the part that I want to emphasize. We all are one big happy family.
And it's my honest contribution of all!
And yeah, as it turned out, among all class reps, I was the only one eager to do the montage (as always.... ugh.... am I being too enthusiastic or what) and even worse, Naem made the montage by combining all photos from all classes, regardless from what class. No definite differences between one and another. Just one big pile of pictures, one after another.
Oops. What have I done.......
But, I just let it slide. And so did Naem.
It was around 4 pm I guess, that things were getting busier. The committee started to do the preparation at the hall, and we, the entertainment department still busy doing the second montage - supposedly dedicated for the second semester photos (as I initially thought).
But then, Naem's laptop had a problem. His Movie Maker couldn't import the music he intended to use for the montage. So it was up to my laptop, using my Movie Maker to do the job. The only problem is mine was also kinda corrupted - every time I tried making long videos, it crashed! Ughh... /continuously cursing/
It was so frustrating, but luckily I had a backup plan. I had this one software - VideoPad. It was a free video editing software. Do you get me?
*was*
I used it to make the 020P2D montage, so I was pretty clear it was safe to use that. But just then, as I opened the software, it turned out to be a trial version of the full software, where I need to buy first before I can proceed using it. /continuously cursing, again/
All this while you were pretending you were free. But now, at the very moment, the most deciding moment of all, you chose to unleash your true colour. Good job, VideoPad! Good job! Well done! /claps violently, then shows middle finger/
So, I had to make a new project on Movie Maker, remade everything. Ughhh....
But then, I had an idea! 'Why not export the picture montage first, without the song, then insert the song after using my Movie Maker?' as I said to Naem. He reluctantly agreed, maybe he's done with everything I guess, so he handed it all to me, and I took over. Nice. My thing. That should make it faster.
So I hastily did what I had to do. From one laptop to another, transferring files faster than those people who changed the tires at the pit stop of F1 racing car - using multiple pendrives and hard disks, wires everywhere.......
A few minutes later, I was informed that the entertainment departments needs to be ready at the hall. So we moved to there. A rehearsal is taking place, but I didn't mind at all, as long as this work is done.
But just then, another problem emerged. As I was busy with literally everything - my fingers won't stop dancing on my keyboard - my laptop screen slowly faded into darkness.
Battery's dead.
NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All my work.....
Everything....
Ugh.....
/endless cursing and pointing middle finger/
I quickly grabbed my bag and snatched the charger, found the socket, plugged it in and another end into the laptop. Then, I pressed the startup button, nervous as to what fate had come to my work - left undone and had to restart all over again, a race against the time - or paused, a chance for me to resume.
The lights were on.
Images came to life...
It's.... it's....
It's on!
Resuming Windows.....
Oh God! You helped me dodge the biggest bullet ever! All praise to you Lord!
And I resumed my work, with about one hour to go before the dinner commences.
Rendering.... Finishing montage....
Then, I was given another task - to prepare the slides to indicate what event is going on during the dinner; eg: The Arrival, Speech from the Dean, Du'a Recitation..... etc.
/exhales dramatically/
This is not what I sign up for! /roars like Chewbacca/
'But then again, you volunteered, dumb ass!' I repeated said to myself.
Ughh......
So I did what I can, using what I have at that time. Powerpoint, a background picture, fancy font, words... voila! Done!
Still rendering montage....
People are starting to gather in the hall, and I haven't take my shower yet! I was pretty sure the hotel room we're staying were crowded with people preparing themselves, dressed in their best suits.
Mmhhmmm..... and I'm here still doing the montage. Great.
So I left the laptop by its own, still rendering and prepared myself.
Tick tock tick tock! Dinner time!
Everyone was gathering. The VIPs entered, took their seats. Dinner commenced. Yet the montage was still in process. Only God knows how busy I was at that moment, scrambling through now-three laptops, each processing things and doing their very best to keep the dinner still intact without ruining everything.
That explained the occasional blue screen often appeared by the screen replacing the picture that said 'Asasi TESL Pre-Graduation Dinner' yadayadayada. Sorry! That was me kept changing the visual port from one laptop to another.
Well, from now on, I guess I shall stop talking about the montage story. Let it be, then.
Now, another thing that made me unsatisfied till now is my speech!
I gave a speech that night, and it was awful! Well, apart from the reaction from the audience, I still am not satisfied with myself. I said that I didn't prepare a script, but I DID!
I PREPARED A TWO-PAGE DRAMATIC SCRIPT IN MY LAPTOP AND FAILED TO PRINT THEM, RESULTING WITH AN IMPROMPTU, AWKWARD, UNRELEVANT SPEECH OF MINE THAT NIGHT!
Ugh..... /smashing head on the keyboard asaghskagfllqoiugy;qw9ogphqw/
Well, at least I said something good, didn't I?
I was attempting to make a legendary speech - the one speech that you will remember for the rest of your life. But then, I cannot beat Virt's speech. His speech was remarkable and summed up the year very well. His word are still relevant up till today - words like "till we meet again" or "I don't have friends here, I have brothers and sister" accompanied by an end-text citation. (Virtuoes, 2015)
And me? Well, let's not talk about it then. I had enough shame that night.
The very last thing that I am still not satisfied that night..... is....
.....the lack of photos with me in it!
Yes, I'm sure there's a lot of pictures taken that night, as aforementioned early in the very beginning of the post.
But there are not that much of photos with me in it! Not enough!
I don't even have a picture of myself alone that night, a proof that I did attend that night! I mean, it's the night to remember, right! So I should have a picture with me standing in the hall with my 'kinda' suit, right?
Hehehe, what was I thinking? A vest and a white shirt? Like a waiter.
And a waiter, indeed. The waiters were even wearing the same suit as I was. People barely know nor recognise me that night. Ughh........................
"Relax lah mal... I don't even have a photo of myself that night. And I don't care a bit."
Well, that's you. What about me? I know it's all me me me.... but GADEMMIT! I WANT A PHOTO OF MYSELF!!!
Considering that I was busy as a bee that night, working often BY MYSELF THAT NIGHT WHILE PEOPLE WANDERING AROUND, TAKING PICTURES!
Ugh......
I-I just....
You know, if I could turn back time (and I hopefully and truthfully wish so), I would want to live that night again, wearing my best suit, avoid doing the backstage stuff and just relax for a moment.
I shouldn't volunteered myself that afternoon.
But then, you know, time is relative. It keeps moving on forward, not backward. So I'll guess I learn something from that night.
And knowing that a person came up to me and confessed something, it truly warmed my heart, and left me speechless throughout the night.
I always thought that I was trying too hard, being too enthusiastic. I was hoping to cherish this night as the best night ever. I was envious to watch those people enjoying themselves while I'm working like hell.
But, some people needs to be in my place that night to make it happen, and it was me.
So I'll try my best to remember that night from a bright side. I got to be with my old class - my cutie pie, I got to be Abah again for the last time with my children, I got to express my earnest feelings at that time on stage to everyone, not knowing whether people did listen to it or not, I got to know what my lecturers feel about me....
You know, things like these don't come by that often in life. And those moments I shall remember as among the best moments in my foundation year....
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