8:39 p.m. - 2004-09-07
Feeling Good
i always say you should be careful what you wish for. these past few days of NJRC competition, i'd been wishing for a chance to be in charge of a group of teams, instead of just being Idhzani's messenger girl. well today my wish was granted. Joey was running late so Idzhani gave over his teams to me. Finally!
i got a nice bunch of teams.. not super-friendly or outgoing like some teams, but neither were they the rowdy, unruly bunch. they were all very focused on the competition, and i was hoping to Primus that for their sakes none of them would get disqualified. sure it'd be easier for me, but it would have probably devastated them. so thankfully all of them did well enough that they completed all 7 missions throughout the course of the day.
there were a few moments at the end though. one little indian boy had been doing well all throughout the competition and it looked like his team could just scrape into the finals, but he failed the final mission. i felt so bad for them.
i know alot of the other team coordinators dont, but i empathize with my teams. i know with the younger kids you need to be a little strict, but the way i see it, being strict doesnt mean yelling. you just need to speak a little more firmly than usual. as for the empathizing, lets just say i can be very motivational sometimes. after the competition was over, i went round to all my team's booths and talked to them a little, asked them how they did overall and told them to be proud of themselves for coming this far.. and in truth, they all did well. so that put a smile on their faces =).
my crowning moment was when one of the girls started crying cos she failed at mission 5 and didnt score any points. so i sat her down, told her to forget about that and do her best on the next mission and try and make up for lost points if she could. so she went out to mission 6 and got full points =D! yay! go her!!
i dunno, i just feel really good right now. i know i did a good job with my teams. it feels good to make someone else feel good. and i'm just as proud of the way i handled my teams. i waited and watched them while they did their missions, gave them reassuring pats on the back and words of encouragement, comforted them when they needed it, made them smile, maybe even brought out the best in some of them. all in all i just feel like i did all round good deeds and i feel really good about that.
my reward? one of my teams made it to number one out of all the teams today, and is now number one out of all the top 40 Primary teams who will be competing in the finals this Saturday. so i am very very happy about that. i know its not a personal reward, but its still a reward to me.
