Well, not quite the fairy tale ending we were hoping for. But I'm still very proud of our drill team, 7 of whom just joined us this year, 5 others only in their second year in BB, and it's the first time for our commander in drill competition. Apart from Cpl. Zhexun, most of the team was 14 years old and below (one 15 year old). For that, I'm very VERY proud of how far you've gone in such a short time.
Defeat can be painful. Truthfully, I am also quite sad. But everything has a purpose and reason. I did say in my prayer before we competed, "let the team who put in the most effort win". The simple fact was our team didn't place cause we simply didn't work as hard as the other three companies. But we did have our fair share of overnight stays already from previous competitions, so I understand if we've been overworked. This is the first time the ones competing were up against other BB companies. I guess we found out the hard way that BB drill quality really is the best out there and is nothing like competing with other uniform groups. We were caught off guard.
We lost many marks on uniform. Really a lot. Enough to make 3rd place. So we really must start today to have a better uniform standard and culture. It was also the accumulation of other things...mainly inexperience from lack of practice. But everyone has to start somewhere. We also need to be honest to ourselves - we got cocky. Our past successes have made us complacent, causing us to be blind to doing.. Well, things we should have prepared for in competitions (study the competition, rehearse the full sequence, review past competitions, understand how other companies in Pesta did better than us, etc). Under normal circumstances, the main team should comprise of older Boys. But many went AWOL. So this is WAKE UP call to the older Boys. They shouldn't be throwing responsibilities to the younger ones. I hope they will start taking the lead more next time, as they should.
I left early today from the competition as I had to go for a close friends wedding. On the way out, I had a nasty fall and badly injured my hand. Though it hurts really badly, I had to pick myself up and.. just carry on loh. We too, as a company, need to pick ourselves up and move on. It's okay to fall once in awhile. A fall is sometimes needed to be great again
Final touches to the uniform maintenance
Joint parade before the competition
Still proud of our team! We'll do better next time!
Junior Drill Team
Senior Drill Team
