seeing believing

 

(fresh in my mind from yesterday) finally renewed my relation with OM by returning to judge with bei and a few of the other seniors. judging and participating are two completely different experiences and i'm glad i got to do both - plus judging p5 was mad exciting! (just as competing in p5 was) it is a problem of many teams overflowing with talent - thus the steep competition, and i was really, really blown away by the creativity and confidence of so many of the teams. got to judge style! art, as usual, proved to be really subjective, and the three of us had our differences but thankfully there was no discrepancy about the scores in the end. ltp on the other hand saw a whole lot of penalties for various reasons. it was a great time working with and getting to know a lovely panel of judges : )

lasting impressions - the first div 1 team from acsj was really adorable, and they were the only ones who invited the judges up to view their props afterwards with such enthusiasm / the sincerity and simplicity of some of the other div 1 teams really killed the style judges hahahaha / the rg teams were amazing!!! loved how beyond the aesthetic there was so much depth in their props, scripts, songs / watching schools that enter the competition for the first, second time impress the panel / seeing the ny teams compete in p5 - seeing juniors from nymd sing and dance with all their hearts - this made my heart brim with lots of pride and nostalgia - subsequently seeing the girls run up on stage to receive their medals (their ticket to Iowa) crying with happiness, sobbing with satisfaction (i was made to photograph all these by Mr Ng, and they were such beautiful emotions to photograph) nyom is really beginning to find its footing and i am so so so happy for them.

hahaha so when i left the audi for a bit bei was listening to the ex-OMers share their experiences, and during our good and long talk over dinner, amongst other things we talked about how thankful we were for our OM journey three years ago - and really, my OM experience brought me some of the most important people in my life today... : )

~

near midnight on friday and an unsuspecting circumstance, i found myself out at sea again. this time everything was tangible - yeah no metaphors here. hands clasped, my words uncertain (and hopeful all the same) tangling wildly in the raging wind, my prayers on a flight to the celestial sky - sometimes we are confused but most times we are just blessed in ways, way beyond measure.