Welcome to the club

As the first writer of this blog I feel obliged to make an introduction. It's no fun just typing something like "Hey thanks for coming, have a nice day, bye!"

First of all, whoever it is reading, welcome. This club has been around since a really long time ago (I'll leave that to someone else to tell you about), and has been taking in a healthy amount of members every year.

I joined this club in 2005, when I entered the school. I was in mostly because I was pulled in, also because I didn't really have an idea of where to go. I remember the first dinner I had with the club, it was the first or second training. We went out in a huge group of nearly twenty, seniors and juniors, to Ang Mo Kio central's S11 for dinner. I can't remember what I ate that night, but I can remember what it felt like. It was nothing I ever felt before. A sense of belonging. Of assurance. Discovery.

I felt right at home.

I've always wanted to figure out how to create this feeling for new juniors whenever the time comes, but have failed in that aspect. I can (arguably) make people laugh, but I do not possess the ability to make people stay. As it goes, I was never part of any decision-making process but it's up to debate whether it qualifies as an excuse.

Leaving the club for a whole year once doesn't make it any better. There were many reasons for the departure, but that's a different story for a different time. Though I doubt there is ever a suitable time to recount that story. All the time while I was busy with school and other interests, I would grab any chance and time I had with a contact in the club to find out what was going on.

He would be my only source of updates, until when I returned briefly to find the club a pale outline of what it was, and an shell of what it could be. I was saddened, and I was again in no position to do anything to change it (you see a pattern here). I left again as school demanded more time but would come back from time to time.

The state of the club has changed. I see that it has regained some of the vitality I once sorely missed. I see that the club has fallen into capable hands, but a good leader is nothing without his team, and as such much of the credit goes to the rest of the club, seniors or juniors alike.

This club is alive again and it is kicking.

It will Yama Arashi your ass to the ground if you mess with it.

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Zhaohan (also sometimes called Polar)