OBS

Went OBS on a 5 day course sponsored by my company last week. This was my third time at OBS (incidentally, my first time at OBS was 10 years ago. How time flies.)

We did quite a lot of stuff, not as physically taxing as my previous school trips, but a lot more mental and emotional stimulation like reflections, discussions, sharing sessions etc. which made it more meaningful. I think OBS should be attended by young adults to make the outcome more fruitful.

It was great. Throw a bunch of young people from various departments and divisions together and you’ll get an instant mix of people who will work together in the best way they can to get the task done in the most efficient way possible. Winning is a plus, but not a must. Mistakes if any, are forgiven. Having never really experiencing teamwork in my line of work, I found this very refreshing, bringing me back to my school days of being heavily involved in sports CCA. Of course in the real life work place things are never peachy, and there are lots of politics involved. It’s also “comforting” to realize that people everywhere are complaining about the same things: the cover backside and taichi syndrome, the I don’t wanna do work but wanna claim credit syndrome. For a while it became almost depressing.

Most of all, it was a journey of self discovery for me. I set out trying to improve my self confidence level, and stumbled at a particular obstacle. Cried, didn’t wanna do it, stood there for the longest time, but chickened out in the end. Just couldn’t get rid of the fear of falling, losing control. But even though I berate myself for not having the courage and the guts, I was very comforted by the encouragement shown by my teammates, telling me that people still care and that was really touching (though I felt quite bad for letting everyone down). So from a random bunch of colleagues I’ve gained a bunch of friends that I know I can always count on…

On the whole, it was a fantastic experience. I highly recommend it if you get the chance.