Thank you, 2017.
I asked myself whether there’s anything I wanted to write about before the end of 2017.
Year-end review? I don’t really have the desire to do a year-end summary, because it would be too difficult to do so. I’m still in the process of internalizing what happened, so making such a summary now would probably disrupt my reflection process. (What an excuse.)
What I want to review, however, is one incident that happened this year. It has nothing to do with the crazy MBA life that I have been experiencing in Boston. It is in fact something that happened prior to MBA — my volunteer experience in HK Jockey Club Neo Education Lab’s “Island School 4A STEM Camp”.
The goal of the summer camp was to design an interesting learning experience for students (20 of them ranging from Grade 4 to Grade 9). Through the process of “Observe, Analyze, Create and Present”, we hope they could enhance their STEM knowledge, and also gain the courage to innovate by applying what they learnt to solve personal/societal problems. Apart from assisting with program design, I also led six girls (very different in personality but all lovely in their own way) in going through the whole camp experience. During the process, the girls discovered the problem of “too much oil and rubbish on the sea”, and eventually created a small invention based on the science and math skills they learnt.
Even though I only spent 3 days with the girls, I couldn’t help but smile every time I recall the joy and laughter that we shared during the process (They even urged me to find a boyfriend when I head to the United States.)
I thought the story would end here. What I didn’t expect was that four months later, I got a message from the Neo Education Lab representative saying that the girls’ experience gained attention of outsiders. They were even invited to showcase their project at a documentary screening about Ocean Pollution in front of all participants.
A few weeks later, I got the video recording. Seeing the girls seriously yet nervously explain the design rationale and mechanism behind their invention, I couldn’t help but feel proud of them. How much impact can a summer camp bring about? Perhaps the answer is one that we all didn’t expect.
「你覺得你有很多回憶，其實呢，你有沒有想過，事實是反過來的？我們做的每件事，每個決定，不知不覺中，都是為了成全別人的記憶。」～朱少麟《地底三萬呎》
English translation:
“You think you have accumulated a lot of memories, but have you ever considered that the situation is actually the opposite? Everything that we do, every decision, is to create and fulfill the memory of other people.” ~ Zhu Shao Lin
It’s a power, and it’s also a responsibility.
Thank you, 2017.
(Written on Dec 31, 2017)
