What We Are Capable Of...

Sometimes, it's in the face of obstacles, duties and adversity that you can see people's different capabilities. And when these different capabilities are utilised to their maximum, the outcome is just brilliant.

Yes, I'm talking about the monthly assembly/Madam Satinah's farewell ceremony in IPG KBA, hosted by B.Ed TESL Foundation Year 2, Cohort 2, Cycle 3.

Now, I won't kid everyone that the 52 members of C2C3 can get along or work together seamlessly all the time, but at least we took on jobs that we specialise in, like alip and I and our music, the fluent speakers (Ajesz and Alicia) for the poetry, another three speakers (Aliaa, Banu and Jia Ni) as the emcees, computer expert (Khalid) for the slide shows and multimedia, the techies (Hazwan) for the lights and more~

The best thing was, all of us were only notified last Thursday that we had to combine our assembly with a farewell ceremony for Madam Satinah, who is going to leave IPG KBA for her new position at the Ministry of Education as the Private Education Director. Then, we had to change all our preconceived plans to suit the occasion. So, somehow I was given the task to handle part of the performance.

At first, they wanted me to be the accompaniment to the poetry recital, which I denied straight because I've already done it in my first semester. Furthermore, Ustaz Zaradi had already told me to dedicate a song specially to Madam Satinah on the violin, and since that sounds more fun, I went for the latter =p

Oh yea, and there were some rude words and gestures exchanged on Saturday, when the lecturers insisted on repeating the rehearsal over and over just because they want everything to be perfect, not thinking that that's kinda impossible as we only had two days until then.

But today, it was really touching to see such a big crowd in the hall, both lecturers and students (although there were quite a number who did not attend), and that served to add to my nervousness. Indeed, I was rarely nervous when performing in IPG KBA, partly because this is not a music college, and even if I play mediocre, people usually pat me on the back and congratulate me. Maybe it's because I had to combine with the choir and Alif, not doing a solo performance that added to my worries? Still, I'm not saying that having a group performance is not good - if executed well, it is very awesome (borrowed trademark from Khalid)

The most satisfying part of the whole thing (and no, I'm not a sadist) was when Madam Satinah actually dropped a few tears when we went into the first few lines of 'You Raise Me Up'. I wonder if it was Alif's deep, serious voice or my violin that moved her to tears though.

And when the song 'You Raise Me Up' ended, the star of the day actually stood up and applauded us. As a performer, I feel that that is already the greatest appreciation I've ever had, not just because of her actions, but also the expression on her face, and later after the ceremony, she came over to the emcee and musician side and did the cheek-to-cheek thing...what's it called again? And also she said that the music was just so beautiful, and she loved it so much.

If you guys wanna see what we've achieved in 4 days of preparation (at least for my section of the performance), take a look at this video =)