Bid Farewell to...Wait...No Way!

Last Wednesday we had our last HC class. It was enjoyable as always and besides photos-taking and chatting, this time we even had a mini-lunch buffet all together before the class (thanks to Vivian for organizing it for us), which added so much fun to our last 'party' this semester. My dear classmates also prepared two huge and lovely birthday cakes to celebrate the birthday of Lucy, Qwibie and me as we three were born in April. I was so touched and I'm sure the other two felt like the same too. You may not know why you can always hear us keep saying that HC2014 is like a big family and this should say it all.

After attending this course, I must say I really have changed a lot, in terms of my personal traits and attitude. I'm also able to foster my leadership ability and personal growth as well. The LEAP, Live To Serve workshop, HC Ablaze and many other different kinds of team building activities are what you can hardly find and see in the lessons of your own major, or, they are what you seldom do in your daily life. I would not say they are only some extracurricular activities because they are undoubtedly more than those. Through these activities, it helps you to cultivate and discover your 'true-self' and make breakthroughs after realizing what problems which you still need to overcome or which areas to improve.

On top of those, this course and all those activities involved also deepen the friendship of people in HC2014. From acquaintances to friends, friends to good friends and then to 'family', it is truly amazing and delighful to experience the discovery of new friendships once again. And I'm blessed to have witnessed how far ans strong our friendships have grown, which reminds me of a quote that one of my friends has once said:

"All our relationships have bloomed into bonds of affection that are stronger than the strongest covalent bond."

I'm so glad to have joined the HC because if I had not I would not have been able to enrich my life. I would like to give special thanks to Dr. Udani and my dear classmates for lighting up my life! It is true that the course has ended but the relationship between us will not, plus we still have enough time to have great fun together before graduation, right? HC2014 let's keep rock & roll and HC Ablaze!

Cheers,

Raven :D

HC Is More Than Leadership

"Honours College where the creation of knowledge is lived and leaders of the future are fostered." Yes, this is true. Nonetheless, in my opinion, it does not say it all because I think the Honours College is more than that, as well as what it is perceived by the others. It does not only provide you knowledge about leadership, it also provides you inspirations.

What I am trying to say is that the HC is not only a place where you can foster, develop and apply your leadership ability. Being in the HC, you are also inspired to think. I did not usually think before I became an HC student. However, since the HC provides me a lot of opportunities to meet people from different walks of life and broaden my horizon, I gradually foster the habit of thinking. On top of that, having 38 excellent students as classmates, it is impossible and inevitable to always think about how to improve yourself and learn from each of them. Now, I often think about the direction of my life, aspirations, relationships with people around, deeds and attitude, etc. And I contend that the ability to think is essential to one's growth because it helps one makes bettter decision and also becomes a better person.

The HC also makes you change. I still remember what I wanted to improve for my behavioral change project in the first semester, which was learning to become more cooperative. Up to now I am still checking to see if I have really changed even though the project has been done already. You know what? I am pretty sure I have! To be honest, even if we had not had the behavioral change project, it is certain that I would still change my behavior gradually because I realize that you need to be very collaborative in every second being in the HC. What's more is that the HC does not only change your behavior but also your attitude and your way of thinking because it is a place full of inspirations.

I am aware of and glad about the progress I have made so far but I am not satisfied yet. Just because the HC has inspired me so much, I expect to have more so that I can further my personal development. And I hope all my classmates are feeling the same way too.

Cheers,

Raven

HC Ablaze!

The HC talent show 'HC Ablaze!' was held successfully on Wednesday! We all had stunning, lovely and splendid performances and words just cannot describe my feeling. The joy, excitement and success of the show and cheers from the audiences are still carrying me away and this is probably going to last for days. I am really proud to say that HC 2014 rocked that night!

I am pretty sure every of us enjoyed the night and was delighted by the the audiences' reactions. We gave it our best to impress our audiences and we did it! After the show we received many positive feedbacks from them and it was truly encouraging. And that's why I said 'HC Ablaze' was such a great success.

Practice makes perfect. Even though our show might not be perfect, we all had put 100 percent efforts while practicing. We the boys practiced at least twice every week since we decided to dance. We were afraid and could not afford to waste a second because for most of us, it was our first time to dance on stage and more importantly, we had to learn the moves by ourselves. Believe it or not, no one taught us the dance. It was self-taught. We might not dance that professionally but I believe we gave it our best in front of the crowd. The practices and rehearsals were tough, but they were no match to being able to perform on stage, listening to the cheers from the crowd and receiving support from friends. Totally worth it.

The show became a great success because everyone did his/her job well. NO. If I have to say, it was because we did it TOGETHER. None of us was trying to sit back and watch the others working. We all devoted oursleves into the show and sacrificed our sweats, energy and time for it. Everyone derserves a big thumb up!

It was only two days after our show but I am missing it already. It was no doubt a remarkable event which I have etched into my memory.

I LOVE HC2014! This class will definitely keep rocking!

Cheers,

Raven :)

A Special Class On A Special Day

On Wednesday (29/2) morning, 6 of my classmates from class of 2012, Cristiana and I had a good and relaxing discussing with Dr. Stephen Young (thanks to the Honours College) who is the United States Consul General of Hong Kong and Macau. During the meeting, we did not only discussed about some educational and political issues but also something very personal of Dr. Young. Not only was I impressed by the way he spoke but also how he led every of us to discuss. On top of that, he even showed his open-mindedness when he responded to my question about the the relationship and the currency battle between China and the U.S. To be honest, I really learned a lot from him. No wonder our former president of the HCSA, Tiffany (class of 2013), once said,

"Being able to talk face-to-face with all these brilliant people is indeed an unexpected bonus."

This week's HC lesson was really different from the previous ones. No, it was more like a mini-talent show than a lesson and yet we could still learn something from this 'show'. I was one of the singers this time and before my turn I was almost freaking out because the last time I sang in front of class was around four years ago and more importantly, I was worried about I would not sing well. But when it was my turn I realized that they were no longer my concerns because I had discovered something more important - they were the others' heart-warming smiles and supportive actions. I am glad that we have each other's encouragement, appreciation and support.

All of them performed and sang well!

After the class all the boys went to practice the dance for the talent show. I have to say it is not easy to dance and yet it is fun. We had a lot of fun while practicing and hopefully we can show what we've got at the talent show!

Let's pretend the projector screen as the mirror. 

Regard to our LEAP, we are planning something big and meaningful, we will be working on it soon!

Cheers,

Raven

Surprises, Kindness & the Marshmallow Challenge Made My Day

On Wednesday like usual we had our HC class at J218. Just when I almost forgot we would have surprise singers that day, Dr. Udani invited them out in time. This time we had a pair of 'best friends', Davi and Suki to perform in front of the class. They might not sing perfectly well but I could see everyone, included me, was moved by the emotion they had put in their singing.

But the surprise did not end so soon. Just when the flashlights of cameras were about to stop, Dr. Udani suddenly came out and sang. This time it was even more surprising because we rarely hear him sings.

After the performance we moved on to the lesson. This time it was about kindness. We were shown a video introducing a 'kindness school'. Yes, that's right, a kindness school. I never heard of something like this and I did not expect a school would employ kindness to facilitate learning. This approach to learning is pretty new to me and yet I find it impressive and inspiring.

The Kindness School



I really love how they try to put people sitting together and let them each by each express their appreciation of the others. Personally I think sometimes we simply underestimate the 'power of appreciation' that we try not to show it. Simply saying 'you did a great job' or 'I really appreciate your help, thanks!' to someone can already make his day. This also means that you are attentive to others' contribution and you really care. Thus, in my opinion, showing appreciation to others is the very first and essential step to learn to be respectful and kind.

Nonetheless, the art of being kind is not easy to master.  Acting kind and showing appreciation to others are simple to do. But it is difficult to do them with sincerity. If one is acting kind to another because he wants to be liked or wants something in return, then it is not sincere. If one shows appreciation of someone's contribution or accomplishment for the same reason, then he is definitely not appreciating but flattering.

'It's good to be kind, but it's better to be sincerely kind.'

Afterwards, we had the Marshmallow Challenge game. It was not my first time to play this game. Before we began playing I thought I would do better this time but I failed, mostly because our group did not plan much on the structure of the tower. Since we did not have a plan, we did not have a clear direction while constructing the tower. That's why I agree with what Shiping has said: whenever we need to finish something, we probably need to have a bigger picture of it first. Just like the 4 managerial functions, we PLAN before we ORGANIZE, LEAD and CONTROL.

Anyway, I truly enjoyed this lesson and I APPRECIATE the fun and inspirations the others have brought to the class!

Cheers :)

Raven

Thoughts On the LEAP

Our LEAP kicked off at the Learning Commons on Thursday. Honestly I did not expect we would have quite a number of participants. It made me even more surprised when our participants were actually willing to share their own wish or even something that people usually keep it secret. I think this shows a good sign because generally it is not easy to make others share something very personal. I must say our LEAP has got a promising start. I simply cannot wait to make those wishes come true.

You don't know how amazing it was to see more than half of the people at the Learning Commons writing down their wish at the same time. We were even delighted by the smile on their faces when they were writing or thinking about their own wish. The number of participants we have is encouraging, but it is even more encouraging that we have brought joy to them.

Even though our LEAP has just started, I can already feel the excitement and joy of serving others. To be honest, I never thought of the concept of 'Serving Leader' and I did not recognize the importance of serving. But now, I have to say I really appreciate this kind of idea, which I think plays a crucial role in one's leadership and personal development.

'We serve to become a leader, we become a leader to serve.'

The art of serving is not easy to master. However, this is what makes the LEAP worth doing. The ultimate goal of our LEAP is not only making wishes come true but also influencing our participants to SERVE. We want to advertise the idea of serving within the UMAC community.

 

Raven

Here I also want to cheer for the other groups who are doing their LEAP =]

Choose Your Own Life. Choose Happiness.

Today I just read a blog post by Ms. Bronnie Ware. The post lists the top 5 regrets the dying commonly have on their deathbeds, which I find very inspiring and worth sharing.

‘I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.’

This is found as the most common regret of the dying. Imagine you were about to pass away, lying on your deathbed, looking back and bemoaning your life which was not the one you’d wanted to have, then you might understand what it feels like to die with your dreams unfulfilled.

Most often people give up on their dreams because of their fear of failure, as well as the disappointment which may be induced by the failure. However, it does not matter if you succeed or fail, what matters is whether you have got the courage to pursue your dreams. Even if you cannot make it, at least you have given it a try and this in fact plays a crucial role in a person’s growth. The result of your pursuit of dreams is not important, what is important is the process.

Of course, there is a difference between dreams and reality. There are plenty of reasons that make our dreams almost impossible to be fulfilled. Nonetheless, as Ms. Bronnie said in her blog, we should at least try and honor some of our dreams before it’s too late.

‘I wish that I had let myself be happier.’ – the 5^th common regret of the dying

Happiness is a choice. Please remember that it is YOU choosing happiness, NOT happiness choosing you. No one has ever bemoaned their past. There maybe thousands of reasons which make you sad and yet, try to find that one reason which makes you happy.

As last, let me end this post by quoting a line from Ms. Bronnie’s blog:

‘Life is a choice. It is YOUR life. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness.’

Raven :)

Ms. Bronnie Ware’s Blog

http://www.inspirationandchai.com/Regrets-of-the-Dying.html