Claud

An avid collector of your hopes and worries, a romantic at heart.

She thanks her fairies, for blessing her with people who know compassion down to an art.

For accepting her for who she is, who never fails to turn up,

in times of need as well as happiness, or just there for a loving hug.

Comatose

The strange thing with happiness is that it doesn't last...the strange thing with emotions is that it doesn't show unless in intense situations

Finally - it's all over.....all the years of chasing empty golds and silvers are over....for me at least.
what is worthy happiness?

i relive my years when we were in secondary band. the same situation was brought about again....but this time, it was like it came full circle. this is because, that time, i thought that although we worked hard, but the band's attitude wasn't there, it just wasn't....no body thought that they did well but yet, we were awarded a silver. we didn't derserve the silver.

but on 11th may, we deserve more than just a silver. the work that the band has done, the sarcrifice, the ideas and the perserverance worth so much more than just syf.

for those other bands out there, i'm sure you have your set of problems too. and i'm very sure we're all pinning our hopes on this syf. but listen! YJ Winds has come so far....

from the start YJ wasn't a rich school...with an non-existant alumni for all that i know of, and the band has always been small...like really minute (13members?) and for so many years the curse of the bronzes always dawned on us. but then last year, the new exco believed in change. In this world there are 2 primary choices - accept what is around you, or take up the responsibility to change them.

we believed in changing out situation....we were poor in every the sense of the word. I'm so proud of YJ Winds, and i feel that we all did something that gave something that no other band can ever come to understand. years, after years of seniors wanted this change to come, but they couldn't do it because the odds were always stacked against them. and then when they graduated and returned in YJ year after year, praying and pinning their hopes on every syf that we could breathrough...it never came until this year. This year, they really graduated. we really did it....and we're finally getting on something. it's like being shipwrecked and it's like being found again.

no one can truly explain how they feel. I'm just very very proud for this band...and i love them so very much.

we may have out differences many times, and no doubt that this achievement wasn't easy.it's true, we're born again. and May 11th is our band's birthday....the day when we're finally alive and crying with happiness, not sadness. the day where all problems in the world seemed so far away.

we must celebrate what we've done...after celebration, we must carry on the legacy. the never-give-up attitude, we MUST MUST MUST perservere on.

______________________________________________

Dear band members, we are the change in the world if only we know how. Don't ask what the band can do for you, ask what you can do for the band....with passion and care, we must change what we believed must be changed. because we can no longer sit back and be passive about things. we must never choose to accept what is not correct...and always take up the challenge and responsibility of changing things around here.

This silver that we have in our pockets is proof that hardwork pays off....and in the future when all the seniors are long and gone, we'll always look back to this year - 2007, that bad luck only comes when you no longer believe in the impossible.

Luck comes in forms of trust....we must trust each other that everyone wants this as much as you do. If you want something bad enough, you'll do something desperate to do it. In this case, the exco were desperate enough to turn the tables around...

can you imagine? it would be so much easier if we closed the band down. it would so much be easier that mr sim left.....but still, what made us carry on? perhaps it's the trust that we have that one day we can change something. we will make ourselves better and that one day, YJ can start the revolution of singapore bands....

Music is music only when you mean to make music....if you don't believe in the music you make, then no matter how perfect your technique is, no matter how perfect your notes are, the music that you make will not be music to the years of audience.
you may sit in a posh hall, playing in the best acoustics but no one will remember the music that you make.

You should all be proud of the anger, sadness, happiness, pleasure that you have inside your heart. because it is a very stange thing - once you let that side of you escape, the music that you make will touch the hearts of others....it's okay to miss a few notes...it's okay when you mean what you play....the thoughts and the confessions of the composer through the medium of the player amplifies the message to the world.

the message that we may all be one and put our differences aside to stand together and sing in one voice...Do you hear the people sing? Say, do you hear the distant drums? it's the future that they bring when tomorrow comes.....

music is not about who gets the diploma at age 10, it's not about prodigies....it's about how you can touch the hearts of others....sometimes words are not enough.

_____________________________________________

in this concert....let's touch the hearts of people who believed in us.....we must keep on playing and always stand firm in out belief. Even though they may belittle us but we must stand proud of who we are....and it's time to move forward. let this experience be an anchor for us all.

who knows? we may be the rising band of tomorrow....the build-up of alumni in the future may grow to a hundred that the oldest member is 50years, and the youngest is 18years.......and that in the future, we'll play in the esplanade as one strong band who believes in that music making is not just notes and ink....but with the soul....

thank you, mr sim....you've let me discover what music really is....