Paper 3 (Team Building)

                Since the day of our Field Trip Seminar is drawing near, we are required to attend a seminar that would help develop our intrapersonal skills. We already knew about the seminar because we were told about it when we had our Field Trip and Seminar meeting. I mean we already knew about the seminar way too long ago. If my memory serves we well, we were told about it when we had our first meeting on our Field Trip and Seminar subject. Our president, Rhon Luiz Guarino told us the activities we will be doing before, during and after the Field Trip and Seminar, and one of them is having a seminar about developing intrapersonal skill. So, if you are wondering what an intrapersonal skill is, well, according to an answer on the website; materialminds.com, Intrapersonal Skill(s) is/are the foundations of a successful career. This is emotional intelligence, the ability to know, understand and manage your own emotions. So, yeah. We are about to attend on a seminar that will hone those skill(s). In the latest meeting we had in the Field Trip and Seminar subject, our president announced the date of our intrapersonal skill seminar, and he also announced that it will be a two-day event. The first day will be the day for the first batch, and the second day will be for the second the second batch (Well, it is pretty obvious). Then, he finally announced who are those student who will belong to the first batch and the second batch. Our president named the students for the first batch. I was, or should I say “we were” (referring to me and my barkada) hoping that we will be a part of the first batch, since it will be on a Monday, July 20, 2015. We wanted to be a part of the first batch because we do not have a class on Tuesday, so we thought about it that Tuesday will be our rest day. Free from various kind of school works as usual. But, unfortunately, none of our names were mentioned on the first batch, not even one. So, it was pretty obvious that we will be on the second batch. It sucks, but the best thing about it is that we are still together. So, it was 4 days before our seminar. I thought of what are the things that we are going to do on that day. I imagined that it will be a seminar where the speaker will talk and talk and talk, and I am not going to lie, it will be boring as hell. Since I really do not like seminars, except for those seminars that I am interested of. I also imagined that there will be an activity where our leadership skills will be tested. I had hopes that the seminar will “somehow” be fun.

                It was July 20, 2015 when the first batch had their seminar. Their seminar will start at eight, but early than that, we have our Programming 3 subject under Mr. Pabilona. I thought that how my classmate will be able to attend the seminar’s first hours if we have a class. But then, it turned out that we do not have a class that day and we just required to take the quiz which is a timed quiz for about 5 minutes. So, after that, my classmates that are part of the first batch proceeded to the Social Hall. It was still early, it was like 7:15am. Me and my barkada sat on the gazebo and had a little talk. When it was past 8am, we decided to go to the social hall and take a look at the first batch. We would like to know what in the world they were doing. But, when we arrived at the social hall, none of them were prepared, nor ready. I mean, when we went inside the social hall, there only a few students, the mics, speakers, etc. are being prepared. So, we were kind of disappointed cause we haven’t got a clue about what they are going to do. So, the day of our turn came. Unlike the first batch, we did not have our seminar at the Social Hall. We had our seminar on the University of Southeastern Philippines’ hostel, or we call it as the USEP Dormitory. We already knew that our seminar there, and it made very excited as hell because it was going to be my first time to get inside that establishment after four years of being here in USEP.  

                We went inside the university hostel/university dorm, and I was so amazed how awesome it was to be there. Inside, on the second floor was a conference room. Maybe it was built for some meetings or activities such as open cells and seminars. When we went inside the conference room, we were too early. There were only a few student at that time, our president was not even there yet. And the same thing as what we have saw on the social hall, they were still preparing the equipment. So, we sat on the chairs and waited for the others. Then a lady came in and asked us if we’re ready, or complete. And, as far as can I, it is pretty obvious that we were not yet ready nor complete. The lady told us that it was expected that there will be a number of forty students on that day. So, around 8:30 in the morning, our numbers increased, it seems like we are almost reaching the number of forty, so we started the seminar.

                We sat on the chairs that were arranged in a “U” shape. Well, yes we know that it was arranged in that way so we can see each other. So, the speaker / facilitator which I forgot what her name is, greeted us a good morning and congratulated us for our upcoming Field Trip, and she mentioned about the previous batch. We felt so light having a little chit chat before we got in to the main thing. Our facilitator/speaker asked us if what was our purpose why we attended the seminar. Many of us answered in chorus. I cannot even hear a proper sentence. The room was like a total enclosure where the echoes and murmurs of my fellow students bounced in every direction. Well, things got a little “funnier” when our speaker/facilitator slowly roamed and finally approached me to answer the question. I was caught off guard since I cannot give a definite answer to question. What I had in my mind is that, we were required to attend that seminar because it was a requirement for Field Trip. So, I answered her question with my mind still stunned saying “..because we are required to“. Everyone at the room laughed and even our facilitator / speaker was kind of shocked about my response. I was like: “Why are they laughing? Is there something funny from what I have said?”. After a couple of seconds, I finally got a hold of myself and I realized why the hell they were laughing and why our speaker / facilitator was shocked. Well, it was they thought that I was being sarcastic at that time. They thought that I was trying to be funny. But, actually I was not. I was not being sarcastic at that time nor trying to be funny. I just answered her question with complete innocence on my response, because that was the answer I knew why we are required to attend the seminar. And I must say this again. I had no intentions of making fun at that time. I was telling what I thought the answer really was.

After that we proceeded to the next activity (if I remember it correctly). The activity had us group ourselves into 8 members. We were calling out our “friends’ / barkada’s” name to join, but then our facilitator told us the it would be easier to form the group if the members are just the students who are sitting next to each other. I mean, if you are confused about what I am saying, I will explain it. Example, I am the first student on the first chair, then my group mates will be those seven students sitting next to me. So, after we had our group settled, we formed into circle and we were given a manila paper, a pentel pen / marker. We are tasked to do a sharing with the group. We are tasked to share our own answers on these questions; “What do you expect from this seminar?” and “What can you contribute to the others?”, and after that we would weigh in the answers and write it on the manila paper. After that, our facilitator / speaker showed us an images of smileys with facial expressions implying their emotions / feelings on the projector screen. The purpose of that is for us to pick one of the smileys that would describe our group. Everyone in the group participated in the activity and we got the activity done at ease. After that, every group had a representative to explain what was written on the manila paper. The next activity was we were grouped by having our selves count from 1 to (I forgot what number). I was number 4, so I went and sat where the students who are also number 4. We were given a paper individually with a drawing of a tree and there are lots of people on the tree doing various things. We were tasked to encircle the person that describes ourselves. I encircled the person who was some kind of chilling on the tree. Seemingly not giving a care of what was happening around, as if he is at peace. I chose that because it symbolizes how chill and compose I am even if the things are rough on me. As if like I do not care at all, or in short just going with the flow. Well, that is what you can see base on the drawing, but I added that, even if I am like that, deep inside me, I am still worried and trying to figure out things. And what made it wonderful is that, majority of the members of our group chose the same person and had the same or almost the same reason as mine. After that, we took a break that lasted for 30 minutes. We were given one bread and one C2 mini. And what made the break fun was the ice breaker in the form of Skeleton Dance. Our facilitator showed a video of a group of cartoon skeletons dancing to the rhythm of a catchy children’s music. We were required to stand up and mimic the skeleton dance. It was so fun that I did not even dance because I was so shy to dance. What I did was standing up and laugh at them looking silly.

The next activity we had was to draw our dining table and draw the family members in their respective position. We were given a bond paper and lots and lots of crayons. Everyone grabbed as many crayons they can and sat on the floor drawing. They looked like they became kinder again. A lot of them drew the table on top view, well I had a different idea. I grabbed crayons that are analogous to each other and as well as their complementary. I drew a 3d sphere. Yes, I drew a 3d drawing using crayons and symbolized it as our table. Too bad I was not able to finish drawing it because I was short of time. I only drew the family members as fast as I can. My drawing was supposed to be the family members are revolving around the sphere. My explanation is that I symbolized the table as a sphere because we revolve around it. The time for sharing about the drawing came. Only three people were chosen to explain their drawings. Among them was our classmate, Junalyn Bantilan. I admit, she was one of our classmates that we like to bully(Not the kind of bully that is so harsh, or too rude. Just more like a tease). But the emotion of the room changed when she shared her explanation, and also her image to us (the bullies). She cried because she does not have a family of her own (sort of). She is living with her uncle along with her uncle’s children, her cousins obviously. Her uncle adopted her and took care of her while she was growing up after her father abandoned them with her mother. One thing that amazed me was she mentioned that it is not her uncle by blood, or biological uncle. Her aunt (the husband of her uncle which took care of her) was the one who she has a biological relation, but her uncle did all the things and provided all the things that she needs. From there on, I felt pity for her. It is very unlikely of her to have such sad life while everyone that knows her think of her as a funny and worriless person. That time, I realized how strong of a person she is. After that we had another 30-minute break and ate the same food again. But this time, another ice breaker was commenced and we danced the Animal Dance.

We then proceeded to the last activity. I really forgot the purpose of that activity, but I remember that we were grouped into the original 8 members. Then we had our representatives to pick a paper from our facilitator’s hand. That paper would determine the thing that we should do. Our group got the “Skit” paper. Along with “Skit” paper are the “Singing”, “Rapping”, “Commercial” and “Dancing”. We thought about the concept of our skit. We chose to do a skit that depicts the life of a student that is being under a teacher who loves to discipline student. Showing his social life before he was under that teacher, and how he lose it. It was one of my embarrassing moment in my entire life because I portrayed a woman. So I did everything to act like one. People are laughing at me, seems like I cannot handle it. Some of the presentations from the other groups are also entertaining. But if you would ask me what group stood out the most. Then it was the group of Rondie Labra did an awesome thing. They got the “Rapping” paper. They came up with a really great rap music within less than an hour. Each of them has an individual rap, and their beat is so damn catchy.

We’ve got everything wrapped up after the last activity. But before we could leave, there was a last thing that we must do. After the prayer, we formed into a “U” shape while standing. We were given a piece of paper and a candle. We are required to complete the sentences. “I promise to….”, “I will start to….” and “I will keep on….”. This was the “My Commitment” activity. After we wrote what’s on our minds. The lights were shut and the candles were lit. The mic is passed by the current student after sharing his “My Commitment” to next student, so on and so forth. After that, we held hands and sang the “Lead Me Lord” song.

It was indeed a fun and great day. Such a big opposite to what I initially thought that it is going to be a boring seminar. But, fortunately I was wrong. The seminar was fun. I had a great moment with my classmates and those who are not my classmates.