It's Monday night right now. Hmm... and I had my most AWESOME weekend yet!
Haha... yup! This past weekend was JL's POP ceremony. And yup... he had managed to get me seats for his POP ceremony. So there I was!
The ceremony was early in the morning though. Thus, I had to get my ass out of bed really early in order to make it there on time. Well, it wasn't that the start of the ceremony was all that early, but the seats were first come first serve. So I wanted to be there as early as possible to get really good seats so I can witness my AWESOME bro POP. Well, the ceremony was scheduled to start at 0740 but I expected people to start arriving as early as half an hour before the start of the ceremony. So I planned to get to the Float@ Marina Bay by 0645.
Haha... I was to be meeting up with JL's family before the start of the ceremony so that I could gain access to the ceremony compound. We thus planned to meet at Starbuck's in Marina Square at 0630.
I was going to get to Marina Square by MRT so I woke up at 0515 and started to get ready. By 0545, I was showered, changed and out of the house. After a train ride, I arrived at Marina Square just slightly after 0630. I contacted JL's sister and we finally managed to meet up. I was then brought to the Float@Marina Bay, after meeting JL's parents just outside Marina Square.
Although there was already quite a crowd gathered at the Float@ Marina Bay, we still managed to find some pretty good seats. At least, as good a seat as we had hoped to get -- right in front of where JL will be standing for the ceremony. Then, we just had to wait.
As I sat there though, lots of emotions were erupting inside of me. I was thinking back to how far JL had come, how much hard work he had put in just to be here standing on this platform today, how much sweat he had shed and how much pain he had to endure. I was so very proud of my bro! I was also feeling really happy for him. All the torture and pain he has had to endure for the past four months would be coming to an end with the end of the ceremony.
Apart from all of that, I was also imagining seeing the newly trained PTEs marching out onto the platform. What a sight that would be! Then, I also felt a bit of envy and sadness as I know inside of me that I would never get the chance to be marching in such a huge group or have the chance to be involved in a POP ceremony. It just felt really awesome to me to be able to make the long 24- km march to this platform and then end off months of hard work with a grand ceremony like this.
Still, this was my bro's POP and I should be in a high and estatic mood. So I brushed all those sadness away. Anyways, wasn't I here already, involved in my first ever POP ceremony? Hahas, it is all thanks to my bro JL uhh?
When 0740 finally crawled by, the ceremony started with the booming voice of the commentator. Then, it was the moment I had been waiting for... to witness the PTEs marching out onto the platform! I had always wanted to witness such a huge and massive force marching past right in front of me. It was sure an impressive sight to behold! Haha... I sure wished I was part of those guys out there, marching on to the platform, knowing this is the end of their torturous ordeal for the past months. The newly trained PTEs marched out from both ends of the platform and formed up on the stage, filling up every single inch of the stage. You can imagine the numbers... that sight, was certainly one to behold!
As promised, I did try my best to look out for my bro, JL. However, as he had said, there were just too many of them, and they were so far out and so tiny, it was almost impossible to see him. Hahas, JL's parents were also searching for him too, but once again it was a futile attempt. Still, we had a rough idea where he could be and so we had to contend with that. Then, JL's Dad asked if I was envious, not being able to experience being out there on the platform. Lol, I sure was!
Then, there were some speeches being read out by various people, congratulating the new PTEs of course and wishing them well from there on. After that, there was some prize presentation which was as always, the most boring and draggy part haha... unless someone you knew had won a prize of course. Then there was the applause, always loud at first but slowly as people grew bored, the applause dies down...
After all that, there was a break during which all the PTEs went back through where they had marched out from. That was to be the part one of the parade and there was going to be a second half after the break. So I guess the first half was meant to be the more formal part of the parade. Indeed, the PTEs returned after a short while marching quite differently. They looked quite cute actually, haha! The second half of the parade was much shorter and the parade was soon over. We then had to look for JL which was surprisingly not too difficult. After that, there was only one thing on everyone's mind. Home.
Later that night, I stayed over at JL's house, with his parents' consent of course. We then did some walking the next morning, which is part 2 of my awesome weekend. This past weekend was sure an experience that would be kept in my mind for a long time to come.
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