Addicted to Retreats

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Suburban Changi (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changi_Village)

Addicted to Retreats
I attended my first ever retreat just the last 3 days and I really started to get addicted to it. I kinda like the idea of being able to:

• dress down on a work day,
  
• make my way to and experience suburban Changi Village in the morning,
  
• make friends with like-minded people,
  
• have the opportunity to learn new things from others, and
  
• also to really slow down away from work; tend to be able to see things from different persepctives and things are just, well, clearer

Throughout this 3 days, I also come to realise that despite just being in volunteer programme manager for relatively a short period of time and being the "rookie", to my surprise, I seem to have a bit of experience to share as well, particularly in the areas of establishing systems and structures, volunteer placements in a multi-service setting and maybe branding and marketing of the volunteer programme. I especially love the support circle concept where all the participants were organised into groups of 4 people to share experiences with one another; it is really empowering to know that you are not the only one facing similar problems at work and also interesting to learn how others structure their volunteer programme.

And oh, my passion for training just surfaced again... kinda get the "itch" to wanna do training again, after all, it has been some time since I last trained. Might just go back into training line in future if I have the know-how and knowledge to share, but for now, I still relatively enjoy what I do.

Getting all Paranoid
The hotel was wonderful and so was its surroundings. I loved the room. This also gotta be one of the most unique rooms I have stayed in; it have a almost full length window just next to the bathtub, overlooking the two beds in the room so basically your roommate can see you shower if you did not pull the blinds down. Hmm... maybe it is meant to be a "pro-family" room :)

Kinda regretted opting to stay alone without a room mate. Heard ghost stories from some people who stayed there. My colleague also told me to avoid staying on the second storey because it was there that she saw a black apparition looking at her son one night and soon after her son woke up shouting. So, was kinda relieved when I was handed the keys to my first room and realised the room was on the third floor. But then I realised it had a queen size bed. Since I will be having a friend over, I requested to change to a room with 2 single beds. Guess what, I was given a room on the second floor!

Anyway, I did all I can to make sure my stay there was uneventful. Did what others told me: knock on the door before entering, leaving my shoes in disarray. I even brought my bible along and also played worship songs from my laptop. My colleague also lent me a bottle of holy water just in case :) The first night wasn't so bad since I had my friend and his "wife-to-be"'s company. But the second night, I was alone. So I visited another course-mate's room and we chatted till late until we were all tired and I just konked out back in my room.

To Blog or Not to Blog
At the start of the retreat, we were supposed to introduce ourselves and share what we enjoyed doing. So I shared about my interest in blogging and how I also sometimes blog about volunteer management. But little would I have expected that a couple of course mates asked me for the blog address. I mean, I would not have imagined people wanting to read my rants and two cents' worth on stuff so must say I was caught rather unprepared when they asked for my blog "addy". And so I gave... I mean, what I blogged might not be of great value but then it is still my life and my "chronicles" of the world I live in, so didn't really mind sharing. Also, I did think about how I am going to blog but then decided that I will not maintain a facade and just be myself. After all, this blog is written not "for show" but more as a unadulterted "chronicle" of my life. I guess the thing about blogging is that one may easily fall into the trap of blogging for the sake of satisfying others or maintaining a certain persona. Let's hope I don't go that way. (Picture "Sequined Mask" by torli )

I really enjoyed myself at the retreat and cannot really wait for the next one next year... learnt a lot from the trainer as well and little would I have expected the very person who have contributed to my "splitting headache" a few days ago also presented me with insights on how to "failure-proof" myself and recover from setbacks... how ironic? If fact, on the first day, he greeted me warmly, which was a stark difference from a few days ago :)

I know it has been sometime since I blogged, have been real occupied at work and also with exernal committments, so sometimes can be daunting coming in to blog (since it requires brain juices to blog). :) Will be continuing to blog about some of the ingsights from the retreat in the next few days.