Thank you Sin Chew student reporters cadet.

Still remember clearly, it was 2011 during my high school time, when I joined the Sin Chew student reporters cadet, known as "Xue Ji" in Chinese.

Being a student reporter, you not only learn how to report, it trains you how to work together in a huge team, as we are tasked to organise three major camps during the year, for the public. Not just sweat, tears were poured throughout the period, literally. Strict seniors who would point out all the tiny little things that go wrong, and raise their voices, jump down our throats, and bite all our heads off, till you can remember your mistakes. I swear, no one else ever scold me that bad before, not even my parents or teachers, not even my bosses now. Those years were the toughest time in my life, so far.

On a bright side, it taught me to look out for every small detail possibly, to remember our mistakes better and not to repeat them, to bond us well among ourselves, to train us how to be independent, to be more disciplined, and one more which I think it is the most important one, to train our endurance to all setbacks in our life.

Being in the cadet feels like a small community, there are all kinds of people you are dealing with. In Xue Ji there's a say which goes, "what's reasonable is a formal training ground, but what's unreasonable is to push you even further" which basically also implies "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger". In a realistic world, nothing is always going to be smooth sailing. You might fail your exam, get grounded by your parents, screw up your job, and so on. But whenever I think back what I had been through during my Xue Ji life, nothing else is worse than that, and I know I can fix my things and strive through the hard times.

It has been so many years, and many of us have parted on our ways. Some are still in touch, but some are not. Currently, working in a reputable organisation, I hardly talk to anyone of them anymore. But I will never forget those years, what had Xue Ji taught me, which forms who I am today, which brought out #thebestofme.

Thank you, Sin Chew.