A grand spectacle, the heady
rush of adrenaline and stage fright, mixed with the nervousness of facing the
end result of months of planning, the third of August was a very stressful day
for our entire class. Spectra, a labour of love that was the culmination of
nearly two months of hectic running back and forth, our school has a yearly tradition of
organizing this event to give students a chance to showcase their abilities and
talents, and to that effect we even invite students of other schools to make
the competition even more lively. The particularity of this event is that is
completely student-organised. Every detail from the construction to the posting
of venue locations had to be handled by us, the students of the senior class.
I've never seen this type of student involvement in any other school, and I'm
very proud that we were able to pull off such an immense undertaking with what
little time we had.
When school re-opened on June
5th, the first thought that I had was, "Oh my god, how are we going to be
able to plan for Spectra in such a short time?" From the first meeting where we sat down to
try and decide which events we wanted, it was all a big rush. Such a long
process of scheduling and organising cannot truly be expressed on paper, but
it's safe to say we were challenged to the ends of our wits to put together
each and every facet of the program. The events consisted of a quiz, a gaming
competition (held in the IT lab), a group dance competition, a comedy act, a
solo dance performance, and a personality contest.
Being
part of the core committee involved in organising the event, I was involved in
raising money from sponsors to finance the event, conceptualising and
organising the events themselves (with respect to location, time, and content),
putting together the promotional videos, assigning students to take charge of
the students from the visiting school, as well as distributing invitations to
participating schools, letters to potential sponsors (while visiting many of
them in person), and pitching said ideas to our principal and the
teacher-in-charge. Going through all these hurdles, I really felt that I was
getting better at managing my time, planning ahead, and even talking to people
in order to get things done. I’m sure these skills will be of the utmost
importance in the long run in tough situations that require a diplomatic
approach.
Even
though handling such a big responsibility was a potential nightmare, I felt that
I rose to the challenge and by giving me this opportunity the school was
helping me grow into a more responsible person who could actually deal with the
obstacles that I will have to face down the road. I honestly do not think I was
as responsible as I am today before Spectra took place. Being held responsible
for the prestige of our school as well as having to uphold our own standard in
organising something that was bigger and better than anything the school and indeed,
the city had seen before, but at the end I was just happy to be able to provide
a stage for all the students that took part as they were able to display their
special abilities in front of our judges and the audience.
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