what it takes to keep a cool head

What does it take to keep a cool head in a tense situation? Funny that it comes from me because as a leader, it is one of the main prerequisites of being a leader. It shouldn't come as a surprise really, that when you plan an activity or anything with others that may not go along well with you, things will go wrong and tension will rise.

What a terrific day today, really. Today is Teachers' Day and a very big round of sarcastic applause to STK Prefects for screwing up my teacher's day. We're suppose to CELEBRATE our teachers on this day and thanks to our good friends in blue, today seems to give Miss Neo and MPPPU more drama than we can shake a TV tube at.

I have been told that sharing things will be good for the mind and the soul rather than to bottle it all up and end up with depression. I have learned to let go because hey, that's how I was raised; both in my family and in the youth group. I forgive these blue hippos but I need to rant. Bear with me or else click here and knock yourselves out rather than to read this useless piece of writing.

MPPPU('We' from here onwards) have been called to take part in the school's Teachers' Day celebration ONE AND A HALF MONTHS AGO. We were called for the very first meeting and rather than have a civil meeting between the the prefects and the MPPPU, the TEACHER-IN-CHARGE and the prefects treated us as second class citizens during the meeting. Making snide remarks about how MPPPU is soooo busy with their work and not willing to help the school, blah blah blah. We took it in stride because we know what we have done for the school and what they say simply isn't true. So, what the hell, we just let it go.

That was the first and the last meeting we ever have regarding the Teachers' Day because for some reason, SOMEONE thought that MPPPU didn't want to help out anymore and we washed our hands off everything. The blue hippos assured us weeks ago that whenever they have a meeting, they will call/update us on what we need to do. So, for many weeks no one came to any of us and until I asked one of the prefects and she said that we didn't want to help them anymore and we 'washed our hands off everything'.

Naturally, I wasn't happy that they said something like that which didn't make any sense at all. Miss Neo thought, "What the heck" and we were told to do what we were told to do in the first meeting WEEKS ago. I was told to be in charge of security and the arrangement of the students. I spent my time and energy to plan and notify the head prefect(another Forrest Gump but minus the sincerity and other goodness) that I need a certain number of prefects for the event, which is only 10 for the boys out of 120+ prefects that they have in the school. That is, ladies and gentlemen, 8.33% of the prefects.

I reminded him the day before the event, which is yesterday, about what we need and plans that I need to have prefects to do their duty at the gate and Forrest 'Head Boy' Gump said "Okay, no problem."

The morning came and what was supposed to be a fine day turns out to be one that will shorten my lifespan by 10 years. Firstly, once the students start to gather at the sports complex, I have to arrange them and get them to line up properly. The fantastic thing is this: NO ONE WAS THERE TO HELP ME. My MPPPU Directors were busy trying to register the lower six students that is understandable but I expected the prefects to be there. None of these blue hippos were there and they only came down to help me once the even got started. What is the point of coming if you come after everything's been done? I hate to arrange these boys because the lower form kids will never listen to us form six'ers. Probably because we don't speak the same language and think on the same wavelength.

Anyway, what's done is done and I thought, "Okay...let's move on." I went and tried to look for the person in charge and everyone said "No, I don't know anything about this. Don't ask me." This is Malaysian bureaucracy at its finest, ladies and gentlemen. We are breeding these prefects who are supposed to be leaders to pinpoint faults at other people and teaching them to apply 'bureaucratic red tape' to their menial duties. Referring one person to the other pointlessly until one sad boy told me that our dear Forrest Gump is in-charge of everything.

Fair enough, I went to look for him and I asked him, "What happened? WHERE ARE THE PREFECTS WHEN WE NEEDED THEM?!" He had the cheek to answer me, "Uhh...they weren't there? Well, I was busy preparing the 'gimmick'(which was a lame bullshit stunt that they pulled during the event to make the funnies)" And naturally, I was angry.

Right after all these rubbish, I had to run off with a couple more directors of mine to 'escort' the teachers to the sports complex because we are wearing blazers after all and we look a lot better than the blue bums. We ran to the place where all the teachers are gathering and what happened is that they took off without us! Obviously they are doing all these just to spite us. Stress, stress, stress.

To add salt to the wound, many seniors(upper six students) from PU2B2 and PU2B3 thought it would be a splendid idea to come late at 10:30AM because Teachers' Day celebration is a pointless event and they rather come late just to do their compulsory experiments. I had to rally for help from my own MPPPU Directors because none of the prefects who promised to be there at the gates were there to do their duty. NO ONE. ABSOLUTELY NO ONE WAS THERE.

These kind of things seems to happen to me all the time. I must be really unlucky or something. I'm sad to say that's only the first half of the story. If you want to, you might want to go and watch YouTube or something. Or else, here's the second part:

Another teacher who has nothing to do with Form 6 come and told Miss Neo and I that our own directors are letting the students go back early. The whole thing was a misunderstanding because the said student, who supposedly left early, never stepped into the school at all! Here's a fine example of teachers always trying to find fault with us.

I really cannot take any of these bullshit any longer and Miss Neo and I went to see the discipline teacher. We had a long talk about the general attitude of the prefects and the teacher in charge of them. We came to a conclusion that we will hold a meeting between the MPPPU and prefects in the presence of the principal and other administrative teachers. We want to solve this 'relationship' problems in that meeting to pave a new way for the coming generations of MPPPU and form six students to come.

I'm trying to be calm but the more I dwell on this, the more it's going to kill me. And I guess that's what the prefects want the most. I have 3 more months to hold this post and you can be sure as heck that I'm going to go out with a bang.

I really don't want to continue any more even though there are so many things that I did not share and should probably be left untold.

Oh and Happy Teachers' Day to all of you out there!