Relay For Life 2014

Hi guys!

I'm aware that I haven't been blogging for quite some time since I was so busy. But anyway...

Yesterday, I came home from Relay For Life. It's a school event that a lot of people participate in to fight cancer, to celebrate those who made it and to remember those who did not. Other than fundraising a minimum of 5000RMB, every team had to have one member walking on the track and this went on for 24 hours. This was actually my first time doing relay since I was pretty anti-social last year and I just didn't feel like doing it. This year, I was co-team leader with Franny of my group Flaming Flamingos. Lol I know the name is pretty lame but our sweatshirt is pretty cute. Overall, it was really meaningful, despite the fact that it was always raining so heavily and the numerous obstacles I had to deal with.

I had shifts from 3-4pm, 5-6pm, and 7-8pm but sometimes, I was walking around with other friends when it was not my shift. I went to basketball preseason for a while and the other members were setting up tents at the same time. A few hours later, the tents fell... It was a major tent crisis. Anyway, we got one of the tents back up after a really long time so that felt good. My group was planning to sell marshmallows dipped in warm chocolate and s'mores but it was soooo windy and it was always raining.  And no one felt like eating. It wasn't very pleasant. 

But the most meaningful part of Relay was the talking session that was open to anyone who wanted to talk about their personal experiences with cancer/relatives with cancer. It was really, really sad. Like everyone was silent and a number of people cried when they heard stories of fellow schoolmates. I also had tears forming and I don't usually cry in front of people. It was so difficult for them to share their stories and almost all of them cried to the point where they could not talk anymore. Right after the talk, everyone went for the luminary walk. There were luminaires all around the track and the point of this walk is to walk in silence, reflect on your life and how you have been treating your loved ones, and celebrate and remember cancer patients. It really served as a reminder for me to treat my friends and family with so much more love and compassion. The night was cold, but walking with my friends made me feel so much warmer.

Also, I didn't really take photos since it was raining most of the time but I took a photo with Victoria and Samantha and Meera, Emily and Hannah. It's a pity I didn't take photos with Nicole, Evette, Vivian, Katherine and Hannah though. I barely saw them.

We are cute ok.

Hannah looking fierce and sexy.

I was seriously really tired this week and I actually wanted to sleep. Since my group members aren't going to sleep and there was practically no space for me in the tent, I went to the cafeteria with May. I thought we could go to the upper cafeteria since there were fewer people there but when we went up, there was a group of Koreans that stared at us and I am pretty sure they asked us to go away. Like what the heck did we even do to you, we practically just climbed up the stairs. Yeah they were pretty rude so we went to the cafeteria and tried sleeping. It was pretty quiet at first but in the middle of the night, a bunch of people came in and they were literally talking and laughing at the top of their lungs. I don't think I fell asleep at all and I'm feeling really horrible now. I may have caught a fever too since it was cold and windy and raining.

It was raining really heavily in the morning yesterday, but we had to take the tents down so we did that. After some time, we were dismissed.

I really wished that it did not rain because it made the atmosphere so gloomy when it's supposed to be a much more lively and there was so much hassle. However, I still really enjoyed walking around the track and reflecting on life, which was the bulk of the event.

I know I didn't use a lot of smiley faces or exclamation marks in this post and it may sound really serious but I think cancer is a serious topic and I hope that one day, a cure for cancer will be found. Thanks for reading! (: