outward bound school - pulau ubin

my attendance at the 21-day outward bound course was sponsored by the british army. the selection and recommendation was made by the teachers' training college. during the course of the 21 days of training, we were on full-pay leave.

i cannot remember how many teachers there were in my batch or in my watch. however, i am able to recall the names of some of those who attended with me. they included dick yip kum foo, edward tan, tan kok tong, tan thor cher, steven koh and chan kar wai.

although the training was very demanding, physically and mentally, we were prepared for it after having attended the 10-day ttc training camp at pulau tekong. at obs, we undertook three types of expedition - land, canoe and sailing. solo had not been introduced then.

at the end of the course, there was a cross-country race. although i started right at the back - i was literally the last runner - i managed to work my way gradually to the front and finished second in the race. if the race had been longer, i think, i would have overtaken the front runner, chan kar wai.

outward bound school taught me many things but the most important is the revelation of my inner strengths.

at obs, we learn to persevere, to push our own perceived limitations, to strive for excellence and never to give up. we learn that we need other people, and that the strength of a team lies in the co-operation of the people. we learn to deal with success and failure and to develop compassion.