P R E T R I P : B A C K G R O U N D

2014, a new year, with new friends, in new classes at school, and in external associations
which I work closely with. I had great hopes for the new year, with a goal to achieve a GPA of 4.0, to
get into the schools student council, and to further improve my relationships with the people whom
I already know.
Things dont always go as planned, though. 2 months long of intensive campaigning ended
off with the appointment of 18 student councillors from my cohort, but of course I was not included.
That was the first major disappointment, especially when I have good relationships with many of the
councillors and that I sincerely wanted to do something to benefit the student body, and it sadly was
not my only one because when the semester ended, the result slip that was delivered to me
showed a horrifying grade point of only 3.4, far below my target. I had dropped 5 grades in certain
subjects, gotten a B for a math test the first time in 3 years, and had my percentile for physics drop
from 97 to 29. And to add insult to injury, it wasnt long before some of my friends started cutting
contact from me. Whatever for, I do not know, and I shall not ask, for I still respect them.
So this trip was something I really anticipated: an opportunity to de-stress; to get away from
the never-ending to-do list that I had back in Singapore; to escape from the harsh reality that my
once bright future may not be looking as bright now. I was tired: I stayed up the whole night to do
not 1, not 2, but 3 projects, because of uncooperative groupmates, extremely tight schedules and a
horrendous workload that resulted in 3 of these projects being due on the same day. I was
exhausted, worn out, about to faint, whatever you would like to describe it. I felt that my life was
absolutely at rock bottom; that I was a useless, unreliable dirty prick sometimes I had considered if
that life was even worth living. As the days passed by, there was a sense of loneliness, helplessness
and hopelessness, that just got more and more intense, as I dragged my way through my daily ritual
of (lack of) sleep, eat, study, eat, study and then get (lack of) sleep. The thing that kept me going, I
would say, was this trip.
It was not a normal holiday, but rather a school excursion. There were no lounges to
explore, no FF miles to be gained, and I would have next to no freedom (i.e. free-and-easy) on the
trip. But it was a trip with people whom I really care about, and people who have grown close to me
throughout my 4 years in school. I may not have the chance to explore the city via public transit, or
take multi-stop flights into the Australian outback, but to be honest, those things do not matter
much at this time. All I needed was something to take that ridiculous amount of pressure off me,
even if temporary.
P R E T R I P : P R E P A R A T I O N S
F L I G H T : S Q 2 3 1 S I N S Y D ( 0 0 4 5 E T D | 1 0 2 5 E T A )
Being a school trip I was obliged to attend a pre-trip briefing. I had expected it to be the
typical ritual: the tour guide will go through every little detail: check-in weight limits, behaviour
onboard aircraft, et cetera.. and it was exactly as expected. To the aviation enthusiast, all these little
details were already in my mind. It was fun, though, seeing my friends asking all kinds of first-time-
flyer questions. I could give them all the answers, but no, I wasnt about to make myself look like a
smart*ss. Well, not yet.
The morning before the trip I had an exam paper to complete (talk about spoiling the
mood!!!), and administrative stuff to attend to in the afternoon, which left me about 1 hour to pack.
Everything went smoothly and I was back home T-8 hours before my flight. My standard packing list
was good to fit in only a single carryon, which I managed, until my parents came home that is. They,
seeing me rolling up all my clothes and arranging them neatly, enquired about the baggage that I
would be using. When I said I was only bringing a backpack, their look on their faces was priceless.