Our Big 8 was quite special in the sense that we broke most of the traditions that were held by the previous Big 8s. We helped out the former Big 8 in the Founder's Day ceremony and had our term in office moved to a later date. We had two girls as the Student Council Chairs and everyone always went up on stage for assembly instead of having a rota. It feels as though our teachers really wanted to maximise the time that they worked with us. And why wouldn't they, because we were such a great bunch of students!
I can confidently say that no other Big 8 group was this motivated till the very end of their term in office (we were still producing amazing videos and having productive meetings even after hearing that our time has been extended by another four months). To help with the new Student Council Chairs' transition into their leadership role, I ended up writing a 4000-word handbook that consisted of every single tip and trick that I learnt myself/found useful when leading the Student Council. It wasn't really a hassle for me — it was more like a chance for me to organise what I've done throughout the year and a quarter I had as the Chair.
Working with seven other students in charge of their own committees and teachers from all different parts of the school is always an interesting thing to do. Sure, there were some disagreements here and there but resolving them only made our bonds stronger. In hindsight, all those problems we racked our brains at turned out to be nothing too serious. Life's just like that, I guess. I did learn that whenever you discuss something in a group, it's very useful to remind yourself what the purpose of the discussion is every now and then. When you lose the purpose, the solution may not be as effective, and getting to that point may take longer than necessary.
We often joked that the Big 8 had been picked to be celebrities that promote our school because of the endless photographs/videos we took for newsletters, promo films, newspapers, etc. But now that's what we're left with when it comes to memories of being the Big 8.
There were some major events that we took part in just before our time came to an end, which were our Final Big 8 assembly and Founder's Day. We put together a funny video of us as Minions who were super excited to work as the Minion 8 but after a series of heartbreaking incidents, we decide to quit. The story was for comedic purposes (for the most part, anyway 😜).
During the End of Term assembly, we also sang a farewell song. I revised the lyrics to the Cup Song from Pitch Perfect to fit our current situation. The song itself was quite suitable in the first place but some flair and comedy were added. The video below consists of the whole End of Term Assembly but if you wanted to watch us perform the song (and stay for the Minions video), you can skip to 52:30 :
The last day of the dreaded 8-week term was Founder's Day, a very important and historical day for NLCS students. We created a video to celebrate the special day with our sister schools around the world:
The actual ceremony had to take place in four different venues because of COVID regulations. That made coming together as a group and receiving daffodils (the final honour that is granted to the Big 8 members) harder than normal. Still, you can hear me recite the Prayers of Commemoration with our Head Boy and the new ones (17:50) and receive daffodils (40:20) in the video below:
(loved the surprise proposal at the end 😂)
We took a lot of photos wearing our beautiful hanboks! The different colours really make the photos come to life:
It was a long time to serve the school as the Big 8 but every moment was worth it. I feel so grateful that I had this opportunity during my last two years at school. There's so much that I'll take from this opportunity. But for now, I wish good luck to the new Big 8 :)
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