Well, let me explain.
It takes time, energy and courage to venture into an area without much of a model to follow after. As the President (and the idiot who came up with the idea), often I have to take the lead in matters such as deciding the direction of the Alumni.
To focus on the club members?
To focus on my alumnus?
What about money (which makes the world go round, btw)?
What should we do?
The few question marks kept revolving around my head for months, and believe me it was tough finding a balance between all the areas I want to expand into. It was no easy question to figure out. When the Alumni started out, I can safely say we only had 5 members sitting in McDonalds on a Saturday morning, discussing what we should be doing.
Being President doesn’t just mean a big name, it also means a big headache, and major frustrations which not many people can understand.
And, know what?
I just have to look at this picture that sits on my desk, which was a present from my BFFs.
Three generations of Photographers in a picture, having a hell of the time of our lives. In a small cramped DIY studio sweating it out (there was no air con and we didn't want to switch on the fans) trying to figure where Mr Jinbei and Mr Abei should be standing and facing for the shot. And in that single moment of frustration, we grinded our heads against each other, and BAM! the shutter goes off. The smile on our faces are worth more than a million dollars.
And then, a smile on my face.
Because when I am at the verge of my sanity, almost going crazy trying to make things perfect, I know there's always someone who'll give me a heads up even if it was 2am in the morning, telling me to chill and everything will be alright. Or that sms telling me that my "ha-ha" friend is coming. Or the other sms just to tell me to "jiayou". Or just a call to check whether I'm alright.
And then apart from all that crazy side of the world, there's always the pajama party chat about boys, girls and everything under the moon, whether Velvia is better than Elite Chrome, laughing at how we've grown fatter, which girl or guy from school is cute....
And when we feel crazy enough, we make a movie out of a series of air banding clips we've done.
The crystalizing moment comes when I look at all these pics...
I realise I'm not doing it for myself. I love everyone from Photog, the people here are great, there's always a hug or a pat on the back, a listening ear because at the end of the day, we know we'll always be there for one another, and that's why we old gals and guys are still sticking around.... because we're not ready to leave the Photography > MJC family.
Cos we belong to ONE BIG FAMILY.
