The Marching Competition

@#$%&!!! I apologize for such a foul and harsh introduction. I can’t help it because I was frustrated, disappointed, angry and sad due to the marching competition (peringkat daerah Hulu Langat) that I entered yesterday. We have undergone an intense and tough training for a month and I have sacrificed all my tuition classes just for that. Even so, we still lost at the match. There are three main factors that caused us to lose the competition. First were the latest formats of marching. We did not abide by the new formats given. Moreover, we were not given a clear explanation on the new formats. We only realized it when we arrived at the competition site at Maktab Penjara Kajang. In the beginning, we thought that some of the schools did not follow the new formats because they did not have adequate time to practice it. Later, we found that all schools are doing the same thing except us. NO!!!!!!!!!!! I told myself “This can’t be true!!! There must be a mistake. It has to be a prank made by someone”. Actually, I was just lying to myself. According to the new formats, we have to stich an extra KRS badge on our left sleeve and learn a new march which is actually the fusion of buka barisan and perlahan jalan together which we didn’t have. Apart from that, was the formation that we made was not good enough to impress the judge. This was due to the pain of our legs from the 50 ketuk-ketampi our bekas commander asked us to do two days before the competition but luckily we managed to were able to force ourselves to withstand the pain but still, that wasn’t enough. We weren’t able to stamp the ground in an orderly manner and at a 90 degrees angle. Stupid commander!!! As a result, we lost more than 25 marks. I was so disappointed after all the hard work and sacrifices I made for the team. Still, the thing that made me really angry and depressed was the fact that our school’s scout team was the runner up for the category B (Non Government Organisation) but we didn’t achieve anything for our category C (Kadet Remaja Sekolah). We were so ashamed of ourselves. This was the second time this kind of situation happened. The last time we won was during 2004 when I was in Form 2 and Azidzul was our commander. He was a stern and diligent commander unlike our new commander, Erfan who is not serious at all and always jokes around during foot drill. The scouts won because they are much disciplined and devoted themselves to marching unlike the some of the pigs in KRS. As usual, most of the awards were won by SMK Abdul Jalil. I wish that we could be just like them. I wonder what were their secrets of victory. Next year I am going to take my SPM exam! How am I going to kawad. Yet, I still want another medal before I graduate from secondary school. It would be my last sweet memories as a teenager.

OK, lets stop thinking about the negative side and think the positive side instead. Well, it was a wonderful experience to be there. We saw a lot of teams from different schools compete in the competition. There were many teams with different styles of kawad. Some are slow and neat, some are fast and furious, some are blur and hopeless while others are just indescribable. As usual many participants were unconscious especially Malay girls who wore tudungs during kawad. It must be either heat stroke or dehydration from all the sweating and terrible heat. Eiihhh, we kawad in the middle of the hot sun le and it was in the afternoon, what u expext!!! Those obligations of having the girls wearing tudungs and long sleeves just to cover their arms and hairs are just ridiculous. No wonder they became unconscious and collapsed just like that. Beneath their uniforms must be like a chicken roasting in a microwave oven. (Sorry for this sensitive issue but it is the fact you must accept) It’s so damn hot even for us who guys didn’t have to wear tudung and long sleeves during kawad.

Anyway, there was still one last thing. It was the photography session. I was not included for the photography session for KRS even though I was the co-president of the team. I was not informed to wear my uniform by anyone. Therefore, I and another Form 3 AJK were the only one who missed out the photography session. How can this happened to me!!!