Here’s how it went….
It started out an excellent morning. Cool, cloudy weather. We departed from school via the bus and sang some songs along the way. We got to our flag-off point at Bukit Putus around 7.45am and started our ascend by 8am. Everyone started strong at the steep beginning and slowly started to pull away.I decided to stay at the back and become the sweeper, in case anything happened. 20 minutes into the hike, I found myself accompanying two boys – V and R. I was also accompanied by Scouter Constantine and Scouter Charlie, who were also tailing at the back as sweepers, taking a slow stroll.
Because the start of the climb was very steep, within the half hour mark, these two boys were already panting crazily and looked exhausted. Still, they decided to continue; even though they were at a slower pace behind the pack (way, way behind).
We accompanied these two boys and continued our slow ascend up the steep mountain. An hour and a half later, these boys looked like they were ready to give up – heavily panting, dragging their legs and looking pale. I was following behind V and noticed his legs were getting wobbly and he couldn’t even walk straight. The scouters took turns to tail him and constantly had to watch out for him in case he fell as he could not walk firmly. Still, even in that condition, he did NOT even utter one single word of complaint. He pushed on, drenched with sweat all over his face, taking one small step at a time.
Occasionally, we would take quick 5-minute breaks for them to catch their breath. After one particular break, I decided to take the lead and set the pace to motivate the boys to climb faster as we were quite far behind. I stepped forward and took a short walk with R.
As I was walking beside him, I turned to him and asked, “So, R. Which is more fun? This? Or studying?”He turned to me, gave me a heavy pant, smiled and said, “Sir? Studying is.”
I chuckled, gave him a light pat on the back and told him, “Young man. Once you complete this climb, no exam will be hard for you then. Hahaha.”
He gave me a big grin as we pressed on.
2 hours into the hike, the boys’ pace were beginning to really slow down. Some elderly climbers had already reached the summit and were on their way down, passing us. Some were overtaking us from the back. Still, NOT A SINGLE word of complaint from V or R.
All the scouters began pushing the boys with words of encouragement – asking them not to give up, pick up the pace and get to the top. During the entire time, neither V nor R even said a word of negativity or said they wanted to turn and go back. Their pale faces and heavy panting showed only one thing – sheer determination. We could see they were so tired that had to literally use their walking sticks to drag their body to move along.
Finally, one last push up the last climb and YES. They were finally there. You could see the joy on their faces as they walked to the summit with everyone applauding them for making it – even though they were the last scouts to arrive. Some other boys walked up to V and R and gave them a nudge on the shoulder, smiling and speaking in Tamil (sorry I don’t understand Tamil. Haha. But I guess they were congratulating V and R.)
We reached the peak at approximately 10.40am, 1 hour and 10mins behind the 1st pack. The 2nd pack reached around 10am.
With that, I would like to applaud these 2 boys for NOT UTTERING ONE WORD OF COMPLAINT when conditions got tough and getting the job done – WITHOUT GIVING UP.WELL DONE !! True spirits of Paulians and the 3rds Own Scout Troop.
“There is no such thing as luck. Success comes from actually doing it. “
