My earliest memory of ntu floorball was receiving a call from an unknown caller in my Basic Media Writing lecture in year 1. I had no idea whether it was a guy or a girl, and I was so bewildered that I rushed out of the lecture theatre to listen intently to figure it out. The caller told me which time and date of the floorball trials I had been slated for, and by the end of it, I still could not figure the gender of the caller until HE told me his name, which I shall not reveal for privacy purposes. Haha.

So I went down for the floorball trials quite confident that I would make it through, as I had played floorball a few times in PE in jc, and apparently to my classmates I was rather good! As you might have guessed, I was not chosen. But thank god for my super thick skin, and I went to ask jamie politely why I did not make it through. He explained that he chose players based on what he saw i.e. add points when he sees something good, so I must have not done anything impressive. Still, he said, I could come down for training if I was interested and we'll see how it goes from there. To this day I still am grateful to him for that chance =) I can't remember, but I must have lived in fear of getting axed for the first couple of months? He did not say anything conclusive either and I have been crashing the ntu floorball party ever since.

Things were not smooth sailing at all at first. Not that it is now, but it was tougher then. I was undoubtedly one of if not the weakest in my batch (since I wasn't even chosen in the first place). I could not pass, could not shoot, was uber clumsy, and had bad tempet to boot. Let's not go into details but lets say I have kicked boards apart and threw my stick in a very rude way before. Sorry old stick. Lousy and bad tempered, it was no wonder I did not really have friends at first. Then, I don't remember when and I don't remember how, we became friends. Friends who accepted me for my faults and eccentricities, friends who shared the weirdest and most outrageous of my problems, friends who have helped me overcome many things without even knowing it. Friends who are still friends now. Haha, do you remember how we used to nag about how unenthusiastic and nua the 88 girls seemed to be? Remember this time last year, we went for training with less than 10 people and we lamented how lazy they were? Remember the junior that said that the seniors cannot even make a proper pass? Hahaha. Well they turned out to be one nice and fun bunch too. And there are a few among them I can really turn to in fair weather and foul. It is really my fortune =)

A major slice of my ntu floorball life involved playing and later organising fun and games and getting to know the floorball guys. To all those of you who think that ntu floorball guys are very nice, it's true, they are. In the golden era it was a big part of my life and I had tonnes of fun playing every week with them, while gaining valuable floorball experience in the process. I miss it alot. But things are not so simple now what with many of us on internships, the malaysian bunch no longer in hall, and security guards getting more irritating. Frankly the main reason is that I'm dead tired from internship to organise anything, so I'll give myself a few weeks to settle in. Hopefully I will not nodnod for 6 months!!

The fun and games sessions certainly helped me to improve my skills and confidence. I could not do shit in normal storm training and was all in all lousy, but somehow I began scoring in fun and games. Perhaps it was cos of the existence of super nice guys like our Mr. SIA who would pass the ball to us when we were both right in front of the goal. Or it was also easier to score cos the guys 'gave chance' at first when they saw this cui girl come to play. Haha.

Street challenge was also a feature of my ntu floorball life. So far I've had the luck in such competitions la =p Came in 4th in year 1 while kneeling down in front of the goal the entire time while the four senior guys played. Was 2nd in year 2, losing out only to the 'national team'. Haha. And came in 3rd this year though I felt there was some tough competition!

I joined floorball cos I wanted to play IVP and worked hard to get into the 07/08 season. But it is the 08/09 season that is worthy of mention =) Competency-wise I was once again pushed to the limit and was forced to see my strengths and weaknesses more clearly. And I met some more nice and like-minded people who became friends. I also got to experience being in a team with all my dearest teammates.

Haha the bottomline of the wonderful nature of my journey is that ntu floorballers are nice. nice. nice. No bitches for you. Erm but got dog la. "woof woof!" Good lucky!

I could never have all these valuable friends and fun if I didn't have such thick skin. Phew.