I have been honoured with one of the most important, as well as challenging titles recently. Completely overwhelmed and confounded with emotions, I accepted the prestigious post as the incoming President of the Interact Club of Cempaka Damansara with strong determination and high spirits. Within a week, Farah Ayesha, the outgoing President of the Interact Club taught me everything I needed to know and she also supplied me with generous amounts of valuable advices and experiences.

A few Saturdays ago, namely 26 July 2008 on our calendar, was the final project of the senior Interact directors. They organised and managed the International Understanding Day 2008 right from scratch. To start off, International Understanding Day is a special occasion where a school organises a function based on a specific theme and invite other schools to attend, to increase our network of friends and enhance our social skills.

The theme this year was Paralympics in conjunction with the Olympics 2008. The function started off with the arrival of Yang Berbahagia Datin Freida, the Guest of Honour, Rotarian Ian Homer, Rotarian Suki, and principals. Although the turn-up in the hall was unexpectedly small, the other students in the hall had the opportunity to catch a few inspirational and captivating speech about everything one would need to know on Paralympics by Farah Ayesha, Datin Freida, and Rotarian Ian.

Tea was served after the formalities, as students streamed into the toilets to change into their sports attire. Out in the field, vivid strings of crepe paper and a monumental inflatable wall-climber painted a vibrant and carnival-like picture, so beautiful and so cheery. Within minutes, students started infesting the field, like little ants in a bowl of sugar. Students from other schools took some time off their schedule to attend our IU day too, including Sekolah Sri Garden, Kolej Tunku Jaafar, Sekolah Seri Hartamas, Sekolah Sri KL and of course, Sri Cempaka Cheras. I made many new friends from other schools and through socialising and mingling with new people, the objective of the IU day was achieved.

To add in more fun, the Hitz.fm road runners came too, in their infamous purple truck. Among the games organised in the field were the Telematch, the Balloon game, Joga Bonito, Handball and Wall-climbing. In my opinion, I thought that the major attraction on that evening was between wall-climbing and the futsal match. But then again, many people had a blast slipping onto the giant sandals and synchronising themselves to race against other teams during the telematch.

At around 6.30pm, everyone was ushered back to the hall for prize-giving ceremony and dinner. The winner for the futsal match won a whopping cash prize. Dinner was excellent, as many went for second and third rounds. Overall, I must admit, this year’s IU Day was incredibly unique because the seniors went adventurous and picked an outdoor theme. Indeed, I have no doubts that everyone had a lot of fun and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Also, I would like to thank my seniors for leaving me huge shoes to fill in.