It’s past my bedtime, but I can’t sleep because so many ideas are running through my mind. I am excited and apprehensive and determined - at the same time.

No, I got neither a promotion nor a pay raise. In fact, I willingly allowed myself to sign up for something that didn’t appeal to me because I felt compelled to help my department. You see, the graduating students will be sitting for their national exams two weeks from now. My Head of Department will have marking duties during the period these kiddos have their exams, so she asked me to be the Presiding Examiner.

I grossly underestimated the sheer magnitude of this appointment. I really thought I just had to wake up early to report to the exam collection centre to collect the exam papers. But it seemed like I had opened up the Pandora’s Box. The tasks just kept charging at me, like sea waves that gather momentum with distance. Like mole rats that won’t die.

Here are the tasks that I had to carry out this week: brief the invigilators, host the Chief Presiding Examiner during his site visit, plan for a briefing for students, book briefing venues, yadda dadda. Actually I’m not the kind who thrives on doing administrative work, so all this drains me.

Until a brainwave hit me. I could get some students in lower grades to write encouragement notes to the candidates tomorrow! If I pull that off successfully, I can even subsequently encourage the teachers to write encouraging notes for the students. Make these candidates feel that the entire school is behind them. I intend to get my students from my form class to collate these messages and turn them into posters. Then, these posters will be used to engage the students at the holding area before their exam starts.

Heartfelt handwritten notes should help to ease some nerves.

I also have the thing to make my briefing for candidates come alive. In Japanese culture, people usually give students who are sitting for major exams Kit Kat bars. This is because Kit Kat is similar to Kitto Katto (Sure win) in Japanese. With such an auspicious symbolism behind it, Kit Kat chocolates are the perfect gift for these candidates. I will buy each of them two Kit Kat bars because in Mandarin, we have a saying 好事成双 (Good things come in pairs).

I’m quite certain that these impatient teenagers won’t find my briefing boring after that!

I also reframe my responsibilities. Instead of dreading them, I decide to look at all this as a way to work more closely with my colleagues. My Vice Principal because I need him to customise the evacuation plan. Another Vice Principal because I need him to give me a contingency plan when there is a case of power outrage. My IT manager because I need him to be around for the e-assessment. My Admin Manager because I need her to approve of the conversion of Standby Invigilators to Core Invigilators on the actual day. (Don’t ask me why. I blame it on bureaucracy.) I am just feeling a lot of adrenaline trying to think about all the people I need to tap on.

So, in short, while this role doesn’t match my usual creative strengths, I try to bring a novel twist to it (I.e. by getting staff and students to write encouraging notes). Who knows? I might even aim big enough to appear on my school’s IG page to appeal to students not to play sports during the exam duration. I am looking forward to working more closely with my colleagues. I guess this is what it means to be connected to something greater than myself and be in service of others.

Okay, I need to sleep. 💤 Thanks for reading.