<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although this whole \u201cExCo writes articles\u201d\nthing was my idea, it took me until the last possible moment, to sit down and\ntype this. This is because there is so much to say and only so many words that\nI can put in this before your eyes glaze over. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Buckle up, kids. This is going to be long. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m not one for visual theatrics, so I\u2019ll\ntry to make up for it with my words. Warning: Nish is about to get really\ncheesy and emotional. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dear Gavelier,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s a story about how a random, aimless\ngirl turned into a VPE. Hopefully, this is somewhat funny. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I walked into UoC on the heels of\nhaving completed a series of examinations at another institute and a random\nillness, I knew I was out of the loop (happens when you\u2019ve let classes go on\nfor a month before stepping in). I felt like I didn\u2019t belong anywhere, and to\nbe frank, I was fine with that. I thought I would keep my head down, do my\ndegree, and get out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, our ever-famous recruiter Lily,\nhad other plans for me. All I had to say was that I had prior experience at the\nGavel Club at my school, and she was practically grabbing me by the hand and\ndragging me to a meeting the next moment. At my very first meeting I met some\nof the greats: Vimukthini, Harith, Lawan, Amra, Piyumi and co. I saw Vimukthini\nAkki deliver her CC10 and it nearly moved me to tears. I decided to do a Table\nTopic and went on a rant about something. The sharpest of memories from that\nday is when I saw, from the corner of my eye, Harith being \u2018discreet\u2019 and\nmouthing to someone \u201cshe is good!\u201d with his signature facial expression. Thus,\nthe name was written and attendance was guaranteed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I remember getting so very lost, on the way\nto the ExCo interview. Cue Uditha texting me \u201cgood luck for the interview!\u201d and\nall I could say was \u201cI don\u2019t even know where it is!\u201d This may have been some\nsort of ploy so that his name would be the only one I would remember at the\ninterview, but Uditha painstakingly described to me how to get to the place,\nand I went in, talked about things, and mentioned Uditha when I was asked who I\nwould like as President. After I walked out, everyone else\u2019s names came rushing\ninto my head, and I wanted to bury my head in the sand because I forgot. Oh,\nwell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the ExCo was announced, my best friend\nkept \u201ctext-yelling\u201d to me something along the lines of \u201cCONGRATULATIONS, MADAM\nVP\u201d even though he had no idea what that meant. I was excited and also weary,\nbecause while I was looking forward to the prospect of working with an amazing\nset of individuals, I was also sighing at the prospect of repeating the VPE\nrole for the third year in a row (school took my first two years). However,\nthis experience was so much more different than what I imagined it to be, and I\nwill always be thankful to Lily Akki, Amra Akki and everyone else who made sure\nI joined this club and got this job. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I call it a job because it is an important thing to do, and because I make sure that my work revolves around doing what I love. I love making friends and I love seeing and helping people doing things that they thought they couldn\u2019t. I call it a job because I have to be on the ball every single day, and my phone and laptop is filled with one-person groups, agendas, discarded designs and ideas, lists of things to do and whatever write-up that Uditha wants done last moment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being the VPE of the Gavel Club of the\nUniversity of Colombo was nothing short of a privilege. It was the role of a\nlifetime, and one that was designed for me, I feel. Easy for me to say, because\nI just finished playing this role, right? That is true. I truly didn\u2019t feel\nlike I had any restrictions on what I had to do and how I had to act (save for\nthe sarcastic comments I wanted to make at certain events, that I had to\nswallow instead of spitting out, for PR reasons) and I had so much fun\ninteracting with everyone. There were times that I had to tell my friends\n\u201csorry guys, I have a Gavel thing\u201d, but that was never done with regret. Heck,\nI had an excuse to dress up like I was going to office and attend a ton of\ninstallations and workshops where we had free food, free music and world-class\nspeeches to witness (thank you, Mr. President, for dragging me along). I also\nhad to cut down my hours of sleep significantly, to accommodate changes, talk\nto resource persons, beg a few people to come for meetings and just be a VPE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each role in the ExCo has a set list of\nduties, but I find that we all went away from our duties and occasionally\ndipped into the duty of another ExCo member because it was needed \u2013 in that\naspect, our ExCo ran as smoothly as one could hope. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every single week, I typed out the message\nfor roleplayers. It was the same thing that I sent every week, but I never\ncopy-pasted. I always typed it out. I have no idea why I did that, either. I do\nthink, that this is a metaphor for what I did with my role, in my term. Even\nthough it may seem like every week is the same, there is a major difference \u2013\nthe people who take up roles, the people who take their first step to do a\n\u201cpodi\u201d role, the people who decide they want to try out for a \u201cloku\u201d role, the\npeople who text me shyly saying \u201cI want to know how to do a CC1\u201d, the people\nwho I nag to be evaluators for speeches and the people I run behind at the last\nmoment to fill in for an absentee are all different, week to week. This means\nthat I have spoken to over a hundred people in this year, about roles, speeches\nand the Gavel club in general. This meant that I got texts from unknowns at\nmidnight, multiple messages at 5.00AM and last minute (like, a few minutes\nbefore the meeting) messages from members asking what to do, how to do it and\nwhether they can drop out. Each time, I have had to answer. Sometimes, I would\nbe a little stern and push against the opposition and make people do things\n(Hi, Ishani and Malmi!) and sometimes, I would have to sigh, say \u201cyes sure, no\nworries!\u201d and resort to bothering someone from the ExCo to fill the role. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we moved online, and when the newbies\nrolled in, I found myself answering, nurturing and mentoring quite a few kids,\nand I loved every single minute of it. The biggest payoff of all time, for me,\nis seeing one of you take the screen and deliver a perfect speech without\nfidgeting, seeing you take up a role and saying \u201cI know what to do, akki\u201d, is\nseeing one of your texts that read \u201cNish, I want to be TMOD this week, is the\nrole available?\u201d It started from the bottom, where I had to coax people to be\nthe Grammarian, and now I leave this role, with club members booking roles in\nadvance and asking for explanations on roles instead of saying \u201cI can\u2019t do it\u201d.\nThis is great progress, and it is the proude\ufeff\u7280\u5229\u58eb<\/a>\n<\/span>st I have ever been and will be, in\nmy life. It gives me great joy and honour, on my birthday, to look back at a\nyear full of good times, and know in my heart that even though my ExCo had to\nfunction through a national security crisis and a national health crisis, we\npulled off something great. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To my ExCo,<\/p>\n\n\n\n I would like to thank you for putting up\nwith this senile fool, entertaining my weird ideas and helping me carry out\neverything that I wanted to do, for this term. I walked in not knowing any of\nyou at all, and I leave knowing at least one embarrassing thing about you. The\nmemories we have made at the Greens, at Deanside and at the many installations\nwe visited, will stay with me forever. Thanking for being one of the greatest\nteams that the world has ever seen (this is for whoever was looking for a One\nDirection reference in this article).<\/p>\n\n\n\n To the close friends that this club has\ngiven me (you know who you are),<\/p>\n\n\n\n Never did I think that I would make great\nfriends this late in life (I\u2019m old now), but once again, life surprises me. I\nhave shared tuk rides, walks, food, drinks and secrets with you, and some of\nyou know me better than most people. I am so very grateful for the life-long\nfriendships that this club has helped me create. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To Tharindi and co,<\/p>\n\n\n\n I leave you the most precious thing in the\nworld \u2013 the trust of the members of this club. It has taken many sleepless\nnights and discussions to build the trust that we have with our membership, and\nI give it to you with the faith that you will keep the flame burning and keep\nthe banner flying. Wishing you the best of luck and greatest of years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To my mentees,<\/p>\n\n\n\n You have grown so much over this year, and\nI am honoured beyond measure to see you take the stage or screen and show off\nyour confidence and convince people of your ideas. It has been a pleasure\nlistening to your Zoom rants, voicenotes, reading your scripts and making\nchanges, and overall, seeing you go from \u201caneh, I\u2019m shy\u201d to \u201cNish, did you\ncheck it yet, I want to start practicing with the final draft\u201d. You don\u2019t know\nwhat it feels like to see that happen, and I am filled with pride when I see\nyou step up to the plate and knock it out of the park. Thank you for letting me\nguide you. Now get started on the next CC!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, to my dearest Gaveliers, <\/p>\n\n\n\n It has been a pleasure being your VPE. This\nis the stark, honest truth. Without your earnest and dedication to learn from\nthis club, grow with this club and give back to this club, we would be nowhere.\nI can attribute this success to the Education Initiative, but there is a reason\nwhy I didn\u2019t mention it before: the truth is, the growth of this club hinged on\nyou, and it still hinges on you. We can have grand plans and ideas, but it is\nultimately your support and excitement that helps to see them through. You are\none of the most important families that I claim ownership of, and you are\nprecious to me. I will kill for this club (although I hope I don\u2019t have to) and\nI promise to help out in any way I can. You have made this girl very happy and\ncarefree. Not once in this club have I felt marginalised in any way, and I\nthank you from the bottom of my heart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That ends my string of letters. Thank you\nfor reading, and thank you for sticking. Thank you, finally, for being my home\naway from home \u2013 Gavel club is truly the one place I can walk into, sit down\nand be myself, without judgment, and that is why our Gavel Family is special\nand real. <\/p>\n\n\n\n All my love, <\/p>\n\n\n\n Nish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Although this whole \u201cExCo writes articles\u201d thing was my idea, it took me until the last possible moment, to sit down and type this. This is because there is so much to say and only so many words that I can put in this before your eyes glaze over. Buckle up, kids. This is going […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":1746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[117],"tags":[118,4,74,71,123,124],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gavel.cmb.ac.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1745"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gavel.cmb.ac.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gavel.cmb.ac.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gavel.cmb.ac.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gavel.cmb.ac.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1745"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.gavel.cmb.ac.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3892,"href":"https:\/\/www.gavel.cmb.ac.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1745\/revisions\/3892"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gavel.cmb.ac.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gavel.cmb.ac.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gavel.cmb.ac.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gavel.cmb.ac.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}