Beginning of a New Era - Transition Meeting 2024-25

The Scavenger Hunt

By Rtr. Pevindra Rathnayake

I consider myself to be a PHD holder. A PHD in what? you may ask as I just turned 21 this year. I got a PHD in putting things off, waking up late, snoozing the alarm a hundred times before waking up, and getting things done at the last moment. Yes, I am a MASTER  procrastinator.

July 22^nd of 2018 is a day that I will never forget as I woke up to the sound of my alarm and for the first time in a really long time I did not hit snooze. The reason behind this sudden change was the scavenger hunt organized by the Rotaract club of CCS that was scheduled for later that day. I was excited to take part in it as it was my first ever scavenger hunt and my first big event after I joined the club.

All the participants, made exclusively of first years/new members were randomly grouped into 5 groups of six or seven.  Every group was given the same to-do list with 22 tasks. The  tasks varied from  doable, like taking a selfie with the entire team in front of the club banner and  liking the Rotaract CCS Facebook page  to educational, like finding the charter year and the charter president of Rotaract CCS to creative, like taking a photo of the entire teams reflection on anything other than a mirror to downright bizarre and embarrassing, like entire team humming the Mission impossible theme song while everyone acts like a spy in a retail store and doing a coordinated dance at a public place for any song to simply impossible, like finding the title of the book with the most number of copies in the Ichem library  without the assistance of the library staff.

I also noticed that even though some of the tasks such as buying bus tickets from Rajagiriya to Diyatha or bringing 4 types of fruits from the environment or bringing a sheet from a Sinhala, English and a Tamil newspaper was solely for the purpose of fun some other tasks such as offering a packet of rice to a homeless person or planting a mango seed at a suitable location was present to remind us all the importance of giving back to the society no matter what it is.

Some tasks such as  taking a picture with a cow seemed simple and doable until you actually have to do it. We looked around for a cow but not a single cow was to be seen that day but some of the teams were smart enough to find the loopholes and to  improvise the task that was given as it doesn’t state whether the cow has to be real or not. So when they ask for a photo with a cow, you take a selfie of the entire team with a picture of a cow on a phone and give it to them.

At the end of it all the Team “7 nations army” which consists of Savini, Kanchana, Pasindu, Sachini, Niresha, Kasuni and Esini emerged victorious and won a hand of bananas which was shared by everybody.

  It certainly was a fun filled memorable day for everybody who took part. As for me I learnt that I can become more proactive and I CAN wake up without hitting the snooze button and change myself for the better.  At the end of the day I went home with two broken shoes and the knowledge that I can be a little bit more braver and bolder everyday.