“Okay now it’s your turn poddo”, said an akka.
There was silence in my room apart from the sounds of heavy bolts and gears crunching in my mind to come up with an excuse. It was my first meeting at the Gavel Club, and my entire game plan was to lay low and scope out the situation, clearly that didn’t work out well for me.
My brain was using every IQ point it had to scavenge up a plausible excuse to not speak in front of all those strangers, but I simply couldn’t think of anything that was believable enough. “Akka I’m sorry but I have this lecture I have to attend right now” along with “sorry my mic is not working because I spilled my tea on it” were the best I could come up with.
“Come on Poddo give it a try”, said an ayya encouragingly trying to get me to break my silence. It was an online meeting so at least I didn’t have to show my face, but I still felt like my heart was beating faster than the drums at a rock and roll concert.
“Okay ayya I’ll give it a try” , I whispered back. A part of me was hoping they didn’t hear me and that they would divert their attention to another poor soul to do the public speaking.
“Fantastic Poddo! That’s the spirit!”. Yeah no they definitely heard me. So I braced myself for the task ahead.
“Poddo, the table topic prompt for you today is …” .
And that’s where it all began. I never really expected anything out of Gavel apart from it possibly being a place where I could overcome that feeling of dread and panic whenever I was asked to speak in front of people, but little did I know what was in store.
Green card.
You could say that Gavel started out for me as a place where I hurled myself to every week or so to improve my confidence and speaking. When I first started out, I was always so nervous to attend meetings because the thought of speaking in front of so many strangers was just daunting.
But I found that it got easier with every passing week, and I started to question why this was. Was it because I was a prodigy? … No it couldn’t be that because the only thing I was a prodigy of was providing shade to the people behind me on a sunny day. Okay then … was it because I was a quick learner? Then I realised that it couldn’t be that either because I can’t remember people’s names unless it’s written across their forehead with a whiteboard marker.
Then what was it?
Slowly but surely I got my answer. It was you. The people who made what Gavel is today are people like you. People who never judged when I spaced out mid speech because I didn’t know what to say, people who didn’t laugh when I didn’t understand the prompt and people who always gave me encouragement even if I felt like messed up. That’s what helped me improve to become the best version I possibly could.
Yellow card.
It wasn’t just about us as individuals however, that’s not what Gavel is about. Gavel brought me closer to a group of very special people that I know I will cherish for my entire life. The Gavel Exco of 2023/24. What a fascinating bunch I got myself entangled with. With Gihan and his flare that lights up any room he enters, Nisali with her irresistibly sweet personality who will accept anyone and everyone (she will also offer you cupcakes … lots and lots of cupcakes , so watch your blood sugar levels), to Ritchvick who loves to have “fun fun fun”, we were just a group of people who seemed crazy on paper. If you ever saw us together you would think we were about to set fire to a random building we just entered (this almost happened but that’s a story for another day kids). But we just worked perfectly. They are and forever will be my best friends.
Gavel became a place of moments , a collection of special memories with a bunch of very special people. When I look back at the term we had I can’t help but smile at almost every memory my mind can conjure up. From our first educational meeting, to Nisali and Pawanya dancing for hours on the bus to Jaffna, celebrating Ranulie’s birthday in Galle, making a reunion for all of our senior executive committees, to working with the poddo to achieve our goal of bringing back Speech Master. This year is just filled with memories I will remember forever, and it’s so fitting that we got to end it all by singing “Night Changes” one last time in the twinkling darkness.
Red card.
“Times up poddo, great speech! Okay who would like to go next?” said the akka through the screen.
So I guess my time is up, wow I honestly didn’t even feel it go past.
To my dear exco members, thank you for being my escape whenever things got hard and uncertain. We faced so much adversity throughout our term, but we got through all of it and we did it together. Working with you guys didn’t feel like working at all, it was just so easy and fun it was just like we were hanging out. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you for making this year what it was.
And to my dear poddo, make the most of this amazing opportunity because Gavel is a place where you can find the best version of yourself and make some amazing friends and memories along the way (please make sure those memories don’t include almost burning down any buildings).
So I guess there is nothing left to say except,
It’s your turn.
Exco of 2023/24 signing off.