THROUGH the sea of selfless Asian Youth Games (AYG) volunteers, two girls, Melissa Jaswal and Christel Goh, truly stood out.

The Media and Communication students from Singapore Polytechnic signed up to be volunteers despite having their mid-year examinations to deal with.

'We sort of knew it would clash with our examinations, but it was the first time Singapore was having an event like this, so we wanted to be a part of it,' said Melissa.

But the stress of balancing both volunteering and studying took its toll on them, both mentally and physically.

'Up till now, we're both still exhausted,' said Melissa.

And it's understandable. These girls worked till near midnight at Jalan Besar Stadium despite having exams.

'We could actually have left for home earlier, but we saw a group of overseas journalists still hanging around, so we stayed just in case they needed anything,' said Christel.

To make the best out of the situation, the girls brought their laptops to the stadium so that they could study too.

Christel explained: 'It was difficult to study over there due to all the noise and interruptions, but when you've got an exam the next day, you don't really have a choice.'

And although a few of their friends backed out of being volunteers due to the workload, Melissa and Christel refused to.

'It would be irresponsible for us to back out all of a sudden,' said Melissa.

The girls' journey through volunteerism started when their polytechnic lecturer offered the positions to their cohort.

'We thought helping out in the AYG would look good on our portfolio,' quipped Christel.

Difficult

But they soon found out it was more difficult than they imagined it would be. On top of their designated four working days, they had to attend four briefing sessions prior to the event.

And they even worked on a day when they went to the stadium as spectators.

'We came back after our four working days to watch the football match between Singapore and Thailand, and we found out that the on-site volunteers were short-handed, so we stepped in to help,' said Melissa.

'But we didn't mind, because in the end, we really enjoyed ourselves,' added Christel.

This article was first published in The New Paper.