Sometimes it just feels like I'm back to square one.
I have achieved so much this 6 months, more than I think I could, more than I could imagine.
What on earth..?
1. I achieved an average of 3.75 for my CGPA (which is an accomplishment considering the circumstances, darn it!).
2. I joined a Food Science & Technology Competition organised by MIFT, held in Gong Badak, K.,Terengganu. Represented the school as an oral speaker.
3. I joined a multidisciplinary architecture competition, Greentech House (GTH) Competition, co-organised by IBD and UTM, under team TF101. T'was awesome!:) We were the top 11 finalists!
4. I co-emceed a huge event, attended by students from 10 ( I think) other universities, the Invervarsity Biochemistry Seminar.
5. I stepped down from being the Editor for the Bioscience Club.
6. I stepped into the Taylor's University Student Council as the Bioscience representative. Committee member under Campus Relations.
7. I helped out in two events, the Hep A & Hep B event, and HPV Awareness Campaign.
Actually, this list up here isn't even that important; I just wanted to gloat. HAHA, no, just joking. Although maybe..
The point here is that, maybe you think that I have too much time on hand to participate in so many things. The food science competition took about a month's preparation, the architecture one took about 4 months - we stayed back to do the jobs and strived to finish the work. Not to mention that the activities overlapped and I still had my weekly two full reports to hand in, peppered with quizzes, assignments, and what nots. Maybe you think I had nothing else to do, or maybe you think that I just want the attention. It's all not true, whatever your assumptions are.
My main motive was to learn. It was as simple as that. I just wanted to learn; learn from different people. The more people you meet from different background, the more exposure you get about different things, the more character you build. You learn to think with a different perspective, and you tend to judge people less. The things that you learn are yours to keep, and even if you fail, you pick yourself back up, better than ever. Moreover the set of skills you learn from the different places can actually give you an edge in other areas. You'll know what I mean later;)
Just a few things that I want to talk about:
Well, if you don't know, I took up introduction to accounting this sem, just to somewhat open up my horizon in learning. I know that I won'e be able to major in it, and I know that what I was about to learn isn't even close to what accoutants do, but I just wanted some part in it, and I knew I wouldn't be disappointed. I learnt that it's not just about the numbers. It's about the thinking and what makes sense, it's about the time frame, it's about analysis. I hated accounting before this (I had a little taste of in in KH form 3) and I thought I would never go back there, but who knew, I came back to it in uni life.
I joined the Food Science competition during my sem break, and we (Xin Er and I) had about one month duration before the sem started to prepare ourselves, prep with public speaking training sessions with the trainer from the Intellect Department and lecturers as well as some seniors to critic us, and then two weeks of it was used to prepare the 20 topics given to us. The challenge was to prepare a draft for each one and then when we get there, we would only know our topic 10 minutes before the presentation. Any one of the 20 topics, as the topics were repeatable amongst the participants. I learnt so much about presenting, how my hand gestures can be distracting or directing, how the speed of the speech and the flow affects the audience, and how passion can be transmittable through speaking. It's not that I have never known, but practising it made a whole lot of difference it what I know and what I do. Even before I went to Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin in Gong Badak, just standing in front of some people being criticised constructively gave me a braver self and a thicker skin, as well as a chance to improve my confidence and presentation skills. I flew there with my friend, my seniors, my lecturers, and we bonded over that few days. I went there and I was so nervous, I knew I didn't do well. But it's was crazy. The experience was real. Besides, we could meet other people, and see how amazingly hardworking they were, as well as how much more they know. It was an experience that could never be replaced with reading notes or textbooks or journals.
Besides, I also joined the architecture competition..which ran at the same time as the FST competition above. And the boss (leader of the team) told me he was surprised I agreed to meet them in uni at night (during my sem break) for the first and subsequent meetings. There really wasn't a choice actually, they were on their internship and weekends weren't an option either, but I was okay with it and went ahead. The first meeting was awkward for me at least, because it was the first time I met them, and they explained their plan to me very well. I was quiet at first, and I was in awe obviously. I went back and Skyped with Qian Wen, told her about how awesome all that was and even told her the plan and it all was just amazing. They did everything including the site visitation and the plan drawing, and I was there just to prepare them with the scientific back up of things. In the end I was responsible for the aquaponics farm that provided sustainable food production and the heat barrier's plants that could absorb volatile organic compounds and other toxic substances from the air. I also helped them to compile the report using my (amazing) editing skills.
Anyway, what was important was that I learned it was okay to put in a lot of time and hardwork for something that matters. When I say that, I mean to the extent of staying til 11:30pm at night in uni, or overnighting (for them), to perfect the work. I learned that it doesn't necessarily mean that if you spend a lot of time with the same bunch of people you will argue or fight. They spent almost everyday together and they have the most amazing friendship, they even made me feel part of the team, even until now, when the competition is over. How often did I feel that way in a, let's say lab session or assignment group? Hardly, but that's another topic altogether. I also learnt that in a project presentation, it's important to understand your work from different aspects. For example, in the presentation in PWTC, I saw how different judges came to view the work with different criteria/explanation needed. All I thought was, there were only three A2 boards. How were they going to explain things that were off the board? And after that day, I realised that everything was interrelated, and it was important to go back to basics (the principles of the design) before touching on the answer to the questions. It was only a twist, a cleverly thought out twist that was needed to answer the different questions from the jury. I can't emphasise more on how much I have learnt throughout all the different activities I participated, that a normal uni life wouldn't provide. The GTH one definitely had the most impact, whether due to it being the longest duration or the most work or the best team I've ever had :)
ps: They even gave me (read: they suddenly threw me into it) a chance to present my part to one of the 8 judges. I did it quite well I suppose!
If you really want to know why or how I joined this competition which is totally unrelated to what I am studying (Food Science with Nutrition), ask me! It's a fairly simple story anyway haha. Here are some pics:
And in regards to what I said in the first line, back to square one? It is just..some times I forget that I have done so much. Like in square one. My brain cleans up those things I have achieved and allowed self doubt to creep in. And I forget it really isn't what I do that makes me important...my worth is in God. Also, it refers to be coming back to my first love - writing. I immensely missed this part of me. I used to write a lot more. Maybe it was just being involved in a lot of editing the past one and a half year that made me sick of it. I really, really do still love to write.
I have achieved so much this 6 months, more than I think I could, more than I could imagine.
What on earth..?
1. I achieved an average of 3.75 for my CGPA (which is an accomplishment considering the circumstances, darn it!).
2. I joined a Food Science & Technology Competition organised by MIFT, held in Gong Badak, K.,Terengganu. Represented the school as an oral speaker.
3. I joined a multidisciplinary architecture competition, Greentech House (GTH) Competition, co-organised by IBD and UTM, under team TF101. T'was awesome!:) We were the top 11 finalists!
4. I co-emceed a huge event, attended by students from 10 ( I think) other universities, the Invervarsity Biochemistry Seminar.
5. I stepped down from being the Editor for the Bioscience Club.
6. I stepped into the Taylor's University Student Council as the Bioscience representative. Committee member under Campus Relations.
7. I helped out in two events, the Hep A & Hep B event, and HPV Awareness Campaign.
Actually, this list up here isn't even that important; I just wanted to gloat. HAHA, no, just joking. Although maybe..
The point here is that, maybe you think that I have too much time on hand to participate in so many things. The food science competition took about a month's preparation, the architecture one took about 4 months - we stayed back to do the jobs and strived to finish the work. Not to mention that the activities overlapped and I still had my weekly two full reports to hand in, peppered with quizzes, assignments, and what nots. Maybe you think I had nothing else to do, or maybe you think that I just want the attention. It's all not true, whatever your assumptions are.
My main motive was to learn. It was as simple as that. I just wanted to learn; learn from different people. The more people you meet from different background, the more exposure you get about different things, the more character you build. You learn to think with a different perspective, and you tend to judge people less. The things that you learn are yours to keep, and even if you fail, you pick yourself back up, better than ever. Moreover the set of skills you learn from the different places can actually give you an edge in other areas. You'll know what I mean later;)
Just a few things that I want to talk about:
Well, if you don't know, I took up introduction to accounting this sem, just to somewhat open up my horizon in learning. I know that I won'e be able to major in it, and I know that what I was about to learn isn't even close to what accoutants do, but I just wanted some part in it, and I knew I wouldn't be disappointed. I learnt that it's not just about the numbers. It's about the thinking and what makes sense, it's about the time frame, it's about analysis. I hated accounting before this (I had a little taste of in in KH form 3) and I thought I would never go back there, but who knew, I came back to it in uni life.
I joined the Food Science competition during my sem break, and we (Xin Er and I) had about one month duration before the sem started to prepare ourselves, prep with public speaking training sessions with the trainer from the Intellect Department and lecturers as well as some seniors to critic us, and then two weeks of it was used to prepare the 20 topics given to us. The challenge was to prepare a draft for each one and then when we get there, we would only know our topic 10 minutes before the presentation. Any one of the 20 topics, as the topics were repeatable amongst the participants. I learnt so much about presenting, how my hand gestures can be distracting or directing, how the speed of the speech and the flow affects the audience, and how passion can be transmittable through speaking. It's not that I have never known, but practising it made a whole lot of difference it what I know and what I do. Even before I went to Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin in Gong Badak, just standing in front of some people being criticised constructively gave me a braver self and a thicker skin, as well as a chance to improve my confidence and presentation skills. I flew there with my friend, my seniors, my lecturers, and we bonded over that few days. I went there and I was so nervous, I knew I didn't do well. But it's was crazy. The experience was real. Besides, we could meet other people, and see how amazingly hardworking they were, as well as how much more they know. It was an experience that could never be replaced with reading notes or textbooks or journals.
My lecturers (who look like students!!) and fellow teammates. Bet you can't even tell who my lecturers are.
Besides, I also joined the architecture competition..which ran at the same time as the FST competition above. And the boss (leader of the team) told me he was surprised I agreed to meet them in uni at night (during my sem break) for the first and subsequent meetings. There really wasn't a choice actually, they were on their internship and weekends weren't an option either, but I was okay with it and went ahead. The first meeting was awkward for me at least, because it was the first time I met them, and they explained their plan to me very well. I was quiet at first, and I was in awe obviously. I went back and Skyped with Qian Wen, told her about how awesome all that was and even told her the plan and it all was just amazing. They did everything including the site visitation and the plan drawing, and I was there just to prepare them with the scientific back up of things. In the end I was responsible for the aquaponics farm that provided sustainable food production and the heat barrier's plants that could absorb volatile organic compounds and other toxic substances from the air. I also helped them to compile the report using my (amazing) editing skills.
Anyway, what was important was that I learned it was okay to put in a lot of time and hardwork for something that matters. When I say that, I mean to the extent of staying til 11:30pm at night in uni, or overnighting (for them), to perfect the work. I learned that it doesn't necessarily mean that if you spend a lot of time with the same bunch of people you will argue or fight. They spent almost everyday together and they have the most amazing friendship, they even made me feel part of the team, even until now, when the competition is over. How often did I feel that way in a, let's say lab session or assignment group? Hardly, but that's another topic altogether. I also learnt that in a project presentation, it's important to understand your work from different aspects. For example, in the presentation in PWTC, I saw how different judges came to view the work with different criteria/explanation needed. All I thought was, there were only three A2 boards. How were they going to explain things that were off the board? And after that day, I realised that everything was interrelated, and it was important to go back to basics (the principles of the design) before touching on the answer to the questions. It was only a twist, a cleverly thought out twist that was needed to answer the different questions from the jury. I can't emphasise more on how much I have learnt throughout all the different activities I participated, that a normal uni life wouldn't provide. The GTH one definitely had the most impact, whether due to it being the longest duration or the most work or the best team I've ever had :)
ps: They even gave me (read: they suddenly threw me into it) a chance to present my part to one of the 8 judges. I did it quite well I suppose!
If you really want to know why or how I joined this competition which is totally unrelated to what I am studying (Food Science with Nutrition), ask me! It's a fairly simple story anyway haha. Here are some pics:
Here's my awesome team: Deric, Jack, Chern Li, Cheng Hong, me, You Liang. This was us trying to act cool.
And in regards to what I said in the first line, back to square one? It is just..some times I forget that I have done so much. Like in square one. My brain cleans up those things I have achieved and allowed self doubt to creep in. And I forget it really isn't what I do that makes me important...my worth is in God. Also, it refers to be coming back to my first love - writing. I immensely missed this part of me. I used to write a lot more. Maybe it was just being involved in a lot of editing the past one and a half year that made me sick of it. I really, really do still love to write.
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