Entry 55 : The First Year Experience

Hey, there.
Let me start off by saying:

I'M FREE~~!!!


I had my last paper yesterday and with it, my first year in UTM had ended.
It's only been a day after but I've already been reflecting on my experiences in the past 10 months as a Math major.
Boy, it's been a whole lot of mumbo jumbo.
I'll try to put it all out chronologically:

SEPTEMBER 2011
I didn't want my holiday to end.
It'd been 4-5 months of pure gaming experience at home.
So when it finally came down to GAMER MODE: OFF and NERD MODE: ON, I really had to adapt to my other self again.
Registration was on the 4th and we had orientation for a week before classes actually started.
I knew nobody.
I tried to make a few friends and thankfully, they thought I was kind of an okay guy.

Not this guy

After the whole orientation week, we finally started classes.
For a guy like me, in his first semester in a new environment, there is virtually nothing that can distract me from studying.
It happened back in KMJ, where in my first semester, aside from a little bit of mingling and KAKOM, I was practically domesticated in my own room.
No partying, no smoking weed, no getting drunk, not even late night outs.
The factors of my bros out and about and the fact that I was too into studying made my first semester a whole lot easy.

OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2011
I did all my tutorials, I revised all my notes, finished up all my assignments and did all the past year questions.
Yes, I was a full-on nerd, but I liked it.
It gave me a sense of security and unlike some people who fret every time a test comes up, I was ready.
The 3-month void was caused by an undying spirit of learning and wanting to do new things.
I didn't do much new things, though.
I studied and studied and I didn't branch out as much as I one should have.

Well, along the way, I did get to know my classmates more.
There's a lot to talk about them.
Average Malaysians, one Indonesian and a whole bunch of warmth.
I get that we may only have known each other for a short period of time, but I get that these people need more than just socializing to get closer to each other.
It's a lot to handle since I'm one of only two guys in my class, where 30 others are girls.
1:15 ratio is kind of a heavy feat, isn't it?



JANUARY 2012
Finals month.
We only had 3-4 days of study leave before Finals.
I wasn't so worried back then since I'd been studying the whole semester, doing tutorials and revisions every night.
When it came to Finals, I was pretty content with what I'd done during the whole course of the semester so honestly speaking, Finals were okay.
We had about a month of holiday before returning for Semester Two.

FEBRUARY-MAY 2012
Semester Two started a little differently from the previous semester.
There was suddenly a whole lot more things going on.
It was then that our class had decided to plan a Global Outreach Program (GOP) to Melbourne, Australia.
From then on, I'd never stopped thinking of ways to plan events or ways to rake in profit and to help us with everything.
It was a real burden on my back, not that it's a bad thing or anything.
It's just that, with such a big project to think about, I couldn't set my mind straight and for the first few months, I was losing myself in my studies.

The subjects we were taking got a little bit tougher and the nights were filled with either Korean class or even tests.
Classes ended only as early as 4PM and some lasted till 7PM.
There were some times where I couldn't even take a break from things because of so many commitments to attend to.
Then, from GOP branched out things like T-shirt designs, sales, meetings, appointments and the little things that take your time without you realizing it.
I had to keep a physical leash on my mentality because I'd never had to deal with so many things at once.
It was more of a psychological effect that made me a nervy throughout the semester.
Truthfully, I feel like I've just about skinned through everything.
Thank God.

JUNE 2012
And here we are.
My tests weren't as great as my first semester's and my carry marks are just enough to help for an A.
Although, yesterday I found out I already have an A- for Dinamika Malaysia (Malaysian Dynamics), which crushed my dreams of graduating with a 4.00 CPA.
I was devastated.
I still am.

I guess I can look back on everything and maybe say that it was an okay first year.
I'm not an extraordinary person, jumping of buildings or saving people's lives for a living.
I'm just a student, striving to learn as much as possible and put this God given brain to good use.
I've been thinking a lot and after experiencing for the first time, what it was like to actually do more than just study, I feel like I want to do more.
Nothing like more responsibilities or bigger projects, just, maybe take up some other classes or dancing lessons.
Things that are separate from my books and my equations.
Things that used to make me feel more excited than getting straight As in an exam.
There's still 3 more years of my degree and I will further my studies to graduate level.

So, yeah.
That's pretty much a summary of what the first year in degree felt like.
I left out a whole lot of stuff that aren't quite relevant, so maybe that's why it wasn't as long as one might've thought.
Now, it's time to focus on new things.

"Achieve the impossible, make everything possible"

p/s: Can anybody help me out with this?


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