It's barely a week to the first day at Uni for many new undergrads. This period of time reminds me of my own experience about three to four years ago.
It was a Tuesday when I checked on the Internet and found out that I was "thrown" into a university I never applied for and was offered a course I've never even heard of. It was truly a scary feeling as it felt like a dead end. As I didn't want to burden my family financially (and I also prefer to be independent), I swallowed in all the fear and volunteered to study in the jungle (Yes, my Uni is located exactly in the middle of a jungle and I'm not kidding!) even though I didn't like it...
Back then, we were only given a few days to a week's time to get ready for the grand entry into a tertiary level of education. I bought LOTS of things and I thought it was adequate....but it wasn't enough. I bought more things when I reached there! The night before my first day at Uni was terrible. I couldn't sleep at all. It wasn't about excitement but it was more of mixed feelings. "Can I survive staying far away from my family?" That question rings in the ear over and over again till I dozed off.
Before I knew it, it was time to depart. We left home as early as 5am. Along the way, it was a shocking sight to my parents because they only saw trees, paddy fields, mountains, other cars, more trees, more paddy fields and nothing else. As it was my second time travelling down that road (I had earlier visited this Uni and was also the first one to say "NO, I don't want to study in a jungle" but ironically, I got a place there!), it wasn't that shocking anymore.
When I registered myself at the hostel's office, I had a big culture shock. I thought the Chinese communities at the northern region should be speaking Hokkien and not other languages or dialects, but I was wrong. Having attended a national school (English-Bahasa medium), I was a sucker in Mandarin. I could hardly speak a single word even though I could comprehend simple words. (Currently, I could at least speak a bit...but I still have lots to learn though. Hehe) My first day...in fact, the first week felt like the worst time of my life. I made friends easily with Malay girls but not those from the same race. I didn't know what went wrong but it felt like a place full of racists. You will only see people of the same race together. So, I was obviously an isolated "special" alien when the other Chinese girls saw me with Malay girls. (Disclaimer: Oops, this paragraph is not intended to induce racism among blog readers or belittle any race. This is truly a personal experience and opinion.)
Anyway to cut a long story short, everything eventually went on smoothly. I found a group of close friends comprising both Malays and Chinese. I have friends from other races as well. Initially, I never liked my days at Uni and had always looked forward to going back home but when I was finally in my sixth (final) semester, I secretly hoped that time would stop, at least for a while so that I could enjoy and spend more time at Uni. Unfortunately, when you love something very much, time flies and it was time to say goodbye to Uni.
I have lots of other stories to share about Uni but I'll just stop here for today. Just a piece of advice. Whatever you do, make sure you're doing your best, you enjoy it and most importantly you're happy about it.
It was a Tuesday when I checked on the Internet and found out that I was "thrown" into a university I never applied for and was offered a course I've never even heard of. It was truly a scary feeling as it felt like a dead end. As I didn't want to burden my family financially (and I also prefer to be independent), I swallowed in all the fear and volunteered to study in the jungle (Yes, my Uni is located exactly in the middle of a jungle and I'm not kidding!) even though I didn't like it...
Back then, we were only given a few days to a week's time to get ready for the grand entry into a tertiary level of education. I bought LOTS of things and I thought it was adequate....but it wasn't enough. I bought more things when I reached there! The night before my first day at Uni was terrible. I couldn't sleep at all. It wasn't about excitement but it was more of mixed feelings. "Can I survive staying far away from my family?" That question rings in the ear over and over again till I dozed off.
Before I knew it, it was time to depart. We left home as early as 5am. Along the way, it was a shocking sight to my parents because they only saw trees, paddy fields, mountains, other cars, more trees, more paddy fields and nothing else. As it was my second time travelling down that road (I had earlier visited this Uni and was also the first one to say "NO, I don't want to study in a jungle" but ironically, I got a place there!), it wasn't that shocking anymore.
When I registered myself at the hostel's office, I had a big culture shock. I thought the Chinese communities at the northern region should be speaking Hokkien and not other languages or dialects, but I was wrong. Having attended a national school (English-Bahasa medium), I was a sucker in Mandarin. I could hardly speak a single word even though I could comprehend simple words. (Currently, I could at least speak a bit...but I still have lots to learn though. Hehe) My first day...in fact, the first week felt like the worst time of my life. I made friends easily with Malay girls but not those from the same race. I didn't know what went wrong but it felt like a place full of racists. You will only see people of the same race together. So, I was obviously an isolated "special" alien when the other Chinese girls saw me with Malay girls. (Disclaimer: Oops, this paragraph is not intended to induce racism among blog readers or belittle any race. This is truly a personal experience and opinion.)
Anyway to cut a long story short, everything eventually went on smoothly. I found a group of close friends comprising both Malays and Chinese. I have friends from other races as well. Initially, I never liked my days at Uni and had always looked forward to going back home but when I was finally in my sixth (final) semester, I secretly hoped that time would stop, at least for a while so that I could enjoy and spend more time at Uni. Unfortunately, when you love something very much, time flies and it was time to say goodbye to Uni.
I have lots of other stories to share about Uni but I'll just stop here for today. Just a piece of advice. Whatever you do, make sure you're doing your best, you enjoy it and most importantly you're happy about it.
2 comments:
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