Half a year has passed...

As the title suggests, this must be the longest period ever that I have not update my blog. Strangely, I had thought that I will be retiring from my blogging passion for good, but I wonder what is it that pulls me back here? Perhaps when the turmoils in life have died down and I finally attain a peace of mind, this is just where I belong..

Anyway, to update my course of life for half of a year (unbelievable isn't it? time just flies) ain't a simple task, so I will keep things as brief as possible, and recall as much as I could.


Life in university?

2nd year 1st semester had gone by. Unfortunately, this semester had been filled with more bad moments than good ones. One wrong decision had shackled me onto weights of commitement that I never anticipated, and I can't turn back but to go on with it. My initiall passion for something that I was interested in had twisted into burdensome and endless tasks that I must fulfilled. Mentally exhausted and on the verge of giving up, I had endured that period of 'hell', and felt that while the end result is satisfying, it is not worthwhile. My academic life had been in jeopardy, and on realistic grounds I am very pessimestic on how my results will be for this semester.

True, I had ample time to prepare for my final exams (in fact, I had the longest study week"s"), but the damage had been done. I just can't pull myself back together and no matter how hard I tried to focus, my heart and soul wasn't there. It was as if I'm physically present in UTP for the whole semester but instead of studying, I had spent all my time doing something else.

To any readers out there, this whole thing may sound like some lame excuse I'm putting up with when I fail to cope with my studies. But should any of you have been in my shoes, you will all understand what I'm trying to explain. Of course, let's pray that no one have to go through the experience I had been through! Nevertheless, this is something that I had filed away in my heart as a valuable lesson, a learning experience and I had moved on with life ever since. Hopefully, next semester will be better! Ok, enough with these sombre stories, let's move on to something more cheerful.


Outward Bound Malaysia Lumut (5th-11th June)

This course is compulsory for all PETRONAS scholars and is carried out after the final exams.

At first, just by the name of it, I had hated it to the core. Enough with it disrupting my one week of holiday, but worst of all I have to be subjected to some sort of military boot camp, crawling in the dirt and doing some other unimaginably torturous and physically demanding activities under the scorching sun?!!

And that's so I thought, until first impression (or my exaggerating imaginations) proved me VERY WRONG.

Upon arriving, I was expecting a burly and mean-looking commander waiting to order us to line up straight and begin shouting commands at us. But instead, we are greeted by a lady who guided us to the hall. The lady was our 'instructor' and soon we are introduced to the other instructors as well. Our batch of 36 people is divided equally into 3 teams assigned to one instructor each.

The rest of the day passed by with the introduction to the camp, briefing on rules and regulations, fillings of many forms, opening ceremony, and at night an indoor group activity. The facilities, especially our hostels, are better than I had expectated. I had initially thought we will be sleeping outdoor the whole time like the previous Induction Camp. Only after the first day, my whole perception had changed. The instructors are engaging and easy to get along with. They are not tyrannical monsters that I first imagined! We were treated like mature adults who are potential leaders, where they put their trust on us to do things by ourselves instead of them doing everything for us. I like this form of mutual respect. I must say my batch of people is the best. We are all sporting and embark together on every activities no matter how tough, and no one cause any disciplinary troubles to the instructors.

The most memorable experience that I will treasure for life there is the whaling and kayak expeditions. For the whaling, it was my first time handling a rough and heavy wooden paddle to row a huge boat with 12 other people inside all the way to an island! The journey took the whole day and we rowed almost non-stop except for lunch break. For kayaking which is conducted on a separate day, we had kayaked for almost 8 hours just to reach our destination.

Looking back on both endeavours, it was just impossible to believe I had managed to accomplish those feats. The sense of achivement really does feel good when I managed to do something that I would at first thought is near impossible. It made me realised some limitations in life that I have always bound myself to are perhaps only mental barriers created by my insecure mind. I am not necessary what I perceived myself to be, because there are many unknown potentials inside me that I have not explored. Who knows, if I really go all out to do something, I might even surprise myself on how far I can go. This OBS experience had taught me this valuable piece of wisdom, and the main reason why the value of this certificate transcends many others. My self-enrichment tale aside, OBS also provided a platform for me to view my friends through a different angle besides the conventional study life in campus. How? Let's just say it allows me to see the best in some people, and the worst of it.

One thing for sure, I was right about the 'scorching sun' part. Even investing in an expensive sunblock fail to save me from the merciless sun rays, which I think so far is the only thing 'tyrannical' in OBS. Needless to say, my body has now two VERY distinctive shades of skin colours. Dead skins are now flaking off from areas of the body that are completely toasted black. That's the only downside of OBS I guess. It's not a big issue really. Unless the remainder of one's holiday consists of plans to travel and meet with many people, anyone should do fine by retreating from the social circle for a while and take their sweet time recovering at home until their skin tone, if ever, restore to normal. :)


June 12 until now

My whole family came to pick me up in campus the day after I was back from OBS. We went to Kelly Castle's for a short while before heading to Cameron Highland. It was our second time being to Cameron. The trip was not as enjoyable as the first perhaps due to the massive traffic congestion caused by the holiday season. Imagine huge tour buses occupying the roads that are already small and winding. It feels like we were back in the city. Despite that, we still enjoyed visiting the pasar malam and the morning market. We bought plenty of strawberries, sweet corns, vegetables, and a few jars of honey. Before heading back to KL, we also visited the Rose Valley that boasts a multitude of flowering plants, especially roses that comes in all kinds of colours.

After the Cameron trip, I was finally back home! So yeah, HOME SWEET HOME! (although I have long settled down). It's gonna be a short semester break for me, because I will heading back to UTP early July. Treasuring every moment of freedom I have. I will try to update more often (didn't I say the same thing last time??) Till then..Happy Holidays!