Just some random ramblings

*tick*tack*tick*tack*

I’m now in my office watching the seconds goes by; students coming in, and going out; my collegue verociously typing his college assignment which is due tomorrow; my boss trying to hit on a lecturer.

*tick*tack*tick*tack*

This time around, a year ago, I will still be in my office, in Public Bank; typing hundreds of letters asking people to settle their loan arrears; wondering where my future lies; rushing to my part time job after office hours; clocking in as much hours as I can to save up money to start college. 

This time around, two years ago, I was in Outward Bound Lumut for the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards; I have just stepped down from my Presidency in the Interact Club in my school; still undecided whether to go for my dream career, forensics; or my first love, law.

*tick*tack*tick*tack*

Fast forward to present day.

The reception area is quiet now, as opposed to half and hour ago. Classes have started for the students. I know, I know; I should be doing my work, not blogging. Hey, when you pay peanuts, you get peanuts. But I give you grade-A peanuts, mind you. In between blogging, I managed to update the LCCI students record, receive payments, issue receipts, take in calls, stick notices, do the time table and bug some students to pay up their fees. Multitasking is my forte. It was, and it still is; thank goodness.

Sometimes, I wish I don’t have to work while studying. I wish I could have more time for myself, like my friends and college mates do. I wish I could join them in UCSI yesterday to cheer for the futsal team who finished runners-up (congrats, guys). I wish I could at least my my little presence felt; no matter how little it was in the “Walk for Justice” in Putrajaya yesterday. 

Nine months into my degree programme; the whole process of reading law was not really what many people would have foreseen. It was neither fun nor exciting; but in truth,  plain boring at times. It is when you apply the law to your daily lives, trying to be more practical in law, and that is when the fun comes in. Well, maybe passive learning is just not my cup of tea. I love doing presentations, projects, speaking, assignments (crazy, yeah). I find it more fun than just sitting there and listening to lecturers.

I listen and I’ll forget; I see and I’ll remember; I do and I’ll learn. Kinesthetic-learner I am. Should have spotted it earlier. When I was younger, I was a naughty girl who can’t keep my hands to myself, often taking apart my brothers’ stuffs. I will use every available papers around me for origamis. I was never the one to sit still for long (unless mum and dad’s there, of course). I speak more than I listen. I draw charts; and my favourite subject in school was Bahasa Melayu because that was the subject where I get to write so many stories; and I wrote so many out of the world stories; aliens, encounter with ghosts, meeting Backstreet Boys, falling off the sky, working with Sherlock Holmes; and the list is endless.

 *The X-files Song*

No…. not sound effect. But just my ring tone.

Ehem. HOOOORAAAY!!! I just received a call from a Rotarian from RC Ampang! We just got our sponsors! (can you see me doing the salsa dance, now?).  I’m hyper, I’m excited. I don’t even know if I can sleep tonight. I see lights in front of me; no… not the one dead people sees. But ray of hope.

My life is just getting more and more exciting. HAH! Watch this space….

  

I can’t think of a title…

I’m virtually running on autopilot now.

Exhausted. Fatigue ~ Physically. Mentally.

It’s hard to describe how I feel right now. I was at a shelter home for abused and neglected children in Cheras this afternoon. Looking at how they were abandoned, it’s hard not to feel that the world seems to have a vengence against these children, and every other children like them.

Yet, when I see them, I feel a sense of hope. These children are like a white sheet of paper, and we are there not to draw and write on their paper, but to teach them to fill that papers with their own colourful drawings, and wonderful words. Cliche, but true.

It will be hard, but we will try to build a long term connection with them, rather than abandon them and move on with our lives after few visits. This is what they need, care and attention, rather than just material goods. It was apparent, because some of them just lighted up and couldn’t stop talking when we started to warm up with them. For us, we are there to give them what we can afford, our time.    

Of Vision and Mission

Someonene asked me, “What is your vision as the President of the Rotaract Club?”, right in front of so many Rotaracters and guests.

I nailed that question. My years as an Interactor really helped me, because I totally did not see that coming. I said, “I want to see a change in the mindset of students in ATC……bla…bla….bla….better person…..help local community……be better leader.” Forgive me,  I spoke for so long about my vision that I don’t really remember much about it now. (after 5 record hours of siesta).

But here I am, thinking hard, “What really is my vision?”. Is it the same with the Five Goals of Rotaract?

1. To develop professional and leadership skills.

2. To emphasize respect for the rights of others, and to promote ethical standards and the dignity of all useful occupations;

3. To provide opportunities for young people to address the needs and concerns of the community and our world;

4. To provide opportunities for working cooperation with sponsoring Rotaract Clubs;

5. To motivate young people for eventual membership in Rotary

Surely, it must be something more than that, isn’t it? Every Rotaract club must have a different vision, because every Rotaract club is unique on its own. What is our club’s vision, then? Is it all that important? Should we, the pioneers of the club formulate the club’s vision?

This brings me to another question. What is the club’s mission? Is mission the same as vision? For me, I do not equate mission with vision. Vision is an idealistic thought. Mission is a realistic thought.

While I admit that I am an idealist above all, in the circumstances our club is in now, formulating our mission, is far more important than vision.

Imagine the club as a new born baby, and we, the pioneers as the baby’s parents. As parents, what mission do you have for yourself, and what vision do you have for your child? Surely, a parent’s mission for their infant must be for he/she to be able to walk, talk, be a responsible, good person and eventually, care for himself/herself, as he/she grew up. That is the realistic view.

Meanwhile, the parents’ may have a multitude of visions for their children such as for their children to be a successful lawyer, a rich businessman, or even a Nobel laureate.

If the parents’ vision is not fulfilled, will the parents be considered as having failed? I depends, because if the child achieve a vision of their own, like being a philantrophic rockstar, the parents have not failed. But if the child ends up on the wrong side of the track, they have failed, and the failure stems directly from their failed mission.   

As such, I feel that our mission is paramount to us now. We are in a limbo now, because we do not have any sponsoring Rotary Club yet, and our status as a Rotaract Club is still “provisional”. That is our mission, to gain our charter, while getting a sponsor depends much on other people, because it is beyond our powers. But as of now, we shall work hard to fulfill the criteria to get a charter. Our vision? I believe it shall come after we have achieved our mission. Until then, I shall keep my vision as the club’s president close to my chest.

~on a side note: It’s 16th September: Happy 44th Birthday to Malaysia! And Happy 44th Merdeka to Sabah and Sarawak~

My First Speech as the President of RAC-ATC

Good morning to Mr Rueben de Rozario, Chief Operating Officer of ATC, PP Mansoor Saat, District Rotaract Coordinator, DRR Dinesh Krishnan, District Rotaract Representative, the District Executive Committee, lecturers, distinguished guests, friends, ladies and gentlemen.

Let me begin by extending a warm welcome to all of you. We celebrate today the official launch of ATC’s own chapter of Rotaract Club and I am delighted to have all of you here with me to celebrate this significant event.

Ladies and gentlemen,

For the benefits of those who have not heard of Rotaract, allow me to give you a brief introduction.

Rotaract is a Rotary-sponsored service club for young men and women ages 18 to 30. Rotaract clubs are usually community-based or university-based and are sponsored by a local Rotary club making them true “partners in service” and key members of the Rotary family.

Through the Rotaract program, young adults not only augment their knowledge and skills, but they also address the physical and social needs of their communities while promoting international understanding and peace through a framework of friendship and service.

Of course, this is rather a simplistic view of Rotaract, because there are more to Rotaract than that. Hence, we are thankful for the presence of Rotaracters from the District Executive Committee to share their experience with us later on during our first interest meeting.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Rotaract will provide a platform for young people like you and me to serve the community, and also learn things that we may not be able to learn within the four walls of the classroom. Rotaract instill the spirit of fellowship, service, and selflessness among its members. All in all, the ideals of Rotaract, as one Rotarian once mentioned to me, are something that will make you a good person. It provides an avenue for holistic learning, and hence, we at the provisional Rotaract Club of ATC, felt that this is THE club. This is the club for us, budding young professionals and leaders of tomorrow. Therefore, we are should be more than thankful to be given the opportunity to be part of Rotaract.

Ladies and gentlemen, 

We would not have been here if it is not for the help and support of certain people. The pro-term committee would like to extend our thanks and appreciation to them.

We would like to thank Mr Rueben for his immense support to our cause, and the college management for approving our application to establish the club.

Mr deepest gratitude goes to PP Mansoor Saat and DRR Dinesh for their swift help and attention. Our thanks also to both of them, together with the District Executive Committee for their presence today to not only grace the event, but also to share with us their immense experience and knowledge about Rotaract.

A special thanks to two of our lecturers.

Mr Lazarus Jansen, the Head of Student Services. He was the first person we approached when we wanted to establish the club. Thank you, sir for taking us seriously.

Mr Saravanan, thank you for your invaluable help and insightful advice and undivided attention to us since day one.

We would also like thank all our lecturers and tutors who have been amazingly supportive to us.

Of course, not to forget, to all of you, members and guests, thank you for your presence today. Your support meant a lot to us. I hope this will not be the last time I’ll be seeing you in a Rotaract event. 

Lastly I would like to personally thank the members of the pro-term committee. Being a leader amongst leaders is no doubt a challenging task, but you have all made it easier for me. Thank you for your trust and I look forward to work with all of you.

Before I end my speech, I would like to share with you an inspiring quote by former Rotary International President, Bhichai Rattakul. He said, and I quote, “I believe we can change the world, one life at a time. No project is too small or insignificant, especially to those it benefits.” We here, at the Provisional Rotaract Club of ATC will live by those words.

Thank you and have a pleasant day.

May I have some coffee please?

The amazing power of human will…. with the help of loads of caffiene, of course.

What am I talking about? I-N-S-O-M-N-I-A.

Phew… 42 hours… That’s the amount of sleep I’ve clocked for the past two weeks. An average of 3 hours everyday. Well, it could have been more, if I include the naps I’ve been taking in between commuting from home to college. I would like to thank McDonalds’ for their amazing nescafe coffee that kept me awake in the morning everyday for the past two weeks. And how could I forget my best friend at night? Lipton Yellow Label Tea. Without you, I would have succumb to the devils of sleep. 

Of course, now that I’m into my second week, I’ve been experiencing some side effects 1) Forgetfulness 2) Lack of concentration 3) Mood swings 4) Further addiction to caffiene.

So, do not try this at home…or anywhere else for this matter. Well, if you are at home 24/7 doing nothing, then it’s okay to get just a 3 hour sleep everyday. But if you’re out and about doing stuffs, you may…i repeat, you may pose a threat to the society, because you are suspectible to emotional outbursts, and recklessness. Gee…. I forgot to add one more side effect : exaggeration. Forgive me for this nonsenseical post.

Well, I better get some sleep now. Tommorow’s a big day for me (see www.rotaract-atc.blogspot.com) *Thud*

Making Changes

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 56 plepoe out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The
phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde
Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the
olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit
pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a
pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by
istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot
slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it ______________________________________________________________

Yes. I’m one of the 56 out of 100 people who can read the above words. It’s amazing how our brain works. Yet, at most times, we fail to utilize the strength of our mind in the best possible manner. More often than not, we choose to think in a linear manner; without looking at all possible angles. We choose to think in a pessimistic manner; often dismissing revolutionary yet radical ideas, because we are terrified of changes, and we are afraid to venture into the unknowns. Well, my fellow humans; stand up and be counted! Be the change that you want to see in the world <Mahatma Gandhi >

You must be wondering why I am blogging about “Making Changes”. Well, the thing is, I’m surrounded by a bunch of outspoken people in my law school, which is not a bad thing, because you can always learn a thing or two from these people. What ticked me off was a few of them are what I would term as “serial complainer”, who criticsize everything about Malaysia.

Typical Malaysian. When would we ever learn to be thankful for what we have, and to strive to make things better if it is not good already, rather than mere trying to decipher the problems in mamak stalls.

Start the change in your own backyard now. That is why my friends and I are setting up a Rotaract Club in our college. No doubt, ATC is excellent academically, but we need an avenue for us to teach us something other than laws; i.e. good governance, citizenship, selflessness, leadership, and above all, to show that anyone is capable of making changes, provided that you have to take the lead and be the change that you want to see.

So people, start making changes today!

  

Revelation

How I miss blogging!

I used to blog in the “user-unfriendly” friendster, taking on serious issues like politics and current world affairs and only blog about myself sparingly. I have since stopped blogging around six months ago. However, there is some unexplained urge inside me today to blog again. This is different, because this time around, it is my heart who is telling me to blog, and not my head. That is why I choose the title “My Three Dimensions”; my thoughts, emotions and actions.

It is probably the strain I’ve been feeling for the past few weeks because of work. College life has been amazing but the condition in my workplace spoilt it all. Or maybe, it’s because of the new blog the Rotaract Club in my college (www.rotaract-atc.blogspot.com), that seems to urge me to blog again. Whatever it is, I’m back, albeit different from before.

No longer am I just engrossed in the state of affairs in the local and international politics, but I shall drag myself back down to earth, take a less serious approach to my blog, and take more consideration of what is happening directly around me, and also about the things I like. It may seems like I am narrowing my thoughts but fret not, the critical side of my thinking is still alive, and it may show up once in a while .

So readers, until next post, sayonara!