Weekend Queries..

Well, this is a post dedicated to one of my friends who's having a dry spell...

So here goes...

When I got thrown out of Secondary School with 11 units in my SPM (Form 5 Public Exams), I had only one thing on my mind. I had to go to college. Or at least get a professional degree.

At that time, the family wasn't in any financial situation to support me for college. And on my shoulders, the burden to support my sisters education when I come out to work.

So I resolved to doing the best deal on offer at that time, A-Levels + LCCI (Accountancy) at RM250 per month.

However, my interests were not anything close to doing accountancy. You can call it the lamentations of a rather good student. I had results to get me into any course that I wanted. Not that I was a top student, but I wasn't really 'mentally challenged'. However, do note that I sucked at physics and math.

My passion and my destiny, I felt, had always been in the English language. I had never had problems with English. The only time that I didn't do well in my English papers was during Primary 2, when I got clumsy (over-confident) to the extent that I over-looked an entire page, thus, a good 20 points not attempted. After that lesson, I had never breached below the 80 points mark. During my Primary School Public Exams, I was the earliest out of the hall. Heck, during the trial exams, I even rushed out to join a practise run for a 'road safety competition'. That was my proudest moment. I finished the trial exam in 15 minutes, and got 1 question wrong. The only guy that beat me in the exam was some dude in the next class who did 100% and up till today, I am still wondering how long did he take to finish the exam.

Well, the good run continued. And I must credit my rather excellent results in English to my Primary School teachers (a Ms. Cindy Leong & Miss Diana Liew). They were the best English teachers in my hometown at their prime! If it were not for them, my language skills wouldn't have been that good. When I reached secondary school, I was this brat that had no respect for the English teachers simply because they couldn't pronounce Tortoise properly.

Well, that was a little bit of background info on how I came to love English.

So, coming back to accountancy, I did it because it was the fastest way to financial independance.

Then fate took a sharp turn. The profesional course was no longer recognised and my father got retrenched. The remuneration package for getting retrenched gave me a chance to get myself into a proper college and thus, jumped at it. Hoping to get a degree in Accounting in 2 years and 8 months via the INTI College Instant Degree (just add water to get instant results).

However, after the first semester in Kota Kinabalu, I came over to the main campus because the lecturers there weren't to my liking. So in hope that I could get better lecturers, I transfered over to Nilai, still doing accountacy.

Then, when the lecturers here weren't also that great, I fell backwards on my grades. The classroom situation wasn't helping either. Because I came into the course during the 2nd Semester, I couldn't breach the friendships/alliances that were already formed since the begining of the course. When it came to group work, I always got stuck with the 'unwanted' classmates. Freaks no-less. I have been passing my exams without understanding a single thing. It was then it struck me that I had no ineterst in accounting at all, and I was doing it because my mom wanted me to, and also because it was the only logical choice. I went into a mini-depression, thinking I was a failure and that I couldn't do anything right. My grades plummeted and the pressure soared.

And it was until I'm on the verge of getting myself a higher-diploma without understanding anything, I found out about something called the "Bachelor in Communications" course on offer at a few colleges. So I went and gathered information, went for counselling with the colleges to see which suited me best. I gathered all the info and presented it to my parents and after much thought, they agreed. I reallty thank God for my mom at this simply because she knew how to treat me like a grown-up instead of telling me off like she would have done when I was 5 years younger.

So I proceeded to joining Monash in its Communications Course. The course was difficult because I met a lot of good students that had so much more exposure and they had a better grasp of the language. It was tough! I had problems gauging how a university education expects of me, and it was the first time that I felt at home, with so many 'fully English speaking' people around me. However difficult it was to adapt culturally and mentally, I went on with it, without missing much classes. Back in INTI, I would miss class for no good reason at all, simply because I couldn't understand what the lessons were about. But in Monash, I was interested! I learned about world history, the media, communication theories, and a little dash of sociology and philosphy. And that opened my mind, and changed my thinking.

I struggled in a few subjects, but at least i still came out of the exams in one piece. And up til today, I still remember a lot of what I learned and I still practise the theories sparringly. Whereas, if you asked me about what I learnt in Accountancy, I could only tell you 'A hard time'...

So...

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Additional Info Posted 3 hours later;

Well, the debate has been "What made me take such a bold step?"

Firstly, I knew that Accountancy was not something that I was intersted in. I was doing it so that I could earn a living and support the family.

Then what about the 'wasted years' in accounting you ask? ~ Well, i don't consider that as wasted, since now I have at least a good foundation in business. I excelled in Costing and now, my mind still takes into consideration a lot of Costing issues when i buy stuff. The understanding of Economics also helps a lot in terms of thinking from a business' point of view.

Well, the really important factor was that I didn't want to do something just because I had no choice. In actual fact, I had a choice. I can choose to go on in Accounting, and end up doing something that I didn't like as a career and end up no where in the end, or I can 'sacrifice' the two years and take up something that I was really interested for the good of my 30 years worth of my career. I would rather 'waste' two years than looking at a dead end for 30-40 years ahead!

so... to its intended recepient of such info, it's your choice.. and yes, as you grow older, you have more to think about...