Growth - Part Two

Dayum, I never wanted to post this picture because of my hair. Seeking for a new hairstyle... And yes, Jonathan Lee, the man I've been talking about since Part 1.
Photo's taken by Beverly, a member of the Press Team.

I'm actually having my finals when this blog post is being published and I didn't want to postpone it for so long because things would get obsolete. Therefore, Part 2 would also be the things that I've learnt during the FairMUN event in which I've participated a week ago.

Remember the sheep analogy I mentioned in the Growth - Part One blog post? Part 2 will be related to it but the learnt lessons are from the new people who came into my life while I was at Fairview International School participating the aforementioned event.

It was the second day of the event and before the day started, I actually had some plans in mind in which I've stated in Dear Diary. It's quite a fun thing to do because you're actually making goals for that particular day and without doubts on my ability, I accomplished all the goals I've set on that particular day. They were:

1. Make friends with Keith and the press team. (Asking them about things in KL, maybe Ampang)
2. Joke around with other people. (Other delegates/admins)
3. Starting from tomorrow, do not show anyone your frown-y face. No one deserves it.

And yes, this is Keith. 15-year-old boy who sounded way mature than his actual age.

Because of this, I've actually made quite a number of friends and they never cease to amaze me with their unique perspective towards the society, the world and so on. They're young, they're smart and they're the wisest group of people I've ever met so far. That's why I'm looking forward to the TayMUN event. I think I've finally found the people whom I'm really comfortable being with.

Of all the lessons I've learnt, here's the summary:

Lesson #1: Taking control of your life.

He looked like a guy I used to know when I was in ma' primary school. All Asian's looked the same I guess, except for me, ugly face still looking for a nice girlfriend. ;)

Well, this lesson was both taught by Jonathan and another young, wise man, Ryan Ten. It was a Saturday morning where all the delegates and the admin staff were arriving at Fairview to get the MUN event going. I thought I was very early that day as the schedule stated that the delegates' arrival would be from 8:30am to 9:00am. I was so shocked when I saw people like Keith, a curly-hair-boy (forgotten his name), some adorable girls and some other familiar faces were already there, earlier than I was. I arrived at 8:25am that day and it seemed like they're not really into the Malaysia culture, or were they? I went straight up to the fifth floor after chit-chatting with some people at the lobby to prepare of what I would quote "A very long day." I saw this girl whom I met during the first day, Mei Fong and we started talking about stuffs and blah blah blah. Ryan was there already during the time we (Mei Fong and I) were chatting. After she left the room, I approached Ryan, of course to make friends/acquaintance so that the both of us would feel less awkward of another's presence.

To describe Ryan, he's (very) introverted, wise, confident, well-mannered, good taste...
We were talking very awkwardly at first and it became better and more comfortable eventually. So, what did this 16-year-old boy teach me in a 15-minute conversation? He taught me to focus on what's important to me, myself and also there's no need to overthink or being too worried about the future. It will turn out the way it would be as of the choices you picked NOW. I love this quote which says:

"Yesterday is HISTORY, tomorrow is a MYSTERY, but today is a GIFT. That is why it is called PRESENT.”

I could relate Ryan's experience and words with the quote mentioned above. And thanks to him (and Jonathan), I'm beginning to steer my life my own way.

Lesson #2: Positivity
I would like to introduce the people who taught me the value of positivity. The first one, undoubtedly, Jonathan. The other 2 people would be Jin and Adam.

Left: Jin and Right: Adam

Jin, a sensitive, intelligent, positive, good looking girl with nerdy glasses. I was feeling kinda bored taking pictures for the event and I even asked if I could sway away for a little while till Socials. I never regret for not leaving. I met Jin first before Adam came up exhausted to the fifth floor. I got to meet Jin thanks to Mei Fong and thanks to Jin, I got to know Adam. I was actually talking to Jin about my upcoming plans in which I did not feel/think that I've got the ability to turn them into realities. I told her that I wouldn't spend another year in TARUC but in the meantime, I was afraid that I'm unable to enroll myself into a better university such as Taylor University or Monash or Sunway under a scholarship provided the diploma certificate from TARUC. Jin was there, telling me that I'll be able to enter any university I want, all I need is to have hope and the enthusiasm that would drive me to achieve my dreams. There are a lot of opportunities out there and what I'll need to do is MAN-UP (at least that's what I interpreted from her messages), pick up the phone and start dialing... She's that kind of girl you'd really love to talk to when you're feeling down/ being emo. She brings positivity to your life and sure as hell would change how you view the world.

Adam, an agnostic Indian guy, fluffy, humorous, smart, open-minded, friendly... He's that kind of boy who's always full of enthusiasm towards life. He's like the Indian version of Huan Lin (a friend of mine I've know from PLKN)/Gabriel Iglesias or the male version of Yaarsh, always cracking jokes others would laugh to their death. He taught me well, basically the same things Jin taught me, except for the coitus part, HAHA (I'm sorry Adam). He also taught me about caring and loving others, which I think his point could be established. The concept of objectivity in which all accounting students might be familiar with, was taught by Adam to me. It's crucial to not get something into your head too quickly and it's even better to be in the third person point of view on every occasion (Jin was there too). I'm very lucky to meet the both of them.

Lesson #3: Friends
As I said in Part 1 that I felt very uncomfortable being with the people in Fairview on the first day because I was being over self-conscious. I thought about how others would think of me before approaching them myself. I was such a dick and I would really like to apologize to those who've suffered from my 'frowny/intimidating' face on the first day of the event. I met

Woman in purple, she's Trish.

1. Thrish (A Malay girl who's really nice, sweet, clever. It's not that ordinary Malays you'd see. Most importantly, she's my BLOG PAL ).

2. Mei Fong, (Chinese-educated girl with a cute voice, an introverted extrovert, young, a little childish?).

3. Ee Ming (Dayuuum, Jonathan's girlfriend and guess what? She's so nice and beautiful and outgoing and clever and smart and funny ugh... I don't know what to say. Even my only sister said she's beautiful AF) Good for you Jonathan, Dan Way's theory's applied. (Didn't have a picture of her, sorry guys. :P)

4. Laurence, a guy I think he looked like Zhin Ming at first glance, a secondary school acquaintance of mine.

5. Kim Tae Hyun, nice Korean guy. South Korean.

6. Xi Wen. Couldn't imagine that he's 17. He speaks like he's 71. Wise man. There are still a lot of things for me to catch up with after speaking Xi Wen. It's nice to befriend him. ;)

7. This is Neshii, she's always there to ask if I'm okay and I feel comfortable talking to her. Thanks Neshii. :D

It's important to surround yourself with the people who'd eventually create your own unique personality. A lot of people asked me if I do have friends? The honest answer would be NO. I would rather classify them as acquaintances. However, after this event, I think I'm able to re-write my friend-list. Thank you people. All of you are great friends/acquaintances and leaders.

That's all for FairMUN. Thank you for spending your time reading. :)

And one more thing, the favourite photo of mine during the event would be this:

One.
Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/30 seconds

Skinny Love by Birdy

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Growth - Part One

I've always loved the city life. It makes me wonder how humanity has come this far and I shouldn't stop to be part of the cog of development in the nation's system.

During the typing of this blog post, I'm at Suria KLCC's Starbucks, to pass time. (The blog post would be long and I really do hope that you could learn from my experience.)

I participated in the FairMUN, an abbreviation for Fairview Model United Nation. It was quite an experience and I would encourage those who'd really like to meet new friends of different backgrounds, participating in the Model United Nation would be a very very good choice.

The moment I stepped into Fairview and began meeting people, I felt so left-out because:

Firstly, I'm the only Penangite there,
Second, I just realized how arrogant I was back in TARUC,
Thirdly, Social Status (international school students, how poor can they be?),
Fourth, Age (most of them were just around 14-16 years old and they sounded so mature),
Fifth, Language (Their accents, tone, pitch, content, all are very mesmerizing)
Sixth, Culture
Seventh, Education System

I felt left-out and awkward at the same time and didn't really make any impressions on the first day. What's best for the day and for my life so far was that we (Jonathan Lee and I) went out for dinner at a mamak about 500 meters from Fairview's entrance. Before that, because I felt so awkward and uncomfortable with the kids around there and I wanted to leave as early as possible, back to my hotel, watch TV, hot drink and so on. I booked a taxi (Grabcar) and the taxi driver had me waited for about 20 minutes before I cancelled the booking. I believe that some things are just meant to be.

So, after that, Jonathan invited me for dinner and we started talking about out pasts and I couldn't stop complimenting him for his change. He looked stupid and short in high school (I'm sorry, Jonathan) and now although still short, he isn't that fluffy anymore. We were there for like an hour. Of course, I'm a fan of learning and I couldn't resist the temptation of mine to learn from him. I asked him a few questions and he answered all of them calmly. I was finally being able to feel less awkward after the conversation with Jonathan. I love the sheep's metaphor he used and I think he's way more mature than me from what he said.

He said,

If I were in your situation, you knew that people from your school were sheep. They would only follow instructions which were given to them. However, if you were to be the shepherd to guide the sheep, it will do no harm to you nor the sheep. They need a leader and this is the time you'll need to rise.

I added the last sentence myself.

And I kinda like 'woke up' from my fantasy of realising how successful I'm gonna be with or without my friends' support and encouragement. I got the wrong idea since the day I knew about stuffs. I was arrogant and ignorant. However, I was fortunate enough to participate in FairMUN. It changed me, from a horrible, ignorant homosapien to a more mature, understanding, considerate human.

What I learnt from Jonathan:
Mindset is very important and the cultural environment of an institution as well. Education is the same throughout the world. You wouldn't say that a toe is a toe in the UK and when it comes to Malaysia, a toe is suddenly a mouth. It's the environment which creates people with different personalities. It's the culture of an education institution that makes its students worth more than just a piece of paper. People would say TARUC's graduates are good and would be very employable, but is that true?

Let me get the facts straight here. I don't know whether people notice about this or not, but I've been living in agony and my mental growth has stopped since the day I got enrolled. Well, in the mean time, I'm still satisfied with my academic result, but I'm not pursuing what I really want. And that makes me very empty inside. Students in TARUC (as of what I could say, aren't really being serious about learning.) Some of my tutors and lecturers said that the aforementioned situation is also very common in other universities. It might be. But the level of being not-so-serious about mental growth is much lower than it is in TARUC. I've seen many students cheat and the invigilators would just turn a blind eye towards the issue because that's none of their business. Students cheat, graduate and ta-da, they know nothing.

I've met people who'd say they've a lot of friends and so on, but I never heard any of them saying "He's better than me and one day I'm gonna surpass him", NO ONE EVER SAID THAT. They tend to stick with the people who'd make them comfortable and instead of growing (mentally), they just stopped growing. I participated in FairMUN because:

1. I wanted to leave Penang alone and see how independent I could be.
2. I wanted to make more friends and HELL YEAH, I made some.
3. I wanted to gain more exposure.
4. I wanted to improve my English-speaking skills.
5. I wanted to leave my comfort zone.

The first time to take the LRT alone and no one's there to help me. I know that I gotta be strong and tough and independent in order to overcome all the obstacles I will be facing. It was a hell of an adventure. And I think I should stop blaming others and myself.

Besides learning from Jonathan that having a right mindset is important, he also taught me that planning what you want is as important as sleep. He started planning for the path he desired when he was 16 and I didn't really take any actions since the day I graduated from Chung Ling High School. He searched for scholarships, he worked very hard on his studies, he participated in many events which led him to this day, as the Secretary General of FairMUN. He went to the US for six months last year under a scholarship and enrolled into Fairview, full scholar as well and since then he changed a lot (physically and mentally). I admire him not because of how he is now, but how he fought his way to the goals he desires.

He also told me that being a mentally-positive person helps him a lot to being a changed man, a better version of him. I was being too pessimistic for the past few months and I know I shouldn't be. It drained the enthusiasm out of me and since then I have done nothing productive until now.

Random picture: It has been 2 days since I've not been caffeinated. Today will be a good day and so will the rest.

I'm that typical Chinese kid who'd always follow what my parents wanted. However, after the event, I started to feel like if I couldn't get any control in my life, then I might as well be doomed. My parents are strict and they always deny the words that come out from my mouth. I guess that's how Chinese parenting works. I resent it. So, in order to keep myself from swaying away from the path I wanted, Jonathan suggested me to get a diary and write down the plans for what I want to do tomorrow. Every day until the day I see myself become a better version of the current me.

Thank you Jonathan, I really do appreciate what you've done.


Sad Song by We The Kings (feat Elena Coats)

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