26 July 2008

First class mentality

I have been absent from the blogosphere for about a week or so due to a heavy workload, maxed out lifestyle and sheer laziness.

All hail KJ, for finally posting.

Anyway, I spent the final hours of my Holydays doing a notice for a coming meeting, which by itself was quite a task for me since I had to design a notice that would stand out among the clutter of creatively-designed club notices. God knows, what sort of divine intervention has inspired Mr Adviser to ask me to design the notice and a form. Obviously, he had failed to consider the fact that the words creativity and KJ are antonyms. Well, I shall not pretend to understand the workings and complexities of a genius's brain. The outcome was nothing great, as expected and I could imagine the adviser's jaw slackened upon seeing my masterpiece. You can't expect much from a person who has completely zero talent in art, y'know.

One thing I have noticed this semester is the first class mentality of my course mates. They are not a boisterous bunch. They are not very sporting, either. However, they have very good sportsmanship. After 3 weeks of holy-days, I reunited with three of them in Marketing Strategy. As always, the top news of the hour was our Semester 1 results.

"You know what, I actually passed my M.R. and I got a distinction for C.B." enthused E, while L was overjoyed with her B for both C.B. and M.R. Another coursemate, C, a Business Admin major got the same results as L. My M.R. partner-in-crime managed 2As and 1B, the B was obviously for Leadership.

"You?" they asked me.

I paused briefly, stunned by their happiness, but bounced back, totally unfazed, and told them mine in my normal tone of voice.

Ah, the spirit of sportsmanship.....

My course mates are settling for two subjects again this semester, thus NOT putting ‘the merrier’ in ‘the more’, unlike ME, the brave one who took that bold step that NO student with raging hormones should ever take- taking 3 core subjects per semester with one subject as a self-study. Reason being that they do not want to stress themselves out. E would rather wait until Semester 2, 2009 (next year) to take Marketing Channels as she does not want to do distance learning since the college refused to open a class.
They aren’t worried about the assignments while I’m already nervous and apprehensive about getting through this semester (maybe because they only have to do 4 while I’ve to do 6). Does it mean that I have this sense of wisdom since my composure, at this stage, is excellent??? Oh yeah, I'm dead pleased with my myself, just the right blend of serious yet charming. LOL yes yes, daddy, self-praise is no praise.
In the midst of the rat race that grips us day by day, my course mates can still find some repose.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good thing. Their ability to have fun and be confident is something to be admired, not to be laughed at. If I had told my parents that I want to take a break from studying, hence delay my graduation, I’d have gotten a cold shoulder in return and I shudder to ponder on the consequences of their wrath. *sigh* Being so relax and care-free is something I have yet to truly grasp.
Looking forward to Olympics! 08.08.08. With three assignments due soon after...so I will have to endure a continuous link of mentally strenuous activities.

If you are still reading my spouting until now, you may think it's some crazy nonsensical spouting or that I'm just digressing since I like to talk round and round in circles and go off tangent -blame that on my inferior girly brain that is prone to 'loso-ism'. But it's not. Positive. You see, the stress escalates each day and I'm trying to suppress it but it manifests itself in my supreme crankiness and tempers towards people who really don't deserve it. So I'm struggling so hard to keep it at bay and try to think what God would do... but oh, my humanity... (and third class mentality).

2 comments:

kEiTh said...

Hi Ka Joy...

Wow, I can see you will have busy schedules ahead of your new semester. Yup, sometimes, I feel uneasy too when I see someone (my colleagues or whoever) can still be so relax and care-free, even though I have to push myself all out, as well as stretching my bones to the limits in order to achieve something. Why? I guess that is what God has planned for to go through all these. People said 'success is not a destination but a journey'. Right? By the way, I have this weird feeling inside of me. I often think that what I had studied in class weren't sufficient to make me a good engineer. Don't know, is it because I am trying to act smart? Or because of my kiasu-ness attitude? I told one of my friends, he replied, " take your time, you have still a long way to go. Don't give yourself too much pressure!" I have came to 3rd year of studies soon, but I still have plenty of areas that I desperately need to improve. I need advice and comment from someone more senior like you. Thanks ya, Ka Joy ... Some of your stories from your blog had given me encouragements and guidelines in life. Yeeeah :)

ChEeRs,
kEiThk :)

kj said...

Keith,

I thought I'm the only one who feels that what I am learning now is inadequate to prepare me to be a successful person in terms of my career!! The same goes for my exam results. My course mates are "overly" satisfied with theirs and were saying that I'm scary cos I said my results were okay when they asked me how was mine.

They say that it's the kiasu attitude in me which causes me to be apprehensive about everything. I'm officially doing my final semester as a n undergraduate. God-willing, I'll be graduating at the end of this year. But each time I engage in a mental sparring session with some of my more communicative lecturers, I can never regurgitate better arguments to sound convincing enough. Instead, I often lay down my amateurish arguments. So I still have a lot of areas that I have to improve on. That is why I'm thankful that my lecturers always encourage us to stop seeing things at face value and to think out of the box.Thus, they are willing to argue with me in hope of making me see the picture from the correct perspective and the application of theories we read at the undergraduate level into practice is truly awakening in the sense that it makes me realise that I'm not at all good as compared them. I still have a lot of areas that I have to improve on.

Cramming three subjects in one semester is quite intensive. So intensive that I sometimes think that it actually defeats the purpose of learning. But reading your posts reminds me that learning involves motivation to investigate, curiosity, and a desire to surpass expectations. Quoting my tourism lecturer last time, "keep asking questions in life as it is a way of continuous learning."... Of course, do not ask stupid questions or our ears will get intense firing from them... Yup, just like you, I've learnt my lesson and survived another Marketing Strategy class last Monday!!! At least, she's pleased with me!! LOL.