The Amateur Writer

Working definitely changes the dynamics of my life. Gone were the days where I take lazy walks to  the mall, read and review a book or simply look at the falling leaves. Ref.: My life in New Zealand. But I'd be lying if I didn't expect my life to change once I start working. On a plus side, I love my job and I really can't complain despite having 90% of my time dedicated to it. I work full-time 4 times a week and I teach for 2-hours on Fridays. I'm about to start rehearsals on Saturdays so that's another 2-4 hours of my time taken away from my free time.

But how do I split time for myself, family and friends when work is all I do?

 My rationale to leading a balanced life is far from scientific. It is not about dividing equal time for every aspect of your life, it is spending that time at various degrees that you think is enough where you can be satisfied with.

For example, I would think it's enough to spend 30 minutes for myself where I just chillax and read a book whereas 2 hours is enough for me to spend time with my girlfriends. I am happy with that and I can go to bed content.

I really don't think there is a perfect math to this but the initial step must be for you to figure out what is important. Try not to waste your free time on things that you aren't happy with in the first place. Because at the end of the day, the ultimate goal is to be happy.

UPDATE: I've been devouring the Vampire Academy series during breakfast for the past few weeks now and I've reached the last book! Still uncertain as to whether I will be reviewing them because I really don't want to give away the ending. On a different note, I've received my reading list for my Masters from the Head of Programme and oh dearrr, it doesn't look easy.

Last Thursday, I went to my second school visit at SMK Puchong Bt 14. This time I went with Shannon and Adam to visit how Fellows Kugen and Luthfi fare during their last year of the Fellowship. Granted the students this time were not as difficult during my first school visit. This time around, I get to enjoy and relive my high school memories.

This picture was taken in Luthfi's Science class. It's been awhile since I sat in a science lab!




Next we observed Kugen's class where he taught the class how to do Probability.










Ummm, the pictures are out of order but you get the drift. We sat in 3 classes in total and I love it! Although I don't know how Shannon and other Leadership Development Officers (LDOs) do it on a daily basis. School visits take a lot out of you! I was really tired by the time I got back to the office.

Finally an update on what I've been doing so far! Carrying on from my last post, this post should be a picture-ridden post but given what happened to my phone last week...I've got to make do with the little bits floating on the Internet.

Disclaimer: The pictures in this post are not mine. Full credits given to owners of these photos. 

How I ended up interning at Teach For Malaysia was totally uncalled for. After I accepted the Fellowship, I planned to teach part-time or pick up other things while I wait till October. A month into that, I got really really frustrated because I had all these free time. It wasn't good for me and when I was about to reach my boiling point, I got an email from Charlie (my boss). He was just checking how I was doing and long story short, I asked if TFM has any openings for part-timers and HERE I AM NOW!

I'll be honest. Once I said yes to this internship, I felt like climbing back into the hole I came from and just hide. I didn't know what to expect. I was scared. What was really hard for me at the time was adjusting to the idea that I'll be working in an office. I just CAN'T imagine myself working in one because I always imagine myself being outside of the office. Working in the field as they say. Free...Dramatic I know.

Along came my first day and it was...great. Too great. I was quite shocked over how welcoming and nice everyone is. Granted it was a really busy week because the corporate partners from all over the world were visiting but it wasn't as crazy as I thought it would be?

And then I got scared at how nice everything is. I almost didn't believe it. During my first 2 weeks, I was waiting for things to go ugly. Like I was expecting something really bad to happen so then it would fall under my expectations. But it didn't. It kept on getting better and I learned so much!

I get to meet people from all over the world! And make new friends!



























I get to go to universities and speak to people my age. That gives me a sense of comfort because I know that I won't be totally out of the university. The picture below was when I explained the reasons why I joined TFM to students at Monash University.




































I get to do some field work! I learn how to recruit people as this will improve on my ability to convince people. I'm all about acquiring new skillz yo!




























And lastly, I get to go on school visits and observe how other Fellows fare on their Fellowship. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures (refer to phone incident) from my first experience to SMK Tunku Idris Shah. It was truly an eye opening experience. I've had my encounter with underprivileged students before but never in a school setting. That experience made me realize even more on how critical education inequity is in Malaysia. I've made up my mind to go on more school visit so that I am constantly aware of the reality before I start my Fellowship. It was an overwhelming experience but I need to be in that situation constantly so that I have the drive to go that extra mile.

PS: I got accepted into the Shakespeare program at King's College London! I've received my offer letter but right now, I'm working on deferring my entrance. A lot of people seem to think that I'll be leaving this September but no, I'm doing this Fellowship first and then I'll go. :)

For more information on Teach For Malaysia and education inequity, visit: http://www.teachformalaysia.org/

*wipes off cobwebs*

It's been awhile.

Actually I had the intention to write this massive life update, to make up for my previous (somewhat) depressing blogpost. I've been accumulating these weeks' worth of pictures and in a matter of seconds, they're all gone. So you might be thinking where I'm going with this but I've got a story. A lesson more like; for me to share with you.

I consider myself an optimist. I've always been positive on most occasions. I have to thank my time   in New Zealand for that because those 3 years cemented this skill inside me. Give me a bad situation and I can give you a positive perspective on that same bad situation.



Abrupt segue but this brings to my next point: I'm a firm believer in the law of attraction. I believe that the type of energy that you give off will attract the same type of outcomes. Meaning that if I give off positive vibes to the world, good things will naturally happen to me. And Alhamdulillah, things have been well!

Until yesterday...

Story Time!

Last Friday, I got overwhelmed when I found out that I'll be sitting for an interview with King's College next Friday. So much for a relaxing weekend I thought.

I woke up the next day pissed. I went to run on the treadmill pissed. I ate my breakfast pissed. You  get the picture. I wanted to study but things kept on popping up. Fast forward to 1PM, I found myself out of the house, in the car and on my way to a mall. I was getting further away from that day's goal.

My mom treated me to my favourite sushi place, only to get an allergy attack. My throat started to get itchy and I was getting cold sweat. Luckily my mom had some allergy pills on hand so I popped one and moved on.

The highlight of this story happened when we were about to go home. I decided to go last minute and seeing I was again, I put my handbag on the railing behind the toilet bowl, sloppily. My bag toppled over and of all things in my bag, my 3-month old S3 dived into the bowl. If it was a diving competition, my phone would've scored a perfect 10.

The level of anger and frustration that I felt were indescribable. I would've kicked the toilet door and smash the mirrors, if I could! But thank goodness I'm not that kind of angry.

On our way home, the weather was shit. My takeaway mango smoothie leaked in the plastic and it got all disgusting. I decided to go to Samsung Smart Care that night.

The trip to One Utama was another story. For some odd reason, we drove ourselves to Sunway Pyramid only to realize that we got the wrong mall and made our way to OU. Then we kept missing all the exits to the point we found ourselves in Kuala Lumpur. Fast forward to 9PM, I found myself running from One World Hotel to the New Wing. Got to the centre and received a number. There were 10 people before me and once it was my turn, I was off within a minute. They couldn't save my phone and on top of that, I lost ALL data. Apparently I forgot to back it up in my gmail account. The only thing that was intact was my phone number.

One conversation in the car:

Me: Today is a total nightmare. This goes to show that the negative energy you put out to the world will hit you back with full force.

Abah: Yeah la, you always unleash the anger in full force. *imitates me when I'm angry*

Me: Hey!! Cut me some slack! I'm positive 99% of the time but I'm human! I have my days when I just feel...grrrr!

Abah: Well today's mistake is an expensive one...

Me: KO'd

So one thing I learn is to spread out my negative energy. Don't keep them concentrated in one day because that's when you have to deal with a lot of SHIT. Obviously the ideal situation is to not be negative but I am human after all.

Onto something less serious: RECENT BOOK HAUL UPDATE!







Currently I'm just going through the Vampire Academy series. I should be done soon. :)