Ushering A New Year?

2011 as we know it have gone by just like that for some of us and sometimes we do not even realize any differences in the year before..we still get up daily, we still go to work daily and we even have the same daily routines meeting the same daily people...what has changed? Well for me, a lot has changed comparatively since the start of 2011 to the start of 2012...

2011 did not begin so well for me as I was undergoing a patchy phase in my life. Probably thought me to process of growing up, although I was already 21 at the start of that year...It challenged me to accept the fact that you have to be independent, as everyone has their own problems,dilemmas and challenges to face, and that I should not be so dependent on others to solve my problems. It also showed to me that at times of difficulty, no matter how strong you are, or no matter how timid you are, we all tend to muster up all our courage and faith in GOD during times of peril. QUESTION is WHY only during TIMES OF PERIL? and "WHY do we always say "after this episode, I will pray often and visit holy sites" when we indeed forget this pledge until this whole vicious cycle of BAD TIMES hit us again?...Food for thought as it has been repeatedly occurred not just to me but to people around me..

One more thing that showed up to me in 2011, is that people no matter how nice they can be, when things go wrong, they always don't want to be the ones at fault and time and time again blame the innocent party and make the innocent party the ones at fault in public. This is called "HYPOCRACY" and I do not even understand how these people can be considered "FRIENDS". Maybe that person should reflect and recount if there is either a problem with himself or he should clearly re-define his definition of "FRIEND".

ME(most right) with a few of my friends that matter

Also one more thing I m still struggling to get hold of is my tendency to get angry for no apparent reason sometimes, it is rather disappointing to me as I know if I do not get hold of this anger issue, I will be the one at the losing end of things, as people dislike "loose cannons". This not only applies to me, but also to all you so called "loose cannons" out there, sometimes I think its pretty wise to think and re-access the anger frames that pop out in our minds and question it by saying " do I really need to be angry" in this situation..."maybe I could try to reason it out with this person".....just a suggestion.....

2011 also brought forward to me the greatest lesson so far in my life, the lesson that "nothing is permanent, we are all just living a temporary life, in which anything and everything could be taken away from us". Hence I have learned to be more appreciative of the things I get and the people around me. Many incidents have happened to me in 2011 that proved this point, ranging from valuables to people, who at one point seemed as if they would be a permanent phenomena in my life.

Although 2012 is just beginning, I cannot say what the world holds for me tomorrow, forget the coming months or the so called end of the world on 21/12/2012, but what I can say is that I will try to be a BETTER person than I was the day before..forever learning as the greatest teacher for me is "LIFE".

With this post, I wish all readers a prosperous 2012 ahead, filled with good health, peace and harmony and good luck in ALL your positive undertakings! CHEERS!

LIFE is A RACE, U will LEARN it WHEN YOU ARE THROUGH

Seremban: Introduction

Greetings to all readers, its been 3 months since my last post on this blog of mine, always been wanting to update it for quite a while now, but never found the time, so I am sitting in my room now, on a lovely Sunday evening and creating this post for good time's sake! So here goes!

Since there was nothing special in august, lets skip straight to September. September began with a flurrish as before I knew it, I was getting packed up and leaving my house for a village called Seremban, located 45 minutes away from my house in KL. This lovely village would be the place I spend the next 2 years of my life as this is where i would be doing my clinical school portion of my IMU MBBS programme!

And trust me, for a KL boy like me, who spend 22 years of my life in KL, this was not an easy thing to do, all my friends and family are in KL, the good thing is so far I m staying with my uncle and cousin, which I hope would help me settle in Seremban for at least the next year or so till I venture out on my own to try to be independent.

Darkness surrounds when we leave places of comfort for a foreign place to pursue our dreams

Well, as a new student in Seremban Clinical School, we were given a tour during our orientation week, and had also been exposed to some senior-junior games in attempt to break the ice and make us freshies feel less foreing. :)
Right so after 1 week of briefings and getting to know the place, me and my batch mates(69 of us) were divided into 3 groups: A,B,C which will be assigned to three postings for our first semester: Surgery, Family Medicine and Internal Medicine respectively.

IMU CLINICAL SCHOOL SEREMBAN!

I was quite pleased to be around my close friends as we were grouped in the same subgroup. This i hope would further propel me to getting used to the quiet life of Seremban. My first posting was Family Medicine and for 7 weeks we were assigned to be posted at Klinik Kesihatan Seremban. Will elaborate more in my future posts about the respective postings. After the eye opening 7 weeks of Family Medicine, we had our first mini End-Of-Posting exam(EOP) to content with, and after going through it, I was satisfied with the results I achieved, Thank GOD and hope that it can continue on to my next posting.

Currently, I am 4 weeks into my 2nd posting which is surgery, things are very interesting in this posting as we get exposed to many different cases that force us to apply our theory on a clinical perspectives and also keeps us constantly on our toes as the professors there are relatively strict but excellent lecturers! Such joy to learn from them. Hope it continues for the next 3 weeks to come!

Me as a surgeon wannabe. LOL :)

Besides that, we were also exposed to new criterias of being a student doctor which includes writing case summaries and case reports for patients that we have clerked.. We were also exposed to research project and a CFCS project which I will elaborate more in the coming posts :) And for fun purposes, we medical students keep fit by playing futsal on a regular basis, for me, i play with my macha gang seniors and my batchmates! :)

Me(red united jersey) together with my batchmates after a game of futsal!

I hope you guys enjoy a brief summary of the past 3 months I have had and stay patient for more detailed versions of each event above!

Cheers!

Holidays

Its been 2 months since I completed my pre-clinical studies at IMU,Bukit Jalil, and its also been 2 months that I have been on holidays awaiting my next phase of my medical journey which begins on September 5th 2011. Sometimes I wonder, why do we get so much of holidays?But then again when I am studying, I m always complaining that I dont have much holidays, amazing isnt it how the human nature is, we are never satisfied with what we have, of course it is not always bad to be never satisfied in some areas where we can improve ourselves. Anyhow, here are the things I have been doing during my holidays.....

June 2011

Well,as usual holidays started off brightly with many prospects of road trips, chilling out with buddies, and whole lot of plans going on in my head...instead of those road trips, I got simple activities such as futsal, mamak sessions,more futsal and a mini trip to SEREMBAN... and during these times, I never thought that "hey, this will be he last time i would be seeing some of these people,as they would be flying off soon to their respective PARTNER MEDICAL SCHOOLS", now when they are really gone, I have this sense of regret thinking back of the things that i might have done wrong to them, however I try to forget those harsh moments and instead treasure the GOOD TIMES spent together....

M109 FUTSAL

Good Times During Samuel Birthday!

Some of the lovely people of M109

JULY 2011

July was a rather sombre month, nothing much to do, time was spent doing things such as being an alcoholic,playing DOTA and sleeping..very unhealthy lifestyle. Although on the other hand, I also started trying my hand out in the gym, although for a thin guy like me, people would wonder why the heck am I at a gym when i should be at KFC eating my heart out! HAHA! I also started eating more healthily increasing my intake of vegetables,fish, and cutting down on soft drinks and other junk.

July was also filled with many birthdays, many of my family members and relatives had their birthdays in this month,and they were in quick succession. I was also fortunate to be able to join this group of JULY birthdays as my birthday fell on the 17th of JULY! Wheeeeeeee... The more the merrier eh?

As my birthday fell on a Sunday, Saturday night was the pre-celebrations with friends where we drank the night away and spent time reminiscing of the good times we used to have together.However,Sunday was a different scenario altogether! It was a more rather quiet one beginning with a subtle lunch followed by a surprise dinner for me at EURO DELI! Brilliant food I say! To my surprise,when I got home, there stood the most fantastic sight for a chocolate lover like me, A HUGE BLACK FOREST CAKE sat on the table in the living room bought by my delightful family. All I can is that I m thankful for a blessed birthday surrounded by wishes from my family and friends...

August: 

It is now the 2nd week of August, man does time fly!! August started off with alot of FIFA 10 being played on the PS3 with my neighbourhood friends..We even created a league between ourselves, and let me tell u, it gets so INTENSE! BRILLIANT, gather your popcorn mates, and watch the league unfold..EXCITING :)

Thats all for now, I will try my best to bring you guys more updates soon, thanks for reading!!

Do We Ever Appreciate Ourself?

Yo guys! Been a long time since I updated my blog,and my mind is thinking what do I blog about? So just to spice the brain juices up, I thought, why not post something simple and random? So here goes!

Have u ever taken a look of yourself in the mirror really closely and deeply? What do you see? Are you satisfied at what you see in yourself both internally and physically?No doubt there will be some point of us that needs refining and improvement, as we are all learners in this short transition time, a time,called LIFE! But is there that sense of gratitude, of being given the chance to exist, despite our shortcomings?

Take me for example, I am extremely tall,extremely thin and dont look all that handsome, and yes I once looked in the mirror and thought " God, What Have I Done to Deserve This"?Happens. But then again, I think instead of looking at all the external features of me, I should appreciate that I m in good health, have a nice family,nice friends, m in medical school, etc. So why m I complaining?

Here is another example, take a guy, who is very handsome, decently tall and well built, but he is suffering from hypertension and diabetes, his family is broken and is working a part time job at a communications company. If comparing me to him, I think he has more reason to complain now, doesnt he?

So my point of view here is, as humans, we have this inferior complex or state of insecurity most of the times, but then again, before we start complaining, we should take a look around us and even take a look at ourselves and start appreciating what we got, as others have it worse. This is the challenges each and everyone of us face in our own special way. This is LIFE, enjoy it as it is a great student,and also,cause no one gets out of it ALIVE!

Cheers, till the next time!

Semester 5 of IMU

Hello guys! Sorry for the long absence as I had alot of things on my mind, really tested me mentally,emotionally and spritually in the pass 3 to 4 months, hopefully someday I can share it with you guys, when I am ready. Also, I have been very busy with semester 5, as it is currently not going to plan, let me tell you why.

After 5 Semesters: At IMU BALL 2011

                                      

Well, as we IMU students know, when we reach semester 5, everything should be cast aside and study all the way through so we could pass the deadliest exams in IMU. Well, I dont know whether it is contradictory as when I was in sem 1, people told me that EOS 2 was the toughest exam in IMU. Hmm. Food For thought? Anyhow, I m sorta gonna be sticking to my guns and lead a balanced lifestyle of sports and studies, also catching up on my YOGA(which I have skipped tremendously) and also prayers. This was what I planned to do in Semester 5.




Me Together With My 4x400 Gold Medal Team-mates

             
In the beginning, I was coping with life in semester 5, waking up early, studying till nightfall, keeping up with my notes, then, came track and field training ( one of the therapies to get my mind off things), I knew i needed this form of excercise as a tool to help me deal with my troubles mentioned in the first paragraph. However, it was very taxing indeed as i had to sacrifice not only study period( from 6.45 to 11 pm daily) but also vital energy and sleep that was to keep me going for the vital coming weeks. This carried on for around  8 weeks. At times, I would break down in my room, thinking, wondering if I am doing the right thing, going for training, and countless amounts of time did I want to quit as I was fearful for my studies. Then I realised that, my passion was for medicine and running too, there was this ever burning desire, to study and run at the same time, hence I took measures and initiatives to balance these two taxing events.

In the end of the last 9 weeks, I competed in a track and field meet, called MAPCU on April 16th 2011, I did not know how was I going to fare in the event,eventhough I had worked hard in training. This track and field event was organised HELP COLLEGE and around 9 private university and colleges participated in this meet. As for IMU track team, we were dedicated and worked tireless-ly in training sessions while not forgetting to have fun and build a strong team spirit! We also had a brilliant motivational talk by our Coach's friend, which further sparked the fighting spirit in us young athletes.

At The Mapcu 2011 Track and Field Event

                                        

At last, the day, 16th april arrived, armed with our enormous team spirit and belief in our respective abilities, we took to the track as a TEAM, supporting all our teammates in their events, spur-ring them on not to give up and finish strong. At the end of the meet, IMU emerged champions, emerged champions when we were rated as underdogs. Very fullfilling indeed, for me, as together with all the athletes, we ran a great race and made IMU proud.

IMU TRACK AND FIELD TEAM 2011

                                    
Many people, towards the pivotal EOS 5 examinations would be locked up in their rooms studying and reading so that they can pass their exams and realise their dreams of reaching their respective partner medical school. For me, as I am going to seremban(local) I thought that I would just need a pass and be happy. Then reality set in for me, do I have enough time? Will I be able to pass and make my parents proud? Well, that remains to be seen, for now, I can only continue to strive and work hard while not forgetting to keep faith in the LORD!

As my coach Keney once said, "RUN THROUGH and FINISH STRONG, AS BEFORE THE RACE IS OVER, YOU ARE NOT DEFEATED"

MEDT109: Forever will be in my heart!

                                              
Till the next time.Cheers.

Birthday Promise To A Good Friend

Hello all! Well, referring to the title above, I am dedicating a post to a good friend of mine, Eldwin Oui. Might look/sound gay now doesn't it? Well, not really la, I told him before that instead of giving him a card for his birthday, i would make a post for him, and this was about a month ago. Thus, without further delay, I shall first and foremost wish ELDWIN OUI, a happy 22nd birthday!

                                        The Man Himself- Eldwin Oui

Although I only met Eldwin aka Oui Ting Jie about close to 2 years ago, I think, we have been through quite abit through thick and thin, and he has been great enough to tolerate my attitude all these while. He has also taught me a few values that is worth following, although, I must admit i have not had the time to do so.I also hope we can work on together in our future studies in medical school and hell even when we may be working as doctors by profession may we keep in touch even if i m in Manchester and you in New York! LOL! And may you also continue to discover the wonders of DRINKING!!!

This guy is such a great guy that he would not judge people very easily, but instead give them a chance to voice out their point of view. He is also quite understanding to me given the fact i have FFK-ed him on NUMERAL occasions of road trips, which i hope can be resolved after EOS 5..LOL

Okay, I think I shall end this post, and I sincerely appreciate our friendship bro. Rock on. Cheers

Honesty& Two Faced

I know this is a very controversial topic to be blogged about, and I also know that I m not perfect in relations to the topic being written about, but I guess, this topic has to be brought to attention.

How often do we see people smile in front of us, and go around spreading bad stuff about us? Very common and very often, I cant blame them if the person that they are doing this to is a total jackass. But even then, every jackass deserves a break once in a while, as they are only humans. Humans do make mistakes.

What I cannot take is, people who do this sort of two faced dramas to an innocent person, who is trying his best to fit in to this cruel cruel world nowadays. The poor child may be thinking to himself, that, okay at least that went well, at least I am building some bridges out here. Little does he know, that the very bridge that he so called built, is actually biting him on his naive back. And this will carry on, until one day, the cruel,unacceptable truth resurfaces. How will this poor fellow feel?

In my opinion, he is entitled to feel disheartened or angry or disappointed in this person who carried out this cruel act, as in his eyes, he sincerely tried to be friends, and tried to be there for this monster. How sad, I myself have experienced this time and time again. Be it from close friends or aqquintances and even distant family members, and lets be honest, I'm not perfect either. But it would be nice if people could be honest and tell the person straight to his face, instead of jolly back stabbing him till the point of no return, till this image of the boy is so rotten that even people who dont know him personally have bad reservations bout him. Is this fair?

Thats it for my post today, I just want to also let know, that although I can take this in a not so violent way, there are others out there who would not hesitate to throw punches or hurt these kind of backstabbers. Just a heads up ya for those who carry out these acts..CHEERS!

IMU CUP: OLMYPICS FOR IMU STUDENTS

History
Before I begin yapping away on this somewhat exciting yet controversial topic of IMU CUP, here is a brief history for you guys, as an appetizer, no? Well, firstly, as we all know, all great INSTITUTIONS or NATIONS tend to have their very own major sporting events between between their citizens, we have seen a great example during the GREEK era, where a tremendous worldwide sporting event takes place every 4 years called the OLYMPICS!!!

Well, IMU students, being adventurous and ambitious as they can be, decided not to be left behind in organizing such major sporting events, HENCE, IMU CUP, was born. Firstly, this CUP is a sporting event which involves various sports, 26 to be up to date,including basketball,soccer,badminton, track and field etc. This so called OLYMPICS of IMU takes place in the latter part of the year around the month of september, anually. This OLYMPICS although it does not involve other states or universities, the unique thing about this EVENT is that it is being organised by STUDENTS FOR STUDENTS, which will provide ample opportunities for students not just from the MEDICAL batches but also from the HEALTH SCIENCES to forge friendships, teamwork, and unity, which for me is very awesome.

At first, this event was planned in such a way, that batches go against other batches as in just say A was from medical batch intake february 09, he would have to go up against all the other batches in the university, which mind you, is a little complicated process. And the eventual winners would most probably come from a more senior batch as they have more exposure to one another for a long period of time. However, this was about to change, IMU students, decided to be more creative, and in the SUMMER of 2009, they came up with a HOUSE system. This house system basically revolves around 6 houses,where by each house was given a colour, and a CAPTAIN from each house was to be elected. After this, students from various batches,irrespective of age,race or religion were placed randomly in each of the houses, providing more social contact between students.

Given below are the colours and names of the houses derived from these colours:
1. BLUE- DRACO
2. BLACK-TAURUS
3. GREEN-HYDRA
4. ORANGE-GRIFFIN
5. WHITE- PEGASUS
6. RED-PHOENIX

After all the 26 sports are evenly and fairly battled out, the accumulation of points won in each particular event would be summed up to determine the CHAMPION HOUSE.

                               The Prestigious IMU CUP TROPHY!

1st IMU CUP 2009- NEW EXPERIENCE

Okay, I think you guys must be bored reading a rather boring history of this cup. Now here, comes the fun part, IMU CUP through a student's point of view.

Well, when I was in semester 1, I was too caught up in the hype of making new friends,adjusting to campus life, when suddenly, I realised, I was in a room, MPH 2, full of people grouped together in a house, THE TAURUS HOUSE. Man, I tell you, I was so confused, people were so enthusiastic in there, filled with laughter and at the same time remain focused on the task presented to them that very day, the troublesome task of electing a CORE HOUSE COMMITTEE. Our beloved Captain that day, Mr AMOS, delegated the proceedings and together with a talented vice captain TAN JIA WEI, they elected a core committee.Amazingly, I somehow managed to become the BATCH REP for my BATCH. Stunned. Although till today, I still dont know what I was supposed to do..LOL..Next came the election for captains for a particular sport, and also a chance for new superstars to emerge just by writing down their names in the sport of their choice, who knows, we find a new USAIN BOLT asian style runner in store! After all these proceedings, speeches and thankfulness for all members showing up, the meeting ended at about 7 pm that day.

If you think this was hectic, man I tell u, juggling medical studies and sports is also very hectic man. Let me explain why, try studying your socks off to make your parents proud and at the same time muster up some adrenaline to sprint, kick a ball or smash a shuttlecock, terrible after effects after taking your shower! And this did not go on just for one day or one week, it went on for a monster styled 6 weeks!! And the most amazing part of it, the students of IMU really showed alot of enthusiasm,sportsmanship(to be discussed more later),talent and never say die attitude. It was fantastic to see so much passion and patriotism displayed by these students or athletes to contribute to their house overall IMU CUP standings. I too decided to do my part and participated in 5 sports, yielding 4 medals.

Eventually, after 6 weeks of slogging,adrenaline draining action, IMU CUP came to an end with HYDRA emerging as the very much deserving OVERALL CHAMPIONS! Taurus, however, finished a decent 4th place.

  

                                  
                     Some of the  Fond Memories of IMU cup 2009

IMU CUP 2010- VETERAN

Its amazing how one year passes on so fast that we do not even realize as we so often then not get caught up lost in our own world. Before I knew it, it was mid-year 2010, and elections for the new TAURUS committee were nearing, so, as it was my last IMU CUP before I leave to clinical school, I decided to do something special and ran for vice-captain of TAURUS. Although, before hand, I had to run against my good friend, ELDWIN OUI, he pulled out as he felt I would have done a better job. But truth be told, it would not have mattered as I felt both of us would have done fantastically as we both showed the enthusiasm and passion towards TAURUS! And, after asking a few friends, it would be evident that if ELDWIN ran for the post, he would have won, as he was the more popular one.HAHA. So hence, after all these hype of a drama, I was elected as vice captain, bearing in mind that I had a lot of responsibilities and pledges that I had to live up to. I also was excited by the passion and commitment of the TAURUS members be it old or new to turn up for the elections that day, and was equally delighted to be given this chance to serve under our beloved CAPTAIN TAN JIA WEI, aka,BOB!

As usual, things started to get really busy, but this time around, me and Jia Wei had to work double time to ensure things were running smoothly in terms of checking up on various sports recruitments, ensuring the new
house members received their shirts, and also displaying leadership and inspiration along the way. Apart from that, we also played our part in supporting and urging other houses to participate and get away from the hectic study life and be active! Besides training and supervising all the various training sessions, I also took time to have personal training sessions with DRACO captain SAM YE HAN, my good chinese friend. During these sessions, we would discuss about how the house is doing, how to remain humble, gossips etc. Good times indeed!

As the first weeks passed by,Taurus members displayed tremendous fighting spirit, sportsmanship and passion for all the sports they participated in despite being underdogs in some sports, and this turned out to be a key turning point as more often then not, they outdid themselves, which was amazing to see and talk about whenever me or Jia Wei turned up at every single event. Without fail, after that sport event ended, both of us would come to a conclusion that once again, we have tremendous sporting house members! Cheers to that. Apart from that, comes the huge dilemma of winning or losing. Nowadays, people mostly want to win all the things they participate in, but lets face the facts k mates, they can only be one winner or one loser at the end of the day, and for me, it does not matter what position you come in, what makes a winner is that he knows he has given his upmost best, has no regrets and remains humble even though he has won or lost. There are also this bunch of less fortunate people called "sore losers" who cannot accept the fact that others are better than them and will often than not blame other people but themselves, they also use various methods to influence referees by taunting them,raising their voice and such, when these so called referees are their fellow colleagues and friends. Sigh.Shocking. All these drama spices up the IMU cup. HAHA!

Anyhow, as the weeks passed by, Taurus, began collecting medals, and although we realistically not looking to win top spot in IMU cup, things were looking decent and by the end of the 5th week of sports, we managed to amass 19 medals from 26 sports with a total of 8 gold,8 silver and 3 bronze. It was evident that we, TAURUS would be crowned champions regardless of the final big event CHEERLEADING. However, things did not go down well with one of the house competing with us, as they figured they were better than us and they deserved to win. Here, they have forgotten the very fact IMU cup was held, is that was to HAVE FUN, KEEP FIT, and BUILD FRIENDSHIPS! Following this, they tried their very best to derail us from winning the IMU CUP using methods that I rather not say.

Hence, on monday, 11th OCTOBER 2010, following all the hardships, all the sweat and tears, all the time and effort put in, TAURUS were crowned champions of the 2nd edition of the IMU CUP! Cheers to that! As our captain Jia Wei puts it, the victory was a team effort and this victory belongs to all taurus members! Be proud!

 

From Top: Jia Wei(Captain) and Amanda!

followed by Sam Ye Han and Sandip Singh( Ex-Draco Captains)

VERDICT/REFLECTIONS

As a whole, I felt the IMU cup experience was beneficial to me, as I got to challenge my self in many different aspects, namely time management, pushing myself to the limits, leadership capabilities, test of commitment etc. It also gave me an opportunity to see how I would cope under pressure, and to be honest, I performed not too bad, although at times tensions did escalate a bit, namely during soccer, and hence I take this opportunity to apologise to Wei Rong again, Taurus Soccer Captain. Cheers buddy. :)

I also managed to witness a lot of new talent being shown during the course of both IMU cups, this was also followed by emergence of STAR MEN in various different sports, and this was simply brilliant, as it proved to me, that those so called people who appear as nerds or those smart people also have sporting capabilities. Most importantly though, I would like to see this tradition of IMU cup be carried on as long as IMU is there standing, and I also urge the new juniors to engage in sports too despite obligations to study, as a HEALTHY BODY promotes A FRESH MIND! Lastly, I also urge people to portray some sportsmanship during games and even after games, be a man and accept that there might be an athlete/player that is better than you. I am sure it is hard, it was hard for me, but trust me, u will be a much more happier person once u realize this..

                                Jia Wei Lifting The IMU CUP TROPHY!

CHEERS!

*DISCLAIMER* The post above was posted on a personal point of view, it is not meant to offend any parties involved. If it did offend anyone, I would like to apologize before hand. CHEERS!

2011

Hey guys, this is just the skeleton of my next post entitled 2011, but here goes.

As 2010 came to an end, i realized a few things that I have to improve in the coming year,2011, and they are as listed below:
1. Drinking Habits
2. Passion To Run
3. Prayers and God
4. Medical studies
5.Emotions
6. Girls

In 2010, I realized that I have not been drinking as often as I may have liked, and, I feel it has affected me in terms of my energy levels and also my stress levels. Without this social lubricant called alcohol, I realized that i tend to be more serious, cannot have fun and be the less joker self I used to be. This really is not helpful. Hence in 2011, I hope to have a bottle of alcohol with me just in case I need to drown some sorrows.

Also in 2010, despite performing well in MAPCU and IMU cup, I have found that towards the latter stage of the year, my desire to RUN has deminished and I no longer have this capability to complete a route course that I had set out to run. This has really disappointed me and has made me question myself, what has happened to me? Am I less capable? Am I old? But no, I just realize that it requires more discipline and passion to train myself again as we are not robots, we do get unfit, we do get tired. Hence in 2011, I will try my level best to maintain my fitness again to better days on the RUNNING scene.

Prayers is one thing I have not been consistent with, although I do repeat and cite some holy phrases daily/weekly I feel it is not enough, as, we must show respect to the GREAT LORD, WHO is capable of giving and taking all of our pains or happiness. I,now,GOD WILLING, pledge to keep the LORD in my mind through prayers in 2011.

Grades in medical school, although I am not complaining,in fact, I am grateful of being an average student, my parents keep on urging me to do better as they feel and often tell me that I have the brains and capabilities to do so if I put all my effort into this course. So, to make them feel better and happy and also to prove to myself that I also can succeed in achieving greater heights, I would like to take up this challenge and work hard for not only EOS 5 but also throughout my medical career ahead, as it is a TOUGH world out there! GOD willing it will pay off!

Emotions is another issue I would like to improve on in 2011. I as a person, is terrible at controlling my emotions and tend to get over-excited or over-angry over small issues, although I realize it will be difficult to achieve changes in a short duration, I have decided I would begin this change in 2011 and hopefully I can be more rationale and think before i react to criticism, compliments and even difficult situations.

Last but not least, I would also like to improve on the girls front, I have not been too lucky with the girls as I do not know how to treat a girl properly as a girl, I tend to treat them as a guy, So hopefully in 2011, I can learn to play the game, and who knows where it will lead me to.Also i would like to put on some weight to go with my lanky body. LOL

As a whole, in 2011, I would like to improve as a person physically,mentally, spiritually and emotionally with good health along the way for me,my family and friends. 3 cheers to that!

Drinking

Hello guys, well, after 2 consecutive posts about my IMU life, I have decided to put in a totally random short post, this time its about DRINKING...No, not drinking water, but drinking ALCOHOL,or SPIRIT or some even call it SOCIAL LUBRICANT.

There are many types of Alcohol consumed by the modern day community, ranging from the featherweight beer to the hardcore drinks like whisky or flaming lambo. I personally dont like beer as it makes u feel bloated, and being Indian, I like to go for the heavyweights of the alcohol world and give my hand a go at vodka,whisky and my favourite LONG ISLAND ICE TEA...which is simply superb.

Jack Daniels: One of my favourites!

Unfortunately, ever since I joined IMU, my drinking habits have been limited, as, whenever I try to ask my friends to drink, they will give me this look and say "think about your liver" or "nah, drinking will make me fat or make me want to throw up". I guess they are indirectly trying to say that they are poor drinkers la, because most of them are chinese and from a medical supportive background,its proven that they are poor in alcohol consumption and metabolism. But kudos to those who are willing to drink man, cause I tell you,drinking with my chinese friends is so hilarious, mainly because they turn red on their faces and having patches of redness on various different parts of their bodies.HAHA!

Also, I love their attitude in drinking too man, they are willing to make it as fun as possible in drinking games, not afraid to try out new things, to be honest, sometimes I get scared myself at the rate they are downing their glass of liquor. One time, I had this one friend, who was saying some hilarious things while continously denying he was high/drunk. If I remember correctly, he was saying "I'm Japanese" when actually he was a chinese fellow who couldnt be more chinese if he tried..HAHA! Good times indeed.

One more thing I love bout the nature of alcohol is that, its natural ability to be a SOCIAL LUBRICANT, I say this based on two things, firstly, it helps one drown their sorrows,albeit in an unhealthy way, but at least it helps to put a smile on their faces. Secondly, alcohol is great at bringing people together, till some people says "when you have alcohol, even your enemies become your friends" how superb is that man, setting aside our differences to have some good times. Awesome.

                     Back In The Day When I Still went Clubbing

Before I end this post, I would like to say, "do not drink to show off that you are capable at drinking, instead, try to enjoy your drink,the company of your friends and savour the moment of those good times" as this will lead u to an enjoyable drinking experience with less vommiting or hangover side effects. CHEERS!!

For Them Strong Drinkers Who Are Afraid of Hangovers!

*disclaimer* this post was posted out of goodwill and was not meant to offend anyone.cheers.

Next up: Life in IMU: 2nd year & Wake-boarding!!!

IMU 1st year: Part 2

Well, after the jolly good semester 1,and passing summatives 1..up stepped the dreaded semester 2....

If I remember correctly,all my seniors who had passed their EOS(End of semester) 2 exams,they were like study hard, dont play the fool,and watch your timing during the exams. And after semester 1,not so pleased with my results and attitude, I decided to give it a try to study my socks off to try and passed this famed EOS 2 papers.

Although I planned to study hardcore, I also knew that balance is important between studying and keeping fit and having fun. So I decided to also take part in the orientation, this time as a junior MACHA and an Orientation officer. As an OO, Me and my group 11 mates were assigned to another group 11, CHill... These guys, I tell u, were rockstars in their own way la dei, there were the jokers,the smarty pants, the pretty ones, the gangster looking ones etc. But then again, they all blended well with each other and its pleasing to see that they still stick around together as a group even after 3 semesters has passed. I also played the role as a MACHA, trying to scare juniors,asking them to remember my name,asking them to perform tasks, and even putting on a stern face just to scare them.GOOD TIMES indeed. As it was, orientation was orientation, same events, different management, different characters and different personalities and drama. Good fun indeed, participating with juniors, be it in sketches or going on dirty outdoor treasure hunt expeditions..HAHA!

Various photos with CHILL

After the hectic schedule of orientation, there came the FAMED IMU CUP! Where 6 different houses go head to head in various sports to determine the eventual overall winner. The 5 houses were draco,taurus,hydra,phoenix,pegasus and griffin,each led by their very own house captain. I was fortunate enough to be put into TAURUS: the BULL. I decided to contribute to my house not really looking at the OVERALL points tally, and ended up participating in various sports that included soccer,futsal,track&field,road relay,dota etc, and was fortunate to end up with 5 medals. Eventually after about 6 weeks of IMU cup 2009, HYDRA emerged as well deserved champions, sweeping most of the sports on offer.Kudos to that mates. But for me, IMU cup is not about who wins or loses, its about building friendships,urging people to participate,showing sportsmanship, and most importantly HAVING FUN doing SPORTS!

                                     IMU CUP 2009: Taurus

There you go, Im sure you are wondering what happened to the study part right? Well, truth be told, it was fun juggling between sports and studies. I remember waking up as early as 8 am, studying till 2 pm, taking lunch, study abit more, then the adrenaline(hormone) came, could not help it, so went back home and got ready for IMU cup action.Also, together with a few lovely and smart friends,we also took time off to ask each other questions,in a view that it might spur them on more to study and make their parents proud.

Then,came the MESSED UP part of things, my brother's graduation in AUSTRALIA, no doubt I wanted to go so badly to a new country, as we dont get such good opportunites to explore new places right? But there was also this sense of guilt of the studies,bearing in mind it was already end of october, and EOS 2 was just 3-4 weeks away. Armed with my parents encouragement, I managed to mentally keep myself content and bring over about 20 notes of semester 2 to study while on the plane or during free time. Australia on a lighter note is such a lovely place,with nice temperature,although it could be chilly cold when the wind blows and messed up-ly hot on bright sunny days..haha..reminds me of malaysia..After bout 5 days of sight-seeing, suiting up for graduation,visiting casinos,winning some money, We boarded the plane back to KL, I was quite pleased that those MESSED up notes of mine kept ringing in my head after I managed to read them.HAHA!

The australia trip was followed by 3 weeks of intensed studying, for 2 exams, firstly summatives 2,which thank god i managed to do well.A good confidence builder before a harrowing trip to the EOS 2 examination. After summatives 2 however, there was a big rush for cramping in the whole of semester 1 notes together with semester 2 notes. DEADLY EH?After hardcoring for the next 2 weeks, taking some NASTY BRANDS CHICKEN SOUP didnt taste so bad, after all its for your BRAINS right? Okay then, off to our first major exam, EOS 2 which included SAQ(24 questions in 1 hour and 20 minutes)so its like 5 minutes per question.How awesome was that? Then came the OBA(thank god for this paper,calms the nerves down by offering a glimmer of hope,haha!).Unfortunately, the next day brought upon the CHIEF VILLAGER, OSPE! This messedu up fellow contained 24 stations of models and pictures with a time of 5 minutes allocated for each station..AWESOME! So after struggling for 2 days of exams, EOS 2 was done and dusted, all us VILLAGERS could hope for was to pass this gruesome exam.HAHA!

After one week of living in fear, we went to collect our results, and a vast majority of my batch passed this exam but unfortunately yiedling 50 failures who had to RE-SIT EOS 2.

                Rejoicing together as SEXIEST and also AFTER EOS 2!

Hence ended YEAR 1 in IMU and as YEAR 2 beckons, I bid u guys farewell,dont be sad though, as the adventures will continue in the next post.Till then.SAWADIKAP! 

On the road to being a senior!

IMU 1st year: PART 1

Hey guys, sorry for the absence yeah, was taking a breather at my wonderful house,enjoying some joyous home cooked food. Nothing like home eh? Okay then, moving on the this next post which will tell you guys bits and pieces of my first year at IMU. And so, the journey begins.

As a freshman at any university, we were supposed to undergo 2 weeks of orientation, and being such a noob at that time,I just took everything that came to me with such enthusiasm. Some times too much i would say,but hey,not always do we get to re-live these types of moments right? So there we were, attending briefings,the oath taking ceremony, taking our 1st batch photo, and meeting new people, not to mention getting our forms sorted out for Life at IMU. After the first 2 days of settling in, we were divided into 14 orientation groups. I so happened to be placed in group 11. To be honest, when I first walked into that very room assigned for group 11, I thought to myself, "what have you gotten yourself into la, tej?". However I was to be greatly mistaken. Firstly we introduced ourselves, had a mini ice-breaking session, and then came the serious part:
1) naming the group
2) electing a leader
3) electing an IMSS

4) electing the treasurer

                                  FIRST GROUP MEETING OF IMU BOOT CAMP

As non of us were daring enough to take the leader role, upstood ELDWIN OUI, the boy from seremban XD. And from then on,things became much more smooth, of course with the help of our delightful OO's yi wen,aku,joash and the rest of the crew. Next came the naming session, after much debate and suggestions of crazy names, we came out with a cool and catchy name and hence SEXIEST! was born!Joyce chieng got elected as treasurer whilst DIANA CHELSEA was IMSS. However, just as I was getting to know my group mates better, I was suddenly called out by this INDIAN(MACHA) SENIOR, he was so fierce at the time. I thought to myself, "TEJ, YOU ARE OVER LA". And my thoughts did me no wrong, as soon as i stepped out of the room, I was pushed against the wall, and asked many questions in a awesomely harsh manner which I thought was COOL. Some of the questions that I was being asked was "WHY ARE YOU SMILING?" or "WHY IS YOUR SHOELACES UNTIED?"

Throughout the next 2 weeks, we(INDIAN JUNIORS) were being put to the test by these fierce looking MACHA GANG, although they were very scary at first, I took all the bullcrap that they threw at me by forever smiling. Till they got so fed up, that they actually told me, "DEI, YOU ARE A CLOWN LA, but WE LIKE YOU, thats the RIGHT ATTITUDE". This made me feel glad deep down. We were forced to remember their names, some of them the names were too long, I swear I dont know how people could come up with such strong long winded INDIAN names.AMAZING. I remember at one point, I was made to sit under the table and make animal noises..HILARIOUS!We were also made to do random stuffs such as push-ups,sit ups,proposing to girls,shaving our beards etc. But the most important point I would like to make here is, although the MACHA gang treated us like garbage sometimes, It was their way of lightening or spicing up the orientation, It was their way of getting close to us. People come up to me and say, its a shame that macha gang is being banned in IMU and they want the MACHAS to continue going, when these very same people complained about us. I find this amazing.
It is even more amazing to see how these so called "SCARY" or "GANGSTER" looking bunch of people actually turn out to be one of the most friendly and helpful people I have met in IMU. They would call us out for futsal, makan sessions, DRINKING sessions and would offer advice in exams. Some of the people I would never forget are tharveen nair,lakshen palaniappan,ashwath,sanjay dev,vivek mahalingam and the rest of the crew. Thanks guys.

Moving back to the orientation after a sidetrack, right, after watching me being ravaged by the MACHAS, my group members felt bad for me. But I always said its fun and gave them that re-assuring smile. As a group, SEXIEST bonded amazingly fast, we had gifted people with various personalities and somehow, we gelled together. I was watching the DRESS CODE 1 video the other day which was MADAGASCAR, It was still hilarious, and I remember how much we slogged with each other preparing it, all the jokes, all the sweat put into it was worth it as the crowd was ENTERTAINED by US. Next came DRESS CODE 2, another awesome assignment on our hands which helped bond us even more together. We were given the assignment of BECKHAM and VICTORIA stucked in AFRICA.HAHA! I still remember RAKIB UDDIN and JOYCE CHIENG as the BECKHAM COUPLE!!! This turned out to be another superb performance by us. Finally, variety night came about, and after doing our performances along the lines of jokes and drama, we decided to give the crowd something different.A very own SEXIEST PRODUCTION! Our OOs came out with a SONG from them to us juniors and we decided to turn it into our next play. Joash played the piano. This song was so sentimental that it touched the crowd. Oh yea, before i forget, OUR AMAZING DIANA,  our IMSS!! This girl put on a SUPERB show based on our group solo performance theme TERMINATOR. AWESOME!

                                               Me and Wei Hoong: MALMON THE GIRAFFE!

                            MADAGASCAR CREW FOR DRESS CODE 1!                 

Alright then, aside from all the hardwork of putting together plays,acts and performances,we juniors were also given some fun and dirty activities to do. These included indoor and outdoor treasure hunts, telematch and ice breakers. I realise that elaborating on each will make this post superbly long. So I would just come straight to the point of these activities, I think these activities were planned to test the juniors on various things such as teamwork,perserverance, trust, and most importantly bridging the gap between members of a group, friendships that would last not only till the end of orientation but also throughout the IMU journey.

                                   AFTER INDOOR TREASURE HUNT

                                 AT AJIMAL MAMAK

Finally, came the  end of orienation, THE FINALE night, now, the theme of that NIGHT was the 70's NIGHT, so I got into the groove of it and decided to come as THE PIMP, after dining and meeting with friends and taking various photographs and watching videos, it came the time for awards ceremony, first up was the best dressed COUPLE of the night. EACH group were to have sent 2 people, male and female to do a CAT WALK, I partnered JOYCE. Next thing I knew was that I had been selected as BEST DRESS. HOORAY. But could not have done it without my teammates. AND FINALLY, the moment we been waiting for, the best ORIENTATION group of IMU BOOT CAMP, WAS..non other..THAN SEXIEST! I felt it was well deserved on our part but we also had to aknowledge the effort other groups put in as well. Three cheers to that.

                                            FINALE NIGHT WITH HAMPER

                                            TEJVINDER THE PIMP
                                                     

This sums up the first part of my post. But before that, would like to aknowledge the crew of SEXIEST:
Eldwin,wei hoong, joyce,rakib,evonne,mae yee,sofiah,lip hong,tejvinder,teegeena,jolene,jeffrey,derrick,lee wun,zeng and the rest.
not forgetting the OOs: aku, yi wen,joash,meshell,li teng,pam,yih ren,joanne,sook chieng and the rest.

Oh before I end, I would like to pay a tribute to the groups SPIES JENAN NGO and LOW JER MING. Let me give u a jist of the SPY term and role. Every orientation seniors take time off from their hectic schedule and play the role of a junior in order to smoothen the ice breaking session.However, we juniors were not told of the existence of these cunning individuals. Throughout the next 2 weeks, these guys participated in most of the activities while amazingly conning us with their well worked stories and acts. Although we could roughly guess that JER MING was a senior, this JENAN guy, totally caught us by surprise, he played this good boy role, always quiet, did not say a thing, i felt bad for him once too..THEN when he told us he was a SPY, all of us were so SHOCKED! 3 cheers to that JENAN!

I would like to end this post with a phrase.. " It does not matter how many people we have met, what matters is the friendship and bond formed and how we much we remember of these people"

TILL THE NEXT POST,CHEERS!

CrossRoads

There comes a point in life where a young adult comes to decide which career pathway he or she will undertake according to their interests, talents or some say just pure family pressure. This point a time usually comes after SPM where scholarships are being offered. For others, the UNDECIDED ones, they usually take some thought after completing Pre-U, be it SAM/A-levels/AUSMAT or even the DREADED STPM. For me, I could only see myself doing something related to science as I was terrible at arts subjects be it accounting,economics or literature.Hence I decided to enroll in SAM at Taylors. I found it to be a relatively easy-fun going course as it involved a 50-50 dividence between assignments and exams. I enrolled in the january intake in order to save time as my parents put it. However, after a quarter of the course had passed, i fell very ill and was not able to attend classes for roughly 3 weeks, this period of absence affected my grades and after being through hell with my parents, they finally allowed me to withdraw from SAM and start anew at HELP Uni College in a much more tougher course, the LONDON A-LEVELS. Nontheless, eventhough i was moving on from SAM, i will never forget the class of G11, all the experiences we been through eventhough we spent a short period of time together.

                                              Good old times during Form 5

Moving on to A-levels was quite difficult for me as I was still recovering from my illness which affected me both physically and mentally as well, but, with the help of my friend Justin Jee, together, we set out making new friends in the A50 batch at HELP. First off, let me give a brief details of the subjects pathway i had gotten my self into. Ever since that illness hit me, i got a strong resolve and determination in me to study medicine and be a god willing good enough doctor to try and treat patients with diseases and hardship. Hence, i enlisted for the BIOLOGY,CHEMISTRY and MATHEMATICS combination. During my time in this course, i met a whole lot of new and interesting individuals who were all special in their own ways. There were the smart ones, the nerdy ones,the party ones and even the quiet ones, and together they made the A50 batch a memorable one with various experiences together be it in EXAMS or the simple daily cho tai t(big two) sessions. Unfortunately, I did not do too well in my finals of the A-levels examinations at the first go and these set of grades forced me to rethink of my future plans and career pathways.

                               Post SAM and Pre A-levels: Road to Recovery

Firstly, there was the dreaded meeting and discussions with my two lovely parents, eventhough they showed support for me to do medicine, they urged/encouraged me to re-think of other options such as accountancy and law. I even resorted to visiting an experienced career adviser. After various tests conducted by that adviser, it all showed that I should not do medicine and try to find other solutions. This in turn led me to visit the accountancy and law departments at HELP under the supervision of my caring father. After these visits, my dad gave me 3 days to think of my options which were:
a) accountancy
b)law
c) retake papers in JANUARY 09 and pursue the dream of medicine(INDIAN DREAM)

                                            Post A-Levels at Justin's Birthday

After 2 sleepless nights,thinking about my future, visiting various websites, I decided to follow the burning desire within me that was to keep the dream alive and work hard to score in the retake examinations. My father also played a big role in this as he was willing to sacrifice a big sum of money for tuition and this added further fuel to my desire to work hard. During this period of time, together with the encouragement, I applied to IMU with the help of my college DEAN of A levels MR JAHN CHEAH and chemistry master YAP. I was not sure of getting the place, so I went abouts enquiring bout INDONESIA as it was a good place financially and prestige wise as well.

As fate was to have it, I went for the IMU interview and was offered a place on a conditional offer, this brought joy not only to me, but also to my parents and teachers. I was not sure of the pathway ahead of me, but I was sure that with proper guidance,hardwork and faith in GOD, i would try my best to make my parents proud. As for this post, it comes to an end here, however, stay tune for my IMU LIFE post next up.

First, a sneak preview of the next post:

                          SEXIEST 11 Orientation Group: Journey Begins at IMU!