My Journey Uphill


My life as a secondary school teacher, a mother to a pair of young teenagers and a postgraduate literature student, all at the same time, has turned me to be a “good and bad”, and “strong and weak” woman – all at one go! Signing up for 3 courses this semester, has made a good friend of mine leave some “threatening” remarks, reminding me consistently that I have to reconsider my decision. I am not saying this on a negative note as now I have learned to see things from a brighter side (Thanks to my past experiences). Furthermore, Walter Bagehot once said, a great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do. I hold strongly to that quote.

Being the woman mentioned above has made T.I.M.E to be the most significant setback to actually sit and flow my thoughts here. Or perhaps this is merely my justification for “abandoning” my blog for quite some time. Nevertheless, today, despite having two assignments to be hand in next week, I will leave that aside for a moment simply because I want to document my happy moments here. A day to remember, perhaps.

When Dr. Karthi wanted all of her postgraduate students to attend a seminar on the 14th February, we were pretty reluctant. Not so much of the date (well, at least not for me!) but thinking of the abundance of assignments that needed attention and it falls on Saturday (my library day), the idea of attending the seminar really puts me off. And of course the seminar is not for free, students have to pay too!!

But those attended yesterday made a good choice. The seminar was fantastic. Even though there were not many people in the banquet hall but those who were there really benefited what the speakers had presented. It’s called a one day seminar on Malaysian Literature; yes true enough I was there for the whole day, right from 8:00 in the morning to 4:30 in the evening.

It was worth it, nonetheless. The food was great, (yeah, yeah, you are hearing this from someone who is on a strict diet) the hall was conducive enough for everyone, and most of all the speakers of the day were awesome. They came from various universities in Malaysia as well as Singapore, and they presented very interesting topics that can generate some ideas for my research project.

But above all, I was thrilled that I got the chance to meet my favourite Malaysian writer, a Malaysian Laureate, none other than Dr. Muhammad Haji Salleh. Why I adore him? Simple. He’s a down-to-earth person, very modern Malay and yet still upholds his roots and traditions strongly. Academically wise, besides my aunt, he’s another idol that I look up to.

Enough said. Now back to business. I am preparing for next week’s assignments. Currently I am working on one of Dr. Muhammad Haji Salleh’s work, “The Traveller” and the write up of my last two weeks presentation on the war poet, Wilfred Owen.

My feelings right now?

I FEEL SO MOTIVATED.

At the seminar, with Dr Muhammad Haji Salleh and one of my coursemates, Hilalah.

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