Punctuality - Tackled

Hi. I have a good news to share today. I have finally tackled the problem of punctuality, at least for one week!!! Hooray...

In the past few weeks, I had been late to the classes for most of the time (5 mins late), although I had identified the problem earlier. I felt frustrated and angry with myself last week, and so I tried to get myself ready and prepared earlier for going to the classes. And it worked!!!

Important lessons learnt: There is a will, there is a way. As long as we are determined enough to solve a problem, the problem will be solved eventually. Also, being punctual in every occasion is a key element of professionalism.

That's all for now. Thanks.

Wheel of Life

Last week, I attended the third RSS (REAL Sahabat SERU) meet-up with my seniors. In the meet-up, I learnt about the Wheel of Life. The Wheel of Life is actually a wheel consisting of 8 different aspects of life, namely studies, money, health, friends and family, spiritual wellbeing, personal growth and learning, fun, leisure and recreation, physical environment or any other thing that you think is important in your life. In the meet-up, I was assigned to rank all the aspects in my current life according to the scale of 0 as the lowest rank and 10 as the highest.

It is actually quite difficult to describe the Wheel of Life here. Haha... But let me just tell me what I have learnt from this wheel. 

This message given by this Wheel of Life is that life is unpredictable and bumpy. There are always highs and lows in our life. But, it is through this bumpy and unpredictable life that we learn to grow up and develop our personality. 

To tell you the truth, I have a melancholy personality in which having an organized and uninterrupted timetable is always important to me. However, unexpected problems and events always get in my way and I will sometimes feel frustrated. Haha... But, one important lesson to take note from this is that timetables are only guidelines and they should be flexible instead of being rigid and static. As the saying goes, "Plan less, do more". I guess I am still not flexible enough to get this into practice, but I will always remind myself of this.

That's all for the sharing today. Stay tuned for the next update. 

An intensive-learning yet enjoyable mid-semester break

Last week was an enjoyable mid-semester break as I had been given a chance to learn about conducting research activities. I had been learning intensively from one of the lecturers in the research group I have joined, namely the computational chemistry research group.

Computational chemistry is one of the fields in chemistry which focuses on applying theoretical and computational models to solve real-life problems. So last week I learnt how to conduct simulations of chemical compounds to somehow "mimic" the interactions between the compounds that would likely occur in experiments.

All in all, I had an enjoyable and challenging learning experience. According to the lecturer who taught me last week, I might have a chance to go to Thailand to give a technical presentation on the things I have learned. I truly hope that the day will come in the future.

Now that the school has reopened, I have to get back to my assignments which have been stacked together before the break. I have to work harder now to compensate for the time I have spent on learning computational chemistry. 

Move forward!!!

Passion (continued)

Hi, it's me. Sorry for the delayed posting once again. The flu had been playing with me last week, so I couldn't post it in time. Fortunately, I am feeling better now.

Today I would like to share with all of you my dream and my current goals. Actually, my dream has always been the same, that is to become a teacher in the future. I do not really mind about the level of education at which I teach. However, after having been through one and a half semester in the university, I have finally finalized my dream and goals. By current goals, I mean goals that are to be achieved in my undergraduate years.

My dream and my current goals have actually been incorporated into my weekly declaration speech. You can take a look at my speech here:

"I, Wong Soon Kit, hereby give my vow that I will strive to become an educator in chemistry, delivering all the knowledge I have to future students and inspiring them to become chemists of future generation. Therefore, I shall become a professor of chemistry and the Head of Department of Chemistry of my university, improving the quality of chemical education offered by the Department, to make it become on par with world class education.

My long term goals towards realizing my dream are as follows:

1. To achieve First Class Honours Degree

2. To obtain CGPA of 3.90 and above

3. To become the Top Student in the Department of Chemistry

4. To maintain active participation in extra-curricular activities

5. To display leadership qualities

6. To explore my interest and develop my fullest potential

7. To stay happy and energetic throughout my studies

Acquiring the true qualities of an educator has always been my passion while learning and exploring chemistry is my interest.

I do not long for luxury and I do not long for glamour either.

This shall constantly be my driving force towards realizing my dream.

I will succeed no matter how hard the path is going to be.

Thank you."

Every week, I go to one of the empty lecture halls in the lecture hall complex to give my weekly declaration speech. Well, someone would say that this is silly, but yeah, this is what I do every week and this is also what I hold to all the time. All these goals have been keeping me focused on working towards my dream. As I mentioned before, whenever I think and talk about education and becoming an educator/professor, my whole body becomes energized and I will become more confident in myself. 

Most people would question my sincerity as they think that I just want to earn a good living by becoming a lecturer or professor. Yeah, they have the right to question my sincerity, but they will never be able to imagine the joy teaching/education can bring to me. To me, they have been part of my life so deeply that I can never separate myself from the education career.

Nowadays, many people (specifically, the young adults and students or friends of my age) hope to become lecturers so that they can earn a good living and have an easy life. In my opinion, it is perfectly fine to have such a goal in mind as everybody knows the salary of a lecturer is really high. BUT, are we really able to improve our country's education system by having only this in mind? My answer is definitely, NO.

A lecturer or professor, as an educator, has the responsibility of improving the education system to ensure that our future generation is well-trained and can make contribution to the society. Therefore, we should never take the responsibility lightly. 

Indeed, I am still far away from achieving my dream and goals and I might not even be in the right position to say all these. However, I truly believe that my passion and my dream will always be guiding me, teaching me and helping me in making my dream a success.

And I shall stand before everyone as Professor Jackson Wong Soon Kit and the Head of Department in the future.

That's all for now. Thank you.

Passion

Sorry for the delay, everyone. I was sick last week, so I couldn't update my blog in time. I have been getting better now, fortunately.

To compensate for the post which should be done last week, I shall post twice this week.

But before that, let us turn back to what I said in the week before last week... PUNCTUALITY!!!

Concerning this BIG PROBLEM, it has been getting better.... at least by 5%!!! Yeah, I know it's still far from the target, but I am sure that I will overcome it one day...

Okay then, let's turn back to the topic of this post... PASSION.

Last week, I read the book titled "Passion2Income" written by Abang Mirul and Kak Elin. The book is an enjoyable and nice book to read and it is motivating.

The book primarily focuses on how to turn our passion, the things we love to do, into our source of income. The authors Abang Mirul and Kak Elin have even included their own experience to show that the ways really work. 

I recommend those who would like to venture into business career to get a copy of this book and read it. You won't know what you will get from the book until when you actually read it.

As I mentioned above, the book is really a nice book to read and it has given me another perspective on passion.

To me, there are some passion or hobbies which cannot be turned into sources of income. Actually, my passion is to teach. This has always been my passion since when I was still studying in primary school. This passion started growing stronger and stronger when I entered my pre-university programme (STPM). It has been leading and guiding me throughout my studies. With this passion and my goal in my mind, I managed to achieve 5As in the STPM examination held in year 2011 and was one of the top students among the science students who took 5 subjects in the same year. This achievement has reflected the effort I have made in my studies in the past and I am very happy and proud of it.

To me, I would not want to turn my passion into my source of income. Education is never a business and we can't use education to gain profits, in any way.This has always been my belief and I will definitely hold to it. The joy of being able to educate future generation and help develop their mind or perspective is really immeasurable.

I believe that this passion will continue guiding me to develop myself into a better and capable person so that I can become the light for the future generation in the future.

Haha... This is only my personal opinion on passion. No offence.

I think that's all for now. Since I have started talking about my passion, I should perhaps discuss it further in the next update, agree? So STAY TUNED for the coming update.