Old Habits Die Hard.

Back in my early primary school days at the private schools IIC and Adni, I was surrounded by classmates who were consistently poor performers during examinations. Perhaps it was due to them coming from wealthy families, and had been spoilt and made to be lazy by such a background. Perhaps they had numerous personal problems that I didn't know about that affected their studies. Or perhaps they were just plain thick.

Regardless of what the reasons were, I suppose I may have been influenced by their irresponsible study habits. I barely ever studied, me finishing my homework was a rare phenomenon, and I was frequently scolded and punished for failing to bring stuff like art supplies, protractors and textbooks for class - and don't get me started on my microscopic handwriting.

In spite of everything, however, I still managed to finish top, or near the top, of the class for every single exam. I'd be one of the first to complete an exam paper, or a handout done in class, or notes we copied down from the whiteboard.

As a result, I figured that I didn't have to work hard to outdo my peers. I got lazy. I procrastinated a lot. I received so many scoldings that eventually they no longer fazed me.

Up to this day, the old habits remain - the laziness, the procrastination, the bad handwriting. I wish I could be rid of them once and for all. I've tried turning over a new leaf many times, but in the end I always revert to default. The fact that I still somehow manage to consistently outperform my peers academically despite putting in significantly less effort than they do doesn't exactly help.

On the bright side, though, progress has been made. My handwriting is still tiny, but no longer illegible. I still put off my work, but I do get it done (not necessarily on time, though). 

Slowly but surely, I'm improving. And that's the way it should be done - slowly but surely. Driving slowly along the highway may take up more time than speeding, but you're less likely to be involved in an accident, and you'll still end up reaching your destination anyway.

Old habits die hard. But they do end up dying.

Foreign Territory.

It isn’t very often that you see someone who has studied and has had a strong interest in science for all his life suddenly turn his attentions to a wholly different field. It’s somewhat of a novelty for me, as most of my friends who took up Science as an elective back in school are currently studying to become either doctors or engineers.

True, there are a small number of them studying accounting, and just the one guy majoring in Communications. These guys are the exception to the rule. But I do believe no one else is doing what I’m doing – switching from Science to Business.

To be honest, I probably wouldn’t be studying Business if I could help it. The only reason I’m learning about things like Management Principles and Marketing is because Actuarial Finance, my chosen field, falls under MIU’s School of Business.

Of course, I’m not exactly complaining here. I’m learning stuff that is completely new to me these days, and as a student you’re supposed to take anything that even resembles knowledge in with open arms.

I’m really loving Financial Accounting at the moment. I just find it to be quite interesting, probably due to (a) its systematic nature and (b) the math involved. And if there are two things that define the way think it’s these two.

Learning about what makes a good manager in Management makes me feel like I’m at a leadership camp of sorts. Maybe the people behind these camps studied Management back while they were students. In any case, the main objective is the same – to mold effective leaders.

Marketing is, at the moment, the dullest of the Business Subjects. But that’s probably because it’s still early days, and hopefully they’re saving the really good stuff for later.

The only (slight) problem with learning these things is that you can barely differentiate key points from more unimportant ones. With Science it was always so much easier to tell which scraps of information were important, and which ones weren’t. But I suppose each field of study has its own perks and challenges, and since Business is generally said to be easier to study than Science, I guess I’ll be alright.