Colleagues.

My university is starting an e-newsletter, and I've been selected as one of the members of the editorial board in charge of publishing it. It's quite an exciting prospect for me, although I believe I may soon find myself cursing it when I eventually (and inevitably) find my total workload to be too much of a burden (especially next semester, during which I've been told that I'll be taking six subjects).

This would actually be the first time that I've ever been involved with any sort of publication. It's not that I've never been interested - in fact, when I was a freshman back at Bukit Indah I harbored dreams of someday becoming the chief editor of the school yearbook - it's just that I just couldn't get the opportunity. Things like these were always monopolized by the seniors back in school, regardless of actual talent and ability, and to get involved with them you had to be friendly with these people. Being an introverted kid with no interest in mixing around with people outside my small social circle, it was virtually impossible for me to even get close to joining the school editorial board.

But I guess that's the difference between me while I was in school and me now, while I'm in university. I actually bother to mix around with people these days, and it just so happens that the type of people I get along with are the ones that get involved with the kind of activities that I enjoy, i.e. this editorial board and working committees for business faculty events.

I like being involved with organizing events. It's just that none of the events I've been working on up until now have been to my liking, and the same could be said with the people I worked with. Working with good people whom I knew and liked on a recent leadership workshop for MIU's Business students was a much better experience than any of the  four orientations I did with the Student Representative Council, which were, honestly, basically exercises in patience.

I know now the importance of getting along with the people you work with. When you walk into a meeting room or show up at the event site and not made to feel the slightest bit welcome by the people there, you're much less inclined to show dedication and commitment to your work.

It's fortunate, then, that I have good people working with me on the editorial board. Most of us were hand-picked by our lecturers, and if anyone is a good judge of how well students go about their work, it's their lecturers. At the very least, I won't have to worry about my colleagues being incompetent, immature or unprofessional...well, for the most part anyway.

P.S. As an aside, I should probably stop being bitter about what happened with the SRC. I'm partly to blame for not being mentally and emotionally strong enough to work in such an environment anyway. It was a good learning experience, if anything.