Unconventional.

'Tis the season for education-related news. Typical conversations with fellow recent SPM graduates nowadays usually go along the lines of:

"Did you get the scholarship?" 

"Which university will you be studying at?" 

"Why the f*ck are you studying there?"

That last one happens to me a lot. But I can't be the only one, can I?

Anyway, recently I've been learning that quite a large number of my friends have been picked to receive scholarships from various benefactors, like Petronas and JPA. Good to see them getting to achieve their dreams and whatnot.

By right, I should be happy for them. And I am, although that wasn't the case at first, I'm sorry to say. You see,  quite a large number of my Valedictorian batchmates were offered said scholarships. Scholarships that I hadn't even bothered to apply for. So, I shouldn't have too many complaints about not getting any offers. It's more of a case of regret, and a bit of mentally kicking myself.

Add that to the studying (read: last-minute cramming) that I had to do for yesterday's exam that never was, and I got a big headache. But I'm all better now - a bit of shut-eye always does the trick. 

I have, once again, had to convince myself that my decision to go to Nirwana College and subsequently the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) was a good one. 

Sure, Indonesia may not be as glamorous as most of my other options - but then again, neither was Rembau. I had friends going to other older, more established institutions while I was exiled in a new, fledgling boarding school in the middle of a relatively-undeveloped area in Negri Sembilan. That school and I still managed to do pretty well in the end, I guess.

My point is, the unconventional way may not necessarily be the wrong way. So yeah, my friends are going off to tried-and-trusted public universities, or preparing themselves for a few years overseas with financial aid from tried-and-trusted government and private sectors. And then there's me - enrolling in some obscure college that's sharing a shady-looking building with some publishers, located right in the middle of the big city.

But who cares, right? Just as long as it works out in the end, it doesn't matter what path I took to get there - just as long as I didn't do anything illegal. The ends justify the means, and all that. 

And besides, tried-and-trusted is too mainstream.