End of a Chapter.

Well, it's been a while since I've written in.

Fine, that last statement was sort of inaccurate, I suppose. I have written in a couple or so times this month, only to blank out and discard anything I'd already typed out at the time.

I've been busy, I guess. Not exactly unexpected, of course, I had it coming when I signed up to study for a Bachelor's degree. And judging by the fact that I'm still only in the first semester of my first year, it's only gonna get tougher from here on out.

I'm not complaining, of course. This whole semester would have been less stressful if I'd managed to manage my time more wisely. Difficult to do when your friends and housemates are mostly foundation students who have a considerably lighter workload on their backs. Sure, they may be learning stuff like Calculus while I'm being treated to lunch by my Management lecturer, but whatever they're doing for coursework isn't dissimilar to what we had back in school.

Picture courtesy of Richard Nyirenda (second from right).

As for me, one of the major projects I had to carry out for coursework this semester was to organize a stall for the inaugural MIU Charity Food Fair, for English. Being the only guy in a group with six other (older) girls, I was chosen as group leader - and let me tell you, it wasn't easy. We still managed to get the job done in the end, thankfully, and made nearly RM 200 in profits, which will be donated to a local orphanage.

With Food Fair groupmates. Photo courtesy of our course lecturer, Ms. Shanti.

Besides that, there was also the Mid Valley mini-study for my Marketing class. My two coursemates and I were to go to Mid Valley Megamall in KL to study the impact of macroenvironmental forces on business there. We had to take pictures, interview a few people, and so on. I called in a favor from my man Sam for this one, and the two of us managed to come up with a decent video. I included it in the presentation later on,  and my coursemate (the other one had to leave our class to join another one, for reasons)  and I ended up getting a near-perfect score for the project (video certainly helped, thanks Sam!). Still feel like we could have done better, but hey I ain't complaining.

Last but not least, there was the survey for Business Statistics, regarding the MIU library and its services. We had to prepare questionnaires, distribute them to 30 respondents, process the questionnaires and finally present our findings. I actually stayed up until two in the morning preparing the slideshow for that last bit; I could have been done earlier had I not decided to play street soccer with the guys until around nine that night. Anyway, the whole project was fun, but I probably wouldn't enjoy having to go out to get external respondents for the next one.

All in all, it's been a great semester. I've learnt so much, not just about academic stuff but also real life. I tend to think that if I'd gone to study somewhere else, or at least taken up a science-related field I'd still be living under a metaphorical coconut shell. Well, maybe a plastic container, depends on the people I surround myself with.

I've still got a couple of weeks and a few tests to go before the study break and subsequent final exams. Chapter One is soon coming to an end. Keep calm and carry on.