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Thursday, February 28, 2013

When in Doubt, Trust your instinct .

I love doing random , impulsive things . Really , I do . When you do an impulsive stuff , the adrenaline surge that comes from those sudden decisions are unbelievably exciting . In my life so far , in all the times I did something random and impulsive ( no matter how stupid , selfish and devoid of rational or logical thoughts ) most of the time , I never regret doing them . In fact , more often than not , they turned out to be very fulfilling experiences in the end . Today's journey doesn't disappoint either .

***
I woke up to at 9.00 am to a clear , blue sky , without any idea or plans for today at all . The stark contrast between the crystal clear sky and the humid, cooling atmosphere forces me to choose between waking up to reality , or shut the curtain and continue indulging in my sweet dreams , accompanied by the cool weathers . In the end , the glaring sunlight won me over . I had too much sleep already anyway .

Though it seems like another nice day ( it finally stopped raining ! ) , my heart was still troubled with some annoying problems . The root of this problem started two days before this . Two days ago , I went to a Leadership / Service Workshop at National Community Leadership Institute ( NACLI ) as a part of the program organized by my Temasek Foundation (TF LeaRN) scholarship , that was responsible for making my exchange to Singapore possible .

While it was a nice experience being in a 2 days / 1 night workshop , there are some inconveniences that we have to live with , the major one being difficulties to wi-fi access . However , at that time , I thought that it wasn't a major problem as what harm can 2 days without Internet connection do right ? Wrong ! Dead Wrong ! 

Life have a strange way of trolling people . When I was with my internet connection 24/7 and having the luxury of checking e-mails and keeping in touch with others most of the time , nothing important that requires internet happened . Right when I did not have that connection for just a night , a very important e-mail came . 

The truth is , for the past few weeks , I have been eyeing for the internship position at Microsoft Malaysia / Singapore and thus have applied for them both . Although I did not have the opportunity to work with the Singapore branch , I was still waiting for answers from the Malaysia counterpart . They did not reply me for the past few weeks , until the day that I did not have my Internet connection .

Long story cut short , apparently , I was lucky enough to be selected for an assessment event in KL , but UNFORTUNATELY , I was also unlucky enough to miss that event because I was unable to read that email until when I came back from the workshop and have access to internet . By then , it's already too late , as it was like around 1 hour left till the event in KL , and I am still in my hostel here in NUS . 



Ray of hope
However , it seems that fate has another thing in store for me . As I always believe , if anyone really wanted something very badly , somehow , the universe will conspire to grant him/her their wish . And indeed , there seems to be some glimpse of hope left for me . As one of my seniors were working for Microsoft already , I consulted him and he told me that there's a same assessment event going on today ( 27/2/2013  ) . However , I have to bear in mind that I wasn't invited for this event , so I need to confirm with the authorities concerned . 

So , I tried various ways of contacting the people in charge ( spamming by emails , calls , messages ) , but to no avail as none of my attempts were responded . Finally , the day of judgement came , today ! 

Question : 
What will you do if you have no confirmation , invitation or any form of acknowledgement whatsoever but you just know that there's this important assessment interview that will be going on this particular venue , and you know that if somehow you got the job , your life will change , forever ?

***

At this point , I was still being very hesitant . I checked up on the net and consulted my   friends who are studying in Johor ( THANKS ZHAO WEI ! ) and  found out that a bus ride to Johor from Singapore would only take 1 hour       ( factoring a moderate traffic condition ) . But , obviously , it wouldn't be only 1 hour if I take into account the travel time needed to go from my campus to the bus interchange station and hundred other complications that might occur .


First of all , being the realist I was , I have to consider the worst case scenario and weigh in the pros and cons . Given the bad reputation of safety and other negative images that Malaysia have been portraying , it is a bit intimidating even for locals like me to go there alone . What if I got robbed in the journey to or fro there ? What if I lost my passport ? What if I cannot find the way there ? And the thousand what ifs fears continue to cloud my mind . 


Nevertheless , all of those are mere possibilities . Though ,I was still safe and sound after coming back from there , but at that time , possibilities made it hard to make a decision . So , I was sitting in front of laptop , still waiting for a reply from the person in charge or any signs or indications from higher authorities in the universe to give me . It was quickly approaching 12 noon . Decisions have to be made . And then the sign arrived . I told one of my friend ( THANKS BOON SIONG :D ) about my case , and he said something of this line : " Ai yo , you only live once ma , why so scared ? Try la , no harm ! "  

This , coupled with the "gao bin pui" ( Thick face or shameless in hokkien ) and YOLO advice by my other friend , I mustered the courage to act and Hola , I decided to go there ,without ever being there before , not knowing how to go there ( I just have some instructions from then net and my friend ) , not knowing where exactly is the place located ( Johor is a really big state in Malaysia , and the place I am going to isn't exactly the easiest place to find ) , and the biggest question of all , not even knowing whether or not the people there will allow me to go in for turning up uninvited .

***



The whole journey turned out to be one of the best , most liberating journey I ever had in my life . Not only was I accepted for the assessment interview event ,  I had the pleasure of meeting a few great people along the journey . On the way from Singapore to Johor , I met a good , middle-aged working man who was more than willing to guide me to into Johor , since he was coincidentally going back to Johor too . When you put two Malaysians together , chances are , you will most likely get an interesting conversation regarding the political bickerings and the effectiveness of the government ( more like condemning all the mistakes and irresponsible actions of the government and discussion about how bleak the future of Malaysians will be in the future ) . I had fun hearing perspectives from someone who have moved on to the greener pasture at the other side . According to him , almost 20% of the Malaysia workforce are working in Singapore , and obviously , the number is not gonna decrease any time soon . 




Being in a foreign place without knowing any people nearby is scary , much more so if you're alone . Usually , being the stingy guy that I am , I wouldn't even bother with the taxis . This coupled with the really bad haggling reputation of Malaysian taxi drivers , I have decided earlier not to take any cab . However , with the lack of time and inability to discern directions in a foreign place being the problem , I have no choice but to turn to the taxi drivers ( the one with vouchers , where I only have to pay a fixed , flat rate , so it will be safer ) . It was quite an expensive ride , but I guess it was worth it in the end , since the place I was supposed to go to ( University Technology Malaysia ) , is really huge ( I later found out that it's the 2nd largest local university in Malaysia ) and I would definitely die walking or getting lost should I try to walk and find the place . 


Taking the taxi there made me realize that some of the taxi drivers will actually go for an extra mile for you , granted that you speak to them in local dialect ( The taxi driver was so happy when I spoke to him in BM and he continued to talk to me the entire 30 minutes about his life, when we reached the university , he went the extra mile to fetch me to the particular venue instead of only leaving me at the main gate , which is what he can do , given that the destination only specifies the University and not the faculty inside the university ) . However , the same could not be said for their attitudes towards foreigners . I saw first hand , how some of the taxi drivers try to coerce the foreigners into hiring two taxis because of their big luggage bags .

Finally in the end , I managed to get to that particular venue and successfully participated in the assessment event . Along the way , some kind souls volunteered to guide me to the venue in fear of me getting lost in that awful big campus . And it turns out that RM 30 taxi fare was worth it too , as I end up hitchhiking back on the interviewer's car ( Talk about how shameless one can get ! But ya , I was really desperate and the interviewers are freaking awesome ! ) .


The super cool intern team of Microsoft MACH , POWER TEAM :D
The kind soul ( riding the motor ) who was willing to guide me to the particular venue even though he could just offer me directions . Thank God for Good people !


I guess I have to say that , I am really LUCKY after all . Somehow , I made it back safe and sound . I went to somewhere completely foreign to me , not knowing what to expect , alone and somehow I ended up coming back with a very fantastic experience ! I guess the lesson here is to believe in your instinct when reasoning fails :) Obviously , doing something without putting any thoughts in it is stupid . However , sometimes , even with all the calculations and reasoning justifying some action , they can only take you so far . Often , the best results often come with the course of action that came from your natural instincts . Therefore , I would say , hone your instincts , and trust them , for they can take you to unimaginably , exciting places . Don't always be bounded by rules and regulations , confined within an imaginary box of logical and rationality , there are always alternatives to something , as the proverbial think out of the box suggests . 

May all of you have the courage and opportunity to do something impulsive , and hopefully they turned out to be great too :) All the best , people ! :) 

* Thank Lord for Good People ! To all the kind souls today that helped me , may all of you be blessed with abundant bundle of joy , happiness and prosperity ! Keep on doing those random act of kindness , you guys rocks ! *

Microsoft's USB Hub Gift :D






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