If I asked you to describe your 4 years in NUS with a few pictures for each year, how would your journey be? =)
Proud to show you mine:
Year 1Started off with a fun-filled O-week in my group
Llyr, very fortunate to have fun-loving councillors and spontaneous freshies! We had LOTS OF FUN and nice memories. The games, night walk etc... That's how it began...
Llyr enjoyed themselves to the max at Sentosa. Friendships were forged.
Us at a dinner gathering, after which we went to Marina Bay to watch National Day fireworks.
After O-week, was the tiring and hated period of adjustment from slack to study, which included catching up with the pace of school work, learning to find everything on ivle dependently, trying to listen to lectures but inevitably falling asleep...
I remember, I even had Friday Maths lectures at
goddamn 8am!!! #&$!*#
Didn't stay in hall. Was very interested in joining NUS
Resonance (Acapella), but didn't advance past the 1st round. Wanted to join a CCA for enrichment but turned off by all the late training/practice sessions.
Couldn't have survived Year 1 if not for my small but fun lecture clique, comprising of: (from left)
Xinjin, (his gf), Kim, Frankenstein Fabian and Me and Myself.Xinjin is the chao slacker who misses many lectures. Finally when he comes, he dozes off (he is more pro than me). Kim is the English speaking VJC-ian who doesn't have an idea what she is doing at Engineering, and also doesn't know how to whisper in the lecture hall. Frankenstein Fab, well, is still the Fab we know in my ME clique todays. Back then, he is always the hero to wake Xinjin and I up during lectures, and always feel free to approach him for Maths consultation.
My results at the end of two semesters - unsightly horrible. Stupid Computing module. Thinking back of it now, I feel damn lucky not to have failed it. The programme I wrote was gibberish and couldn't be run; final exam paper had more blanks than ink.
I wasted the 3 month holiday practically doing nothing. 4 days part-time at DHL counts?
Year 2This year was my wake-up year. I had slacked too much during my first year. I swore to
NEVER fall asleep during lectures again. With the immense help from Jx, I did it!!!! =D My results improved much this year.
Hooray!With Jx and Frankenstein Fab as common friends, three of us hung out but slowly began to befriend many other familiar ME mates. Courtesy of Jx, Ms Yeeeeeeee and Tartar Tata increased the size of our lecture clique.
Here's us doing what Singaporeans are best at:
Queueing for free gifts! LOL! A water bottle for all Engineers.
And oh yes, how could I ever forget about the
girl of my dreams... Remember who? =P (btw Irritating Ivan, the guy in the brown shirt was you!!!)
After a semester, our ME clique grew, with the inclusion of Irritating Ivan and Toot-toot Titus.
We went to play pool together after school! HAHAHAHA!!!
Ok, I slept. -_-
BUT IT WAS DURING LECTURE BREAK!!! RAH!!!!
We also bought drumsticks from TechnoEdge and chomped on them hungrily during lectures! =P (Corrosive Chillicraps wrote about us). Until chicken rice auntie buay tahan us. Hahahaha.
The highlight of Year 2 had to be the 3 month break. My dear friends and I signed up for the USA Work and Travel Programme. Worked at
Kings Dominion Theme Park as a lifeguard. There, we widened our social circles by many degrees. We were by ourselves, travelled to many places and experienced awesomely lot. This USA experience is and will forever be one of the top few events in my life, to have had a deep impact on my life.
Those 3 months were the most well-spent and memorable.
Year 3Our now big and strong ME clique formed a team and embarked on one core Engineering design module. (w/o Ms Yeeeeee, who had flown off to France to enjoy by herself)
Us at a site visit, donning cool helmets yo! =P
At the end of Year 3, all ME mates had grown familiar with one another's faces and we knew many many more friends. We also said bye bye to dear old smelly rocky-chairs-with-small-writing-tables LT7.
Little did we know, they renovated LT7
RIGHT AFTER WE LEFT!!! It is sparkling new and comfortable and fragrant now! !*&%#%
During the 3 month holiday, I did my Internship at Keppel FELS.
The experience was an eye-opener, I learnt many hard and soft skills from my mentor and the industry people.
Started to be more confident of myself and better at articulation, after attending many interviews and giving presentations. More hard work in Year 3 - My CAP rose, albeit not by alot. Entered the next higher zone of honours!
HOORAY!!!Year 4
Started off the academic year as a councillor in
Zara for Engin O-week. It was a fantastic week, made MANY friends and had SUPER DUPER lots of fun!!! =]
After that, basically Year 4 was occupied with Final Year Project, or FYP, or Find Your Professor, or Finally Your Problem, or Final Year Problem, all of which makes sense.
If you had met your fellow ME4 mate along the corridor, after the friendly,
"How's life?", would be:
"
How's your FYP?"Glad it's
HISTORY now!!!
Other than coming back during December holidays to conduct experiments for FYP, Year 4 was a very slack one.
Sem7: 3-day week, 2 exams
Sem8: 2-day week, 1 paper
I enjoyed my slack life very very much, having much time for myself and family and Blur Bee and tmsco, play more soccer etc.
Also found the opportunity to finally accomplish one of my many dreams - Night Cycling!!! Theme:
Bike 2 Bite, couldn't had been better for me, could it?
Our ME clique didn't meet very frequent due to taking of different modules, but we made it a point to meet for lunch, celebrate one another's birthdays, Lo-Hei, hahaha. Last week of school, most of us came together to take away memories of school.
We are also planning to go CBD to have pictures taken in our graduation robes!!! Hope the day can be fulfilled!
And today...
My one and only exam ended 2 days ago. Didn't feel like I took any paper at all, HAHAHA! I don't sense the "ARGHHHHH I'M FINALLY LIBERATED!!!!" feeling, probably cause I have been feeling so since a few weeks ago after FYP final oral presentation? Semester 8 passed by very, very quickly. I cannot recall much of what I had done or achieved...
Graduation trip to Vietnam is beckoning, in a few days'. I don't feel like I've put in alot of hardwork or endured much sufferings to reward myself with a "grad trip". Nonetheless, I'm not sure when is the next time I can go on a holiday with
NO stress,
NO work issues,
NO deadlines at the back of my mind.
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Year 4 has ended... How have I gained from four years of tertiary education at NUS? Other than equipping us with technical knowledge, I think I have improved my character, personality and developed myself as a better person. I have widened my social circle by very much, with a handful of good friends I know we will still be in contact with after decades. I have some minor regrets though, that is I have not enjoyed the vibrancy of varsity life as much as I would have liked, such as staying in hall, joining a CCA, taking up a leadership position etc. However, most probably those activities would have had a drastic effect on my results.
From K1 to NUS4, is a wholesome 20 years of education. Are we ready? Am I ready? Learning is a never-ending process. The next few months, I shall be stepping into a brand new, unfamiliar life stage - that of working career. Definitely not a step I want to be in, however it is unavoidable... I certainly hope that in future, I can discover many interesting chapters to decorate my life with. =)
