What life is all about

       Life is the equal birthright of every individual. Everyone gets the equal chance to determine their own fate and shape their own lives accordingly to who they are and what they want.

If you are asked to describe life using only one word, what would you describe it as? 

       I had figured this question for so long until one day I finally got the answer. I was reading "Awaken The Giant Within" and I came across the answer to my doubts. I realized that the single word that I was searching for wasn't 'miracle', 'chance' nor 'destiny', but was 'decision'.

Crossroads in the wilds constantly remind us that life is full of decisions.

       Decision. Life is all about decisions. Every day, whether consciously or not, we are making decisions. We decide our daily routines and tasks, how to solve the tasks ahead, when to complete and the reason why do we do it. These decisions range from small and less important to crucial and significant. Doubtless, these decisions contributed to our current state of being and will continue to shape our future from time to time. 

      Even though a decision may seem so tiny that it gives no immediate effects on the surroundings of its decision-maker, but in long terms it may mean something. True as gold, the nature of decision is that they will fit together bit by bit in creating our pathway of life, leading us towards what we had decided and predetermined. A decision may be a strategic move or an inappropriate approach depending on your interpretations towards a situation and implications towards the problem. If we had not make a good decision regarding something in the past, learn to accept it. What it is more important about it is we reflect from our bad decisions and learn from our mistakes. This gives us an opportunity of redemption and enable us to make better decisions in the future as each failure leads us closer to our success.

      To exercise perfect decision making, we must learn to often make decisions. During decision making, we must learn to make each decision wisely but fast. Those whom practice making decisions using this two core principles are those whom will success in their lives. Referring to that, we must not delay when it comes to making decisions. Staying in an undecided state for long kills all of our passion and reduces our self-esteem as well as confidence. When we procrastinate too long to make a decision, in the end we will become panic when the time comes for us to clarify our stand. This leads to failure in our endeavors.

       Decisions are all life is about. Let us learn together to control it so that it can illuminate your destiny or it will control your life once and forever.        

My Axiata scholarship assessment journey in KL

     The previous Sunday, I took a bus from Sungai Petani to Kuala Lumpur to attend the second assessment of the Axiata Young Talent Pre-University Program after I was notified for being short listed at the second of May. The second assessment is scheduled to be held on Monday. This was my third trip to Kuala Lumpur after going there twice for the Khazanah Global Scholarship First Assessment and the Axiata YTP first assessment. I actually didn't expect that I would be qualified into the second assessment because I knew that I didn't perform well in the first one. Hence, I didn't have high hopes that I will be safe for this assessment either. I am not inconfident of myself, but merely taking things lightly and not expecting too much from myself.

Axiata YTP "About the program" website: http://www.axiata.com/axiata-ytp

PART 1 : ~SOMETHING UNEXPECTED!!!~

     As usual, I woke up early that day to attend the event that started at 8 to find myself squeezing with others in the train. I can accept that as long as I managed to reach there 20 minutes before the commencement of the event. Before going to the Celcom Axiata Infinity Centre located in the Quil 7 building which is a few minutes walk from KL Sentral Transit Station, I encountered a funny incident in the toilet while I was putting on my tie.

     "I was putting on my tie when a foreign stranger in weird and crabby clothes whom was smoking entered the toilet. It appears that my tie was too short when I put it on at that time. He approached me without second thought and told me that he wanted to help me by assuring that he was a designer. 

     I was surprised and shocked at that time. My instincts at that moment told me not to trust this guy as his appearance reminded me of gangsters, hooligans and anything bad enough to exist in the society. I deduced that he might have other intentions besides helping me. He might want to snatch money away from me or even kidnap me. 

     Hence, I became very careful and increased my alertness as I felt his hands nearing me to put on the tie. Adrenalin flowed through my veins as I prepared myself of every possible action that he will do on me. I imagined that he will try to use the tie to strangle me or try to steal something valuable away from me when I wasn't aware. But at the same time, it was too rude to reject somebody's help as we wouldn't know if he or she is sincere or not. I waited silently and try to ease myself in front of him when he was making my tie. 

     To my relieve, he didn't have any bad intentions at all. He really made me a good tie that fits nicely which is not too long and not too short. In the split second, I really felt embarrassed for suspecting him. I thanked him for helping me with utmost gratitude. Then, I headed towards my destination with feeling lucky and grateful for this incident."

     From this incident, I learned that we mustn't simply judge a book by it's cover like my initial judgement from my first impression on this foreign man. This is something that we tend to do all the time. However, we must also bear in mind that we mustn't simply trust anyone easily. Anyway, try to respect every individual and treat them equally. I still believe that good and helpful people do exists in this world even though the society is in peril due to the demoralization of humankind. If you are lucky enough, you may find one who will certainly help you when you need it at the right timing. 

PART 2 : ~THE ASSESSMENT~

      In the first assessment, we were informed by Axiata that less than 90 of us are among the lucky ones whom have been selected for the test because actually there were around four thousand applicants who applied for that program. (PS: I am not trying to boast around here but just speaking the truth...) Due to my average performance in the papers, I felt that I may not be qualified for the following assessment. 

    When my friends received the reply via email at 30th of April, I had already knew that I was disqualified for the coming event. However, an unexpected phone call two days after that day made me feel even more luckier. It seems that I was one of their second choices. There must be quite a number of people who can't make it to the event at that time. I was so curious about the actual number of people whom got the invitation and are attending the event. That day, I got one of the most shocking answers that I had in my life(not to exaggerate).

     As I reached the building, I was greeted by the other 5 candidates whom arrived earlier than me. We chatted among ourselves while waited until about 10 minutes before the actual event before going upstairs to the Level 10 activity centre. It don't take us long to let us realize that we are half of the number whom are selected for this assessment! The whole activity had to start late due to bad weather and traffic conditions in Kuala Lumpur. We actually started our assessment at 9.30am after having a breakfast and briefing session about the activities that were in store for us at that day.

     The second assessment is actually 5 very fun yet challenging station games aimed at testing our creativity, teamwork skills, leadership skills, critical thinking, decision making and communicative skills. We were divided into teams of 3 with four team mates each. Each station is handled by a coordinator and your every moves and actions are observed and took into account by the assessors in each stations. Among the category of activities in these stations were group discussion, advertisement design and presentation, effective communication games, task priority& handling and model construction.

        One of the activities that we have to do is building a model of the building that you were going to construct from only raw materials such as paper, marker pens, rulers and paperclips. What fun about it is the construction items each have a price and you cannot exceed your budget. The building must have a wide space to maximize the rental income, a unique design to impress your client whom was a well known person and be strong enough to support the weight of a stapler. We are only given 60 minutes to build it. Our team managed to build an "Ohm" shaped landmark which fulfill all the criteria given and succeeded in convincing the coordinator of our design. It was indeed very satisfying.

        Another activity which I like the most is a group discussion and presentation involving a case study. The case goes like this: A cruise ship with 13 passengers is sinking within 2 hours due to the explosion in the kitchen of the ship. We have only a rescue boat that can only accommodate 7 persons. We can only save 7 of them. The nearest island from the ship is 50 kilometres away and the island is an uncivilized island. Only those whom have the knowledge and skills can survive in that place until other people come to rescue them. What's fun about that is we got to have a brief view about everyone's profile, career, the items that they carry with them and their behaviors and traits to decide who exactly that we can save to ensure them able to live in the island until the rescue team comes. Our team decided the 7 crucial people to be rescued based on their traits and additionally try to save the rest of them by linking the remaining people to the rescue boat by a rope and wearing life jackets. At the end, we presented our answer and idea supported by our strong reasons to the jury. 

     Other activities include setting up an advertisement campaign and after that present it to promote international roaming to those aged 65-80, sorting and deciding what emails to respond by taking the role of a CR club president, and guessing what words others are trying to tell you.   

       These activities comprises of many elements such as taking and switching between different roles in a period of time, balancing between speed and accuracy, coping with stress and fast learning. From these activities, you can realize how much good you really are and your true potential and ability in performing given tasks as well as learning your strength and weaknesses. I still have many things to improve no need to mention XD. It is indeed a memorable experience for me.    

       

PART 3 : ~MY ADVENTURE   

     While waiting for the results to come out, I spent my whole afternoon wandering inside one of the biggest shopping complex in KL-Mid Valley. I took the KTM train from Kajang station to the train station in Mid Valley by my own. It's very convenient as the station is located straight below the shopping complex itself.

The train station in Mid Valley.

The Garden Malls beside Mid Valley.

At evening, I took the train back to my current staying place which is my relative's house in Kajang. Below are some useless yet meaningless scenes taken while I was walking back home.=.= Just prepare for a boring excursion...

        Finally, I got my call at late evening. I was disqualified for the final interview. However, I had no hard feelings at all. I was grateful for them for giving me the chance to attend the second assessment and managed to meet so many new friends as well as getting to know more about myself. I returned back to SP at Wednesday via the morning bus again with a grateful yet joyous heart.