Finally Graduating

All my hard work has paid off in the end,
I've passed all the exams and I manage to graduate, while a few of my classmates stayed behind to resit I graduate with pride.

I've thank all the lecturer and student from different course who assisted me including Mr.Chia, and Mr.Chia was even at my graduation to see me graduate.

Many lecturer attended that even that day, and many familiar faces too, stepping on that stage I remember seeing my parents and lecturer smile at me as the announcer announced my name "Lai Ken Hou" and there I was accepting my certificate.

Graduating was one of the happiest and proudest moment in my life,
I can finally leave TARC and never to return ever again.

Going up to the stage to collect my diploma certificate made me really happy, it's definitely like all the hard work has paid off in the end too.

I can finally call myself a TAR College graduate.

My parents wanted me to continue my Degree in Mass Comm and further my studies in the United Kingdom but I dint wanted to continue,

Because knowing how the students are in TARC and the amount of hard work I have to go though made me really tired.
My brain is telling me that's it's tired of studying and it's time for working.

I also wanted to pay off my student loan as soon as possible and be loan free too.

Occasionally I still have dreams that I was still studying in TARC or going though the exams, but when I wake up from that dream,I am glad to be where I am today.

 My mind was asking me, what's next after this, what is your plan?
And thus begin the working life...

Resitting for Exams

 I had failed 6 subjects in total throughout my whole course in TARC, in that 2 years,

But in the end, 

I had to resit 4 exams in total on top of the 5 subjects in the last semester to graduate.

It was nearly impossible at first because I had to take 9 subjects to graduate, 

And if I don't pass the test or failed in either on of the exams then well, I have to stay back a year to resit the exams then only I can graduate.

Each subject that you need to resit in TARC, cost RM100 too.

My parents wanted to help me to graduate the best they could, my mom made a deal with me during that time. telling me that if I manage to pass all the test and graduate then she will buy me a PS4 without me paying a single cent.

Thankfully they paid the cost to resit the exams,

But if I failed, then well, I will have to pay her back the cost slowly.

During that time, I wanted the PS4 really badly because I am a gamer and I love video games, and I dint wanted to pay back my mom like an installment basis too.

On top of that I dint wanted to feel ashamed because the rest of my course mates are going to graduate and being the course rep and not graduating is just shameful.

Plus if my evil classmates graduate and I dint graduate it will be like the most shameful thing too.

Finally if I failed, then my then girlfriend during that time will think that I am really dumb.

So after a long consideration, I've decided to take that risk and resit all 5 subjects and take the final 5 exams too.

I had to study really hard day and night, listening back to all the recording that I've recorded in the lecturer call, referring to notes from the tutor and even search and make new notes from my old lecturer original notes.

During the exam time I dint even play any video games and even prayed hard to God to allow me to pass my exam and graduate.

I wanted to graduate so badly, I even called the lecturer personally to ask the lecturer if there was any last minute revision classes that I can join so that I can pass the subject.

The fear of seeing all my friends graduate and me not graduating kept me going on and on.

I told myself that, 

No matter what is the outcome, as long as I have tried my best that's all that really matters

Being isolated in class.

Studying in TARC is tough, and one of the reasons why it is so are because it's rather difficult to communicate with other students,

majority of them are Chinese speakers, and they speak Mandarin to communicate among each other.

Sadly I could not speak Mandarin during that time, but only Cantonese and English,

Plus with all the assignments conflicts in class, they isolated me so that I sit alone or just sit with my good friend Xuan in class,

Yup just 2 of us only, while other's sit far away or sit at the back in a gang as times goes on,

At first I hated the treatment they gave me, but then again I think, it's alright because at least I have my friend Xuan, 

Every assignment became like a form of competition in class, to see who did better or who had the highest marks, 

And I hated it.

Sometimes when I argued with my friend Xuan, then I will just go to the college library alone to read books related to the assignments or just play with my phone at the library,

When I argued with my friend Xuan she will also abandon me and thus I will be alone

There are times even, I had lunch with the lecturer because other of my classmates will just isolate me.

Even in the lecture hall I had to sit alone sometimes because my classmates would rather sit among themselves then to join me,

I had to sit with students from other classes to have some people to talk to me while studying too.

Their treatment towards me was unbearable at first, but I knew I had to go on with it,

I tried to be nicer to them even, with the assignments and even in the group projects so that they will talk to me, so I did more work then them.

Painful?Yes

because it's like a form of punishment I get for not being extra nice to them.

But in the end all I have was my good friend Xuan, to do the assignments with me.

This is the kinda cruel treatment I get in college,

Lecturer in TARC

So far in TARC, there was this 1 lecturer that I truly respect out of most of the lecturer there.

He was known as Mr.Chia and he teaches the Constitutional Institution.

He's a blind man teaching that course, but the amount of knowledge that he has inside of he's brain more then anything students studying in the lecture room.

He will not attend to the lecture hall late, but he can hear if my voice is inside the lecture hall to know if I attended to he's class,

If you did not attend to he's lecture then he will ask why?

And me and my friend Xuan we always attend to he's classes, and after the class we will send him to the train station so that he does not need to take the public bus there.

When we have assignments we need help with, then we will search for him, but the best part is, he will not tell you the correct answer nor the right answer, he will make you search for it.

And that's where I start to learn, during my Weekends I will have to stay at home and watch documentaries, read the old articles that has been published in 2001 in order to get that answer that I want.

Definitely not all lecturer are as kind as him however, some lecturer will make students fear the lecturer and makes you completely want to give up that subject.

Some lecturer are mostly just too lazy to teach,

And some just are there to get their salary.

And the worst lecturer are the kinds where they say that the class will be going on during that day, but last minute mentioned that there was no class and instead blame it on you.

Yes there are lecturer like that, but what they dint know was that, each time they call me I have recorded their voice via an phone app titled smart voice recorder,
And caught them red handed.

And what did the lecturer did after they found out I recorded their voice?
They just pretend nothing happened, dint even apologize and treated you slightly a bit more better and that's it.

My Best sidekick in college

In terms of best friend in college, I can clearly say that there was only this 1 girl named Xuan in college.

When everyone els is not contributing much the assignment, she was there with me to help me finish the assignment.

We were like Batman and Robin in college, each time when there was lecture/class ongoing we use to sit together and record the lecturer/teacher whole class.

We record the lecturer voice and even take picture of the slides that the lecturer posted at the front of the projector, because when the exams are nearby, or when we have to do some certain assignments related to the class we can refer to it.


Each time when the teacher gave us a new assignment each week, me and her we will come up with a plan and work out a solution.

It was not all well because we sometimes argued and unfriend each other for awhile because of communication issues, but when we have a new assignment given we always work together as a team to solve the problems.

She was there for me in college most of the time, when I perform my duty as a course rep she will follow me, and when during the lunch time we will also eat together,

When we believe that we have completed the assignment, we will always search for the lecturer to show the lecturer our assignment to see if there was anything that needs to be modified or even anything we need to change before submitting it.

I would carried my laptop and wait outside of the lecturer class while she carry her paper notes, as soon as the class ends, we will go into the class to ask the lecturer about our assignments.

Even during the time when I want to sleep she will call me to talk about the assignments what needs to be change and so forth.

She always wanted to score perfectly in the assignment while I just want to pass and make sure I don't embarrassed myself in front of class

I was good in English and good in presentation, while she was good in research.
She would provide me with information related to the assignment and I'll start doing the typing.

We normally score high marks in most of the subject we took,.
Before any video shooting too, she will make sure I will look good infront of the camera,

We were the perfect team in class.
And other classmates knew that.

Assignment Problem

When I was studying in TARC,

every week you will have a huge number of assignments that you must complete.

Each assignments had a dateline of 7 days if not 14 days to complete.

Most of them are the kinda assignments that you would normally would do in a group,

But sadly that's not the case.

You see in a group assignment, what I've experience is that if you're good in English and  presentation then you must do at least 75% of the work.

Most of the assignments that I've gone though was 78% completed by myself because I had to do the research, presentation slides, spelling checking and much-much more.

I dint want to do most of the assignments by myself, but I dint had a choice

.

What happen was when I told the rest of the so call groupmates to do a certain task, they will give me all kinda stupid excuses, such as my: 

"PC does not has microsoft words build into it", 

"I cant find any useful information on the internet related to this",

 "I don't have my computer with me it's at home"

And the worst yet was, when you rely on them to do a certain task they give you a last minute work that has a lot of spelling error without even proper points inside.

There was even this time, I had to stayed up till 3am to wait for them to send me the assignment so that I can check before submitting, then on that same day, I had a morning class that starts at 8am.

I was so dissapointed by their work I have decided to do their part as well.

There was even this time I told the rest of the group to just stand there and smile while I do all the presentation because I was so frustrated with them.

Being a good course rep and other position.

Shortly after I became the assistance course rep,

There was some sort of argument because the original course rep said something wrong on Facebook that caused many to hate her.

It had offended some people and it had made them really upset,

And once the argument was over, she left her position and she passed it on to me.

I dint wanted to take that much responsibility during that time, but I dint had a choice because I dint knew who would help me out

Therefore during that time I took 4 position, I became the Course Rep, Printing manager,Treasurer and also class rep.

I have to collect the students fund, and print out the papers to distribute to nearly 300+ students during that time under the hot sun and TAR College was really big too, I was literally sweating like a pig each time I deliver the photostat copy of the lecturer notes,

And the worst part is, I hate asking students to pay up because I really hate to talk about money.

Everything when the students asked you something related to the college or course you have to answer them,

It's either you know, or if it's something that you don't know,then you have to find it out for the students by asking people.

Despite not getting paid a single cent by the college for being a course rep or even getting a certificate at the end of the day, I still feel satisfied that I manage to gain a lot of respect out of it.

And I met many people there who are friendly to me at the beginning.

It was crazy tiring, but at least during that time I had gain a lot of respect.