Farewell dinner

I was invited to a farewell dinner today at a fancy chinese restaurant opposite KLCC. It was the senior class in the college I'm currently teaching at and today is their last day of school. I was invited as one of their lecturers. I taught them Research Methodologies as one of their final year subjects. There were few other lecturers there too and the air there wasn't filled with sadness and tears that stemmed from the thought of not being able to sit in the same classroom with each other again. It was instead a joyous one celebrating the end of 2 years of classroom education and the beginning of a 6 months industrial training stint at either a hotel or travel agency and then onward to a new chapter in their lives!

Students were taking pictures with each other and the lecturers way into the end of the dinner. There were mini games planned with prizes to be won as well as karaoke crooning all thru the night. The food and company was great and I must say I really enjoyed myself despite knowing the fact that I may not see this bunch of students around the college again.

Memories of my college days came flooding back to my mind. When I first went to college back in 1995, not many of us could afford handphones although some of us were lucky enough to be given one by our parents. For cameras we still used those drop in film roll type. It's a whole world of difference today with the advancement of technology. Back when I was in college, I never took many photographs, mainly due to the hassle of getting it developed and keeping physical copies of it which would end up fading or damaged as time goes by. Come to think of it, most of the memories of my college days today are only fragments I can remember from the past. Not the ones painted in colorful pictures.

I did take alot of pictures when I was in Uni though, back then (in 1998) I was still using analogue still cameras but maybe because of the crazy fun time I had, I probably made it a point to take pictures to remember those times. Come to think of it, I really miss those good old days when I was in college and uni.

Today I'm lucky to be a lecturer and a undergraduate degree programme head who can reminisce on the good old days because I have students all around me everyday when I go to work in a private college in KL. Many of my friends ask me why I choose to work in a small college with a student population of maybe around 200-300 when, with the same qualifications, I can pretty much choose where I want to work at. I don't know... I do ponder on their question sometimes but again, when I go to work the next day, I am still able to convince myself that for now, I am still making the right decision. Why? It all boils down to the work environment and people around you. I feel very comfortable with the knowledge that, as long as I am making a difference in the future of a young person, I am doing the right thing. Isn't that what being a lecturer is all about? Also I kinda like people calling me Mr David and Sir.

My ex-room mate has been a lecturer for almost 10 years in a private college. I used to think why he can have the staying power and go to work with the same kind of passion every single day for the past 10 years. Even my mother had been an educator for the past 30 years of her working life. After becoming one only did I realize that, it can be a bit addictive. Addictive how you may ask? Addictive in the sense of the level of respect you get as an educator, from both parents as well as students. Also in the difference you are making for the student.

I know that alone, I may not be able to change the world but I believe that I am helping to change the world by helping to make a difference in the life of one person at a time, starting with the students I teach and those who come to me for guidance and counselling.