The last convocation I had attended was during my own graduation slightly more than a year ago when I went on stage to receive my Masters cert from Professor Wilson from the University of Hertfordshire at a convocation held in the Nilai Springs Golf Resort in N9.
Never would I imagine that, a year later I would attend someone else's convocation as an academician and march into the ballroom on the red carpet to the boisterous cheers and thunderous claps of hundreds of graduates adorned in their graduation robes and mortarboards! The ceremony was graced by the guest-of-honour, Mr. Mike Cogger, the Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor and Dean of Faculty of the University of Gloucestershire, Datin Irene Gan and family, the owners of the Reliance Pacific Group of Companies as well as the Reliance College (which I am attached to)
Above is a picture of me (in the middle) flanked by 2 other lecturers, Mr Alex Chang to my left and Ms Teresa Lo to my right. The ceremony which started at around 8:30am lasted till around 11:30am. The guests then adjourned to the foyer to be treated to a luxurious buffet spread.
Here are my 2 cents on graduating. Imagine a marathon where a few hundred runners are participating. They all line up at the starting line and when the pistol goes off signalling the start of the race, every runner races forward with much enthusiasm and vigor. Halfway through the race, only half the runners who had eagerly started earlier are still running. Three quarters through the race only bout 25% of them are still running and towards the finish line, maybe only 5-10% are still running. At the end, there are only 3 shiny medals that really matters, a gold for the runner that finishes the race in 1st place, a silver for second and a bronze medal for third place. Everyone can start a race but it takes one that has the same determination and perseverance as when he/she started off will be the ones who will complete it.
In my life's journey, I have observed this. 95% of people quit what they started out doing due to lack of determination. Another 4% soldier on despite the odd and obstacles they face and another 1% actually finish as winners. I believe that, this 1% are winners because they envision themselves as winners even before the race began and manifested this vision throughout their journey (or race for this matter) and had made it their absolute mission to succeed no matter what it took.
So who are these 95%, 4% and 1%? Honestly, I'd say that, I fall in all these 3 categories at one time or another. Sometimes I'm really determined to succeed in spite of the odds, sometimes I just want to give up and quit and sometimes I want to finish as a winner and show people how good I am and what I am capable of achieving.
So the advice I give to my students during their orientation programme or during lessons is, before you embark on a new journey, have your goals in mind, write it down and refer to it every time you feel like quitting and give up. In every journey you undertake, or every new task you plan to accomplish, you will always find yourself in one of the 3 categories I had mentioned above. I'd be honest to myself what I want to achieve, my abilities and the time I have to accomplish the task I set out to do because we only have that much time on our hands and being human, we try to multitask and try to squeeze as many things as we can so that we have a 'back up plan' in case something goes wrong.
To the class of 2011 who graduated on 4/12/2011 at JW Marriots Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, I congratulate you on a job well done to arrive at where you are today. You truly deserve whatever you have earned through your hard work, perseverance and determination. I wish you all the best in your future undertakings and if you like to, you may take this little advice I humbly give you in this blog posting.
David Geh
