The Hot and Cold Before The First Encounter

I am literally enraged with myself. Why you ask? Oh, you didn't? Must've been my overly super self conscious mind playing tricks on me. Even if you are not bothered nor are you any curious, I am going to spill the beans anyway.

Reason : How can someone be anymore ridiculous writing a 'story' without slightest decency to properly introduce the main character? At least a name! If this was to be submitted to my literature teacher, I would've gotten myself 10/100. Ah, no need to mention all those grammatical errors. I realised that when I read the post. But well, perhaps there is no reason to be a strict inspector here. It's just a story I wanted to share (fictional/factual to be notified later) regarding a girl who has gone not that far, but definitely a few miles from the starting point.

So the main character's name is Miss A. No, not the Korean Idol Girls' Group or whatever. Let's just call her Miss A for now. A bit info on Miss A. Her height is average, body of medium size, very very VERY talkative, addicted to karaoke, movie maniac, almost a spendthrift, likes to eat and very very poor in art. Oh, did I mention stubborn? Moody, sometimes introvert, sometimes extrovert, has a special interest towards theme parks, no boyfriend, just recently figured out that she was an idiot for liking an idiot all this while. Her favourite movies are  Bridget Jones, The Proposal, Beauty and The Beast and if I were to list every movies that she likes, you would probably give up reading this shit.

Okay, that should do it. Covers some characteristics that I can pull off for now. As this story progresses, perhaps you'll have some ideas on her.

The first encounter was a summary on Miss A's first semester as a diploma student at one of the top public universities in Malaysia. But a sunny day today doesn't mean it wasn't raining the day before.
She can be considered lucky to be accepted into the course of her own choice at a university that she wanted to go. However, before all those drama on how she felt like a mannequin in her class, lies another chapter that I supposed in worth telling.

Coming from a fairly average, middle income family, she has been aiming a place at a public university to pursue her tertiary education. No funny reasons whatsoever but she just thought that it would be financially wiser for her to get into public university. So she studied well, not that hard but she did try to join any extra curricular activities that she could during her years in high school just to get the extra merits.

Funny thing about Miss A is that she used to always knew what she wanted to become when she gets older. At 7 years old, when she was asked of what her ambition is, without hesitation she would've told you her dream occupation. 9 years later, her answer was still the same.

Anyway, that was that. So during her high school years she had always liked debating. At 14 years old she looked up to the debate team. Wondering, if she would ever get picked. You see, back then in her school, English debate was the only successful debate team in school. Malay debate was so-so. Students barely know they had a malay debate team. So, yeah. Ah, but for the English debate competition, every team must have at least one Bumiputera speaker. Miss A went for the audition, and well, she got laughed at by her seniors. Her English is so-so, compared to many others with perfect grammar. But she got in anyway. Perhaps because they needed a backup in case something happened with the existing Bumi speaker. So for two years in a row she was in the team as a reserve speaker. But those years were where she had learned lots of stuffs, particularly research wise. Her presentation skills got even better, and to be honest, it made her a lot more confident. Her English got better, maybe because well, when you're in an English debate team, you would spend hours speaking in English. Truth be spoken, Miss A actually learned super a lot from those two years with the team. Her teammates were helpful and supportive as well. They taught her valuable lessons not only for competition, but also for life.

At the end of Form 4, Miss A and her fellow debaters went on to help organising a National Level Debate Final. Well,every school with debate teams sent their debaters to watch the finals. So Miss A went and watched the final debate. Oh my, those debaters were super cool, very charismatic, their speeches were smooth, confidence overflowing, really tough fight. While watching the debate, her mind was racing with imagination and lots of wonders.

"How does it feel like standing on stage with hundreds of people watching, delivering your speech, answering POIs?"
"I really want to be feel that once"
"How cool must it be to be on national finals"

Well, she dreamed. Although she knew that she was to quit all extra curricular activities to focus on her SPM, she still dreamed anyway. It is not a harm to dream, plus it is not like she tells everyone everything that is on her mind.

Form 5 came by. At one point, she asked her friend who was in the Malay debate team regarding Malay debate. Reason being was because their malay debate team never got farther than second or third round of district level. But she had this 50-50 feeling about trying out. So she told her friend she'd thought about it. On the day of the audition, she was still unsure but she still went for the audition anyway after being sternly persuaded by her friend.

Luck was on her side, she got in. And she got her first feel of delivering her speech in front of 10 spectators including those adjudicators.She was dead nervous, her first POI question was
"Adakah YB mengatakan kasih sayang ibu bapa sama sahajah dengan kasih sayang pembantu rumah"

Guess what she answered?

"Ya, sebenarnya sama sahaja"

Everyone was frowning with her answer, except her opponents. They were dead happy. Of course, they wanted to win too! That was her first round.

Eventually, this team passed by round by round, got very LUCKY Izzudin did a huge mistake, and they made it to District finals! Can you imagine? An underdog team made it to the district finals, and they WON. Surprisingly. And Miss A got a little something extra, something every debater dreams off.

And days passed, months passed, stages passed...

They were on their stage in a school in Perlis, hall was big, full house, with more people standing outside the hall watching, preparing for battle, representing not only their beloved alma mater, but their state.

Sadly, the journey was until there. They didn't get through the Zone War, but it was still a national stage.

Then everybody started shifting their focus on SPM. Miss A had a lot to catch up from those weeks of skipping classes because of debate. Her teachers were worried, especially her librarian teacher aka her History teacher. Oh, her literature teacher was worrying too, same goes with her English teacher. They were proud, but they were worried sick as well.

Things went well. March 2007 results got out, Miss A and her friends were blessed with abundant of joy and success. Everyone was happy. Then came the moment where decisions need to be made. Miss A did not want to go for foundation or A-Levels, or overseas studying, or matriculation. So she opted for diploma studies instead. A path way different than her original intentions...

Then, the unexpected thing happened....



Author words of wise:

A little analysis on the short story above,

Always keep in mind that every situations that you are in are meant to teach you something, that you will benefit something from it. You might not have a big role or a chance to shine or whatever, but take it slow and learn something from it. You'll be amazed at how much you actually learn from such situations in which you regard as something small and unimportant. But at the same time, never stop dreaming, and when you dream, make sure you dream BIG. Because you'll never know what opportunities may come by. Of course, hard work is a must. Dreaming is a must and praying is vital! Enjoy yourselves along the way, never stop learning, always be humble, NEVER EVER EVER think that you're the best. Always think that you can improve and be better. Don't be selfish, SHARE whatever knowledge you may have. There will be people who mock and just do not believe in you, but keep calm and treat them as a motivation. You'll be surprised by the power you get from them.

Sincerely,
ZAZA