The After SPM

3rd of March that day SPM result 2015 was released. Reminds me a lot to the moment my batchmate and I in the big hall of SAMURA, coming with the same outfit theme which was white, anxiously waiting to know whether the result paid our sweats and tears throughout the two years struggling together. It was a very good memory as for our batch that time in SM Sains Muar, we managed to   bring up SAMURA's name again and at the same time remained as Sekolah Berprestasi Tinggi. We were called the "Batch of Redemption" at 2012 (the whole year we're taking SPM), and we did it as the name given to us. We managed to 'redeem' better achievement, top 10 in SBP ranking, despite the fact that we have the most number of students sitting for SPM that year among other SBPs which was about 320 something. It wasn't easy for all the teachers, especially. Thank you so much, dearest Teachers :)

After a few years, things have changed anyway. We all now went in separate ways. Well, there are lots of things I learnt throughout the life after SPM result was out, until now. There are two things I'd really like to share with my brothers and sisters out there who've just received SPM result, whether they reached your expectations or otherwise, here I'd like to say :

(1) 

If your result does not reach your expectation, YOU will see a brighter side of your future, something better is planned for you. Jangan pedulikan makcik pakcik dok tanya-tanya, compare-compare kau dgn sepupu lain cakap cam ni, "La, dapat tu je ke?" Hello, makcik, pakcik? Get ready guys to open their eyes wideeeeee. Maybe not as soonest, time has their own way to make things happen anyway, inshaaAllah your highest achievement does not stop after SPM. You have wayyyyyy many things to achieve in your Uni, Master, PhD, Career, Family and Life.

I have friends who did not make it well in SPM, but I saw them happy doing things they never expected to do now. I'm so proud of them! They have travelled the world wayyy more than myself and that's so impressive. From their story, they all wanted straight As / A+s to become doctors, engineers etc. But little did they know the less As result of theirs actually lead them to something they'd really really love to do, and in the best way, what Allah knows the best for them. Allah is the Most Knowing. You just have to trust Him and pray for guidance a lot.

(2)

 If your result is very good and okay you're happy but you are lost in deciding your future and thought that SPM result is not useful in this competitive world, you're wrong. Jangan pedulikan sangat senior-senior cakap, "Ala, setakat SPM, tengoklah nanti universiti macam mana." 

I know, nowadays we are all driven to study abroad and that's our main expectation especially if you got straight As. We can do so many things that we lost in direction of where to go :

Studying abroad :  too expensive

Getting loan : too competitive 

Asking for parents' sponshorship : don't want to trouble parents

Seeking private company sponsorhsip : they don't sponsor for the course you want

Studying in public Uni(s) : you don't prefer

I kindly would like to advice you to think : What kind of working environment you'd like to be in the future? Are you passionate enough? If you're not, are you okay to find ways to gain it? And most importantly ;
What do you want to do to contribute to the world, country, religion, nation, family, and not to forget, yourself? Look at your result slip and think. Some people say, at the end, you're born to just pay the bills and die. 

To my dearest juniors whether you've good or less-than-your-expectation result, actually, at the end, after all the hardworks, when you're about to take your last breath, you will think : What did I really do to LIVE. Did I really live. And you will feel nothing but the best if you know you've contributed enough to the world, to those people in need, and if in Islamic way, to gain Allah's redha and blessings.

Back to the part when some seniors might say that SPM is just SPM, even good result won't help you to survive this world. What I have to say here is that I was thinking the same thing too. I thought the good result was useless up to my PASUM (Foundation in Science at UM) days. I wanted to be so many things like Doctor, Entrepreneur, Politician (hahaha), Quantity Surveyor etc... Too ambitious I think. Being overly ambitious is useless too adik-adik. Haha. Stay focus!

Back in pasum days, I went through hard times surviving but alhamdulillah I did well at the end. I really wanted to be a Doctor actually but I did not apply for any medical course when applying for UPU (because to me, if I were to do medicine, I wanna do it in RCSI or UM), instead I applied for something else. This was actually because my CGPA during the first semester in pasum (they require 4.00 cgpa for medical course in UM and it's really hard to get) wasn't good enough for UM medical course. I have the feeling that I wasn't going to do degree in UM. I also tried another interview (can't remember what uni) in India for medical course but unsuccessful cos I wasn't a 4.00 student in pasum :(

Then, I got offered by UM doing the course I applied, but it was after I was really determined to go and hence already registered in Heriot-Watt University Malaysia in Putrajaya (the first batch as it was just opened), I fell in love with the Uni since the first time my father showed it to me in advertisement in Star newspaper, until now. :) 

So, before I officially started my undergraduate programme in September 2014, a number of emails hit my inbox and some of them are scholarship offers. The annual fee for HWUM is quite costly as this Uni is Scotland-based. I really don't want to let my Dad pay for the expensive fees so I went to seek for scholarship. One of the scholarship offer was YTL. It was the scariest (but realllyy beneficial) experience in my life. The moment I sat down facing the interviewers, the first sentence came out from one of them was, "This is not a normal interview you usually do, but THIS, is your job interview." Wth I was only 18 man haha but it was a really good interview though. After two interview sessions (1 hour for first session, 1 hour and 1/2 for second session, it's a second chance cos I failed the first one hehe), I made it till the end. However, the highlight of this interview relates back to my blogpost is that during my second interview, they mentioned this, "Based on the first interview, you've failed cos you seemed to not have any passion in construction at all. But to look back to your SPM result, it's really really good. You're smart. It'd be so good to have a person like you here." I previously almost cried during the inteview session but this sentence somehow strengthened my gut back, until the very second of NOW. I never thought the SPM result was useful and might be one of the factors they accepted me to be sponsored with full scholarship in hwum. The guy who said that was so nice too, he gave a lot of useful advices and it really helped me to remain strong in accepting where I'm at now.

I'm happy cos YTL is not merely a small company, I could learn a lot from them throughout my working years there cos I was basically bonded with them for 5 years after graduation. Some people say I'm doing QS because my dad doing QS too. It was definitely the most incorrect statement ever. After praying a lot for guidance from Allah, I knew and felt that the decision to study QS in hwum is the best for me. Of course sometimes I doubt, meanwhile feeling stupid in this new thing I'm learning, but it's really really interesting if I look at the brighter side. 

Remember when I said I also wanted to be an entrepreneur? QS is the platform now, guysss. QS is in construction line, we also learn business management, investment, property thing and everything. I never thought I'd love these stuff more than I love Chemistry, Physics etc... 

So, jangan pandai-pandai cakap result spm tak pakai dah, buang dalam tong sampah, bye bye. Haha.

In spite of this lengthy post, don't give up and never lose faith. You will see brighter side of your future. Just keep going, okay? Future is different for everyone. Not necessarily you need to focus on studying medicine, dentists (but if you're doing this now, it's already very impressive! :) ). There are soooo many things you haven't explored in this world yet. Based on what I've read in news and what my father told me is that Malaysia currently needs more brilliant youngsters to contribute in other fields than those fields mentioned above. Go for business, construction, technology, arts, science and many more. You'd make your extraordinary future, inshaAllah !