i’ve been having a few off days, but coping with all the nonsense that’s been coming my way. Progress is happening.
So I’m back at Starbucks Monash with my mocha and my thoughts.
So let’s talk about life.
People change as life progresses, we hope for the better, but sometimes it’s for the worse. We change to adapt, to move forward and to survive. As much as i’ve adapted to Living with Fibromyalgia, i’ve been making one big fat mistake…
I’m holding myself to standards i set out when I was 18. Standards set after leaving school on quite the high: Head Prefect, the President’s Award, Great SPM results and acceptance into a UWC.
All during a time when i had no clue what Fibromyalgia was. And what it would eventually mean for me…
That was the Old Me, and I need to accept the fact that the Old Me is dead. I cannot expect myself to live up to standards of then, it’s just unrealistic and will do me more harm than good; physically, mentally & emotionally. I’m not saying that i’m going to stop dreaming, but i am definitely going to need to be less harsh and more patient with myself.
I need to accept
that it’ll take me longer to achieve my goals than it would be for a regular person
that my health is the undisputed #1 priority in my life
that my potential isn’t as great as it would have been when i was 18
but that doesn’t mean
that i wont reach my goals
that i can’t focus on other parts of my life
that I won’t do great things.
It just means that
I need to allocate resources better
I need Take care of myself
I need to look for different paths, ways and options.
The death of the Old Me by Fibromyalgia doesn’t mean in any way that my life is over,
Good Morning guys,
Hope you’re morning has been good! I’ve got my Mocha next to me as I sit at my fav table at the Starbucks Monash.
I got hit by a Fibro Spike (sudden, out of the blue, ninja spike of my fibromyalgia symptoms etc) yesterday morning that really took the wind out of me for a big part of the morning, but i managed to eventually (2 hours later) get out of bed. This morning wasn’t as bad as yesterday, it was difficult but nothing like yesterday and took me 10 minutes to shake enough of it off to get out of bed, though today i experienced something that’s been MIA for a long time, waking up moderately disorientated with a hint of nausea on the side. As for now, things seem to be pretty good. Had a good ComBank tutorial and an even better Business Law tutorial, as of now BL is my fav class, the syllabus thus far (2 weeks) has been intriguing. It’s making me wonder whether i should actually be doing law. I know it’s only been 2 weeks, it’s just that fighting against injustice is something that appeals to me, i’m not a big fan of unfairness and if there’s something i can do about something i think is wrong, I’d like to act on it.
Which brings me to today’s main course, though it’s not all that filling.
Last week i published a post about my the Monash Parking Problem, and in doing that I’ve also launched a new category, initially to be called Monash & Co, but decided that Student Life would be more apt. It doesn’t limit my writing to just Monash, but allows me to collaborate with Down Memory Lane to bring write about previous student life in; CPU, UWC.
In this category will be the writings of a student about issues ranging from infrastructure, like the last week’s piece, to academics. Essentially anything to do with my current place of eduction; currently Monash University Sunway Campus. I feel that through writing i can Act, that i can create awareness and hopefully make a change or non-change. I will write about things that i feel can change or praise things that i think have been done right.
Now, just because last weeks post didn’t reflect Monash in the best of light does it mean that all future posts will follow suit. No.
I will praise and I will critique.
I will write the good, the bad & the ugly.
It will be based on my opinion of right and wrong.
I will strive to be as unbiased as I can,
I will do my homework,
but essentially,
I’ll write it as I see it.
Just a heads up, the next few posts will not present Monash in the best of light, but it is something that needs to be put out there, just need to do a little more homework.
Well, i think that’s about it.
Oh wait i forgot!
If you have something you would like me to look into and write about please let me know, and i’ll look into it and see whether i can put a post together.
#BacktoClass
A new academic year has started and as such I’m back here at my old writing spot at Starbucks Monash Sunway, it’s been at least 4 months since i last blogged from here. Today i am accompanied by Latte, 2 normals shots topped off by a decaf shot. Good to see that many of the faces from the last semester are still around behind the espresso machine.
Birthday Present!
Now, maybe you’ve noticed a new addition to the pic above and maybe you haven’t, for my recent 23rd birthday my A-Team got me a Logitech bluetooth enable keyboard for my iPad and today is the first time i’m really using it and i have to say, it’s pretty damn nice. Thanks guys. Not that i didn’t like typing on the iPad itself, it’s just that now i won’t lose touch with typing on my macbook, which was happening last year. the iPad on-screen keyboard is way more compact than the physical keyboards and i started having some trouble typing on a physical keyboard a few months after getting my iPad, so now that will not be happening, feels very close to typing on my MacBook Pro. Oh, and now that there is no keyboard on-screen, the entire Retina Display is dedicated to my writing, that’s probably my favourite thing.
Today’s Point
The current issue on mind was kicked off by the Sunway Monash Residence office and their communication failure 2 weeks ago.
I was at the SMR office to apply for the the Non-Resident SMR parking, and was told that they don’t do pre-bookings and that i would have to apply next month. I figured that to mean come on March 1st. i actually thought about applying there and then for February, and i pay for the current month, which would essentially be burning the 50 bucks for Feb, but since I was told that there was no pre-booking i figured that if i come early on the 1st there wouldn’t be any problems applying. However i would not be able to go on the first so i got help from my mum and a friend but that came to nothing as i was told a few days before the 1st, while i was in perth, that not only was the SMR Non-Resident parking lot full but that the waiting list was closed.
Now imagine my confusion,
how can there be a wait-list if there is no pre-booking the week before the beginning of the next month. I was confused and not pleased, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying my great perth holiday; which i will talk about at a later date. So, on the first day of this semester i went over to the SMR office to talk to them but that came to nothing, there was nothing they could do to help me out, even though it was one of them who misinformed and mislead me. All i kept hearing was, “the waiting list is closed” and found out that they were taking-in applications on the 25th of feb….
Wait a sec… let me see if my math and concept of space and time is right…
A week is 7 days, thus 7 days before the 1st of march is = 23rd of February… but wait, that can’t be right because i was told there was pre-booking and that no applications are taken in during the last week of a month,
so…
is the SMR Office using a different calendar system (in which the should be public about it) or is my basic concept of the calendar system at fault?
Dear SMR Office,i think you guys need to get your act together and be very clear on your Non-Resident Parking Application Policies & Procedures, something like the incredibly detailed set rules and regulations for the parking lot that’s on the application form, but for the Application Process. Hopefully this happens sometime soon, hey maybe i’ll go over and suggest it, so that students like myself aren’t let down in such a confusing & bitter manner.
Oh, and in the event that you do actually have formal procedures & policies for applying, why was i not provided with that information when i came to inquire 2 weeks ago, or better yet last year when i got the lot.
So what i learnt from all this and my couple visits to the SMR office is the customer service isn’t all that and that there are people there that just don’t know how to communicate and that you can’t trust what one person communicates entirely as it may not even be right.
Ok, so i didn’t get my nice parking spot, i’ll just revert to the normal parking right?
But wait,
Unfortunately the Monash University Student Car Park (SCP) fills up by 9am, on most days, and the median, mean and mode of my classes is 12pm. So this posed a problem on Tuesday when I arrived at Monash at 10am… which was solved by parking by the side of the road that also leads to the SMR Main Entrance, somewhere in the region of a 10 minute walk from campus, somewhere on the road next to the South Quay Lake.
And I wasn’t the only one who had to park there, there were at least another 40 cars there.
Yes i was irritated and angry that I was misinformed and that in order to get a space at the SCP i would need to be there by 8:45am but I will (and have) adjust(ed). My little parking problem alone isn’t a big deal but i’m not alone in this, there are many students who face problems with parking everyday and some to an extent where they are late for class (even though they came plenty early) or miss class, Monash University Sunway Campus needs to do something, maybe buy some land next to the SMR or near the South Quay lake and build a multi level car park with a proper weather proof student walkway to campus.
Unsustainable Growth
How can you keep enrolling more students when you do not adjust the parking capacity to support the growth? Once upon a time, from a year ago, it was possible to get parking between the hours of 9 & 10am, but by 9 it’s not at capacity but over-capacity and spilling out all over the place.
Just let me be clear,
I’m not whining about this. yes I was on a rant for some parts of this post (at the least haha) but like i said, i’ll adjust and deal with this current problem, i’ve had much bigger problems to deal with over the last year than that of this.
Silver Lining?
Well,
It will give me a bigger push to wake up bring & early to get my morning rituals done and be at the monash parking by 8:30am, it’s going to encourage me to plan for the week and stick with it and i’m going to save a little more money.
Parking a week will cost me now RM8, which is RM32 a month which is Rm18 saved. hahaha.
However,
I would really encourage Monash to help ease this major parking problem as it is their concern, it is a direct problem for their biggest stakeholders, the students! and i also hope that SMR will get their act together, their customer service could be much better and so could their communication & transparency.
For a change I’m writing from the Starbucks at Gardens, but still with my cafe mocha. 🙂
Today is a big day for me, I hope it all goes well.
On that note, I want to talk about the power that you get once you face your fears, once you’ve completed that task that you have been resisting. I’m actually pretty scared now, I’m going for a job interview after this, to get a sales position at Machines, hopefully Machines Gardens. I’m scared because I have never done this before, this is new to me. Have never had a real job before. Thoughts have been popping into my head. “what If I can’t do it?” “what of I don’t get it?” “do I really want it?””I can still cancel” “I don’t have to do it” bla bla bla.
But you know what, I want this job, It is a step in the right direction, I want to learn how an apple reseller works, so that maybe i can have my own franchise one day, I want to sell Apple products because I am passionate about them, I want the experience as i want to continue to grow but most importantly, I want to move forward. It’s been a great productive 5 weeks, and I want to continue that flow. I’ve been writing, reading, sleeping well, exercising, dabbled in investing, meeting people etc. I think I’ve mentioned before, this feels like my second coming.
All those questions and doubts, were coming from a place of fear, fear of failure, fear of the unknown. And I will face that fear because once its done…. It will give me power and confidence.
For example, yesterday I finally met a lecturer that I’ve been meaning to meet for a while, I put it off for so long cause I was scared, intimidated, worried etc etc. I was afraid I would mess up the meeting, but finally, yesterday, i just did it. I took the elevator up and met her and you know what? It was a great meeting. She has pointed me in the right direction to sort out my issues reading my Accounting Major and I have a meeting with the Director of Undergraduate Studies today. Hopefully she will be able to help me solve my problem. I’ve been procrastinating for so long simply because I didn’t want to face the fear of not being able to pursue Accounting, or having to delay my graduation by another semester and all those things. The phrase “Ignorance is Bliss” comes to mind, but ignoring the problems isn’t going to make them go away. No. That require conscious effort. Sometimes we run away from our fears so that we can pretend they’re not there, I sorry, but it’s time to wake up.
“I know of no more encouraging fact than th unquestionable ability of a human being to elevate their life by conscious endeavour.” Henry David Thoreau
So today, I’ve got two big steps to take, my first real job interview and a meeting at university. Both are big steps. And I am scared, but I’m not going to run away from this challenge. I will face it
And whatever happens, I will face that as well. If I don’t get the job so be it. If the meeting doesn’t go well I’ll extend my studies by another semester because failure is inevitable in the journey of life, you just have to make sure that the failure doesn’t stop you from moving forward. I’ve had enough of being scared, how about you?
“Fail Faster. Succeed sooner.” David Kelley
“Screw-ups are the mark of excellence.” Tom Peters
“twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do that by he ones you did.” mark twain
“the real risk lies in risked living.” robin sharma
arkaysthoughts 