Fleeting moment

"Nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains; another, a moonlit beach; a third, a family dinner of pot roast and sweet potatoes during a myrtle-mad August in a Midwestern town. Smells detonate softly in our memory like poignant land mines hidden under the weedy mass of years. Hit a tripwire of smell and memories explode all at once. A complex vision leaps out of the undergrowth." ~Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses


I encountered this quote and found how true it is. I am sure most of the time, we will have trouble remembering something we had seen. What we see, we will inevitably forget but smell on the other hand is a much more significant aspect. The same scent which once accompanied us during childhood can bring so much nostalgia. Somehow, being exposed to the same type of scent brought us down memory lane and we felt as though we were experiencing the same moment again. It is as though a part of our brain has been unclogged. I love such moments. haha. It brings a really warm feeling.

Take my experience for example, I used to spray a strawberry scented mist on my hands before walking to tuition way back when I was young. The smell is somehow very strong that my dad often complained too frequently. Now, when I happen to spray the mist, I will somehow remember how I used to walk from home to the tuition place. Okay, this is a very lame example.

There are actually a lot of other occurences. The scent of papaya body butter from The Body Shop will always make me rememeber about Korea. Happy times happy times~

So, perhaps in years to come, certain smell can somehow trigger part of my brain to remember fleeting moments for instance, how clumsy my roommate is. ( She has not found my blog ) Just in case she finds it: perhaps in years to come, certain smell can make me remember how cute my roommate is. ( This is honest opinion )

Okay, just want to share an article I read from the star online about fleeting moments. It is not related to sense of smell. haha. Just click on the link below =)


Fleeting moments

Malam Kebudayaan MAP

This is the video of the cheers which our medical/nursing faculty of 2010/2011 won. Okay, maybe the video wasn't really clear but on the real day, we really really damn "bersemangat"



the following is our dance.(I didn't put the first 9 minutes. the video is too long and coincidentally it is broken into two parts. So, nvm la,I'll just display part 2 which is the fan dancing. lol) Anyway, it is quite messy and uncoordinated. We practised last minute and I for one, made several mistakes. haih.. but nvmla. Nobody seems to notice.

Buddy Night

This week is another week of orientation but it is by our 2nd year seniors. Okay, before that, I realized I'm extremely dumb for not bringing a camera with me all the way to Sarawak. There were so many beautiful sceneries to capture especially in the main campus. Now, they can only reside in my memory. ( I have a bad memory ) Anyway, this will be a very long and lengthy post as I wanna summarize (blab) about my two weeks' orientations.

Anyway, the system goes like this. It is a culture ( or maybe a custom, I'm not sure ) to have a buddy or better known as a senior that will guide the juniors in going through their university lives. So, the juniors will be given clues to find their respective buddies in a given duration. And punishment ( minor ones la ) will be incurred towards those who failed to find their respective buddies within the given time. So, everyone must be initiative lah. Tonight which was the buddy night will mark the end of our orientation and it is also an event where we can chat and get to know our buddies better. In order words, bonding between buddies.

I'm one of the lucky ones to have a very nice and helpful buddy. Happy~ :D Initially, most of us will be pretty envious whenever we saw our friends receiving notes from their buddies which made us wonder, "where is my buddy?". Okay, enough elaboration on that. So, for buddy night, my group was given the theme "akon". Honestly, we are absolutely clueless on what to perform as not only we are not naturally born dancers but we have no idea about hip hop dance as well. So, basically we just divided ourselves into groups and each group will discuss and come out with their own dance moves.

I'm really amazed by other group's performaces. They performed so extremely well that I feel so inferior and afraid to performe my own in front of them. I would say one of the biggest contribution to their excellence is their team work. Anyway, winning or losing doesn't matter. The most important thing is we've given our best and had fun. ( Okay, obviously I say that because I'm not one of the winners. Nothing new la since losing is something I'm very accustomed to. ) So, to others that probably feel quite bad, don't be as the highlight of the day is to learn and have fun. :)

The orientation by our 2nd year seniors are a very brief one as we had to combine with our lectures as well. And today is the first time I had mud, egg and flour splashed onto my face. I was speechless and dumbfounded for a few seconds when I found myself covered with mud, egg and flour. Most of the games were really fun especially the ones involving water. The nicest seniors that conducted the station games are the ones involving the blowing of candles. They are so thoughtful. lol.

Anyway, last week was our MAP. It was an orientation handled by seniors from Kota samarahan. Initially, I was sad with all the lack of sleep and home sickness. But I came to realize it was actually one the happiest and most fun moments in my life. (I lead a boring life. Experiencing such things made me a very jakun person) The LOs (Liason Officer) are extremely nice and helpful. They treated us like their own siblings. That's when I knew they really went through a lot of trouble to plan the activities to make our orientation a fun week. I am still missing them and the events that took place during the first week. It is a disappointment as they are so far from us now. As for our faculty seniors, we can still see them most of the time. Don't wanna see also will see. Oh yeah, probably will miss our 2nd year seniors when they go to Sibu for their 3rd year.

Okay, being a considerate roommate, I shall end here as I am leaving the lights on while my roommate is sleeping. Sigh, I'm so lucky too to have a tolerant and nice roommate. Also, she can sleep like a pig. So, it is definitely a plus for me whenever I need to leave the lights on for my own convenience. But I should stop torturing her for now. I'll post the video of our cheers which we won during MAP. Goodnight

Who moved my cheese

If I can wish for one thing now, I wish that all good things will come to NO end. But that's only wistful thinking. Over the past years, I've always had difficulties coping with changes. Specifically changes that involved the end of happy moments in my life. Memories to me are not enough. I'm so greedy that I want to hold on and saviour every bits of them. Having experienced such happiness and to lose it is not something I can handle very well. It's so saddening to feel so happy and yet knowing it will one day be over.

Whenever subjected to such situations, I had been so complacent and comfortable that when it's gone, I will have trouble finding myself back to reality. I'm not talking about one type of happiness. How good it will be if I'm only affected by one type of happiness. But I'm affected by all kinds of happiness that after every happiness, there will be a phase of sadness and longing.

I guess the slogan "carpe diem" will be of better help for me to cope with such situations. I'm sure there will be much more happy moments in my life in the future and when that happens, I'll hold on to the principle of "carpe diem" and when everything is over, I'll have no more longing and regrets. It'll just be an extra part of my sweet memory and hopefully, reminiscing about it will make me smile without causing any heartache.

My very first post

Being away from home and in a new foreign place (though I am still in the same country =.=) , somehow made me decide to open up a blog. The truth is, I am always talking to myself silently all the time and expressing my own thoughts to myself. Now finally being so far from home ( again, the word "far" is relative ) , the desire to reach out is overwhelming that I've decided to create a blog. So, here goes. My very first post :)

Just few weeks back, I was adamant that there is absolutely no way I'm accepting this offer. In fact, I spoke like I've known everything in the world. So confidently and arrogant. But somehow, God is there is guide and lead me. And of course I have lovely and supportive parents that will do everything in their will to make me happy. At that time, when I saw the word medicine, I was so afraid. I felt medicine is a disease that is going to suck the life out of me. Medicine is going to make me suicidal and unhappy for the rest of my life. Medicine is going to steal all the fun and joy that is yet to come.

But the truth is, I don't know anything yet for sure. If you ask me, can I handle medicine? I would say I like medicine, I like hospitals, I like taking care of people. BUT do I have the capabilites? Do I have what it takes? I don't have a strong personality. I am not courageous. I'm not very smooth with people. I have too many other unsuitable traits that it is too long to list them all. It just made me so skeptical that I was afraid. Someone once asked me, what do I want to achieve in life. All I could think of was "I just want to be happy." Don't we all?

So, not knowing anything and yet trying to act like I know everything, I set my heart out to appeal for the nearest Uni with the course which I wasn't selected for. I prayed to God asking Him to fulfil my wish. I even told a friend of mine that I have a feeling I will get it. LOL.

So, I told my friends and family that I'd rather go private sector than to do medicine. So, my dad brought me to my uncle hoping he could help me with the appeal. I was pretty disappointed when he didn't know much and even brought me to consult a doctor asking for second opinions. All I could think of at that time was "you're just wasting your time, there is no way I'm accepting the offer."

But here I am, in UNIMAS Sarawak and yes doing medicine course. What I've learnt is not all of us know what we want in life. We don't even know what it is that will make us happy. I belong in the clueless category. Til now, I don't really know myself fully. I see it now. That night, my uncle went through all the hassle in bringing me to see a doctor for second opinions so that I can have a clearer picture of the course before rejecting a disappointment that could be an opportunity in disguise.

Of course it is a damn tough course that requires so much work and persistence. I know there will be ups and downs along the way. ( Probably more downs ) But if I put my heart to it and take the initiative to change my shitty attitude, I belive it will be rewarding. I can't confirm anything yet for now. So with this blog, I hope to share my ups and down along this journey of self discovery. Goodnight