Ahh! TTC college days....

I was cleaning up the cabinet where I have kept a lot of photographs when I stumbled upon a few albums of photographs regarding my teachers' training college time. I must say that browsing through some of the young people's blogs, they often have a lot to say about being in college and having no time for this and that. Well, I want to say that you can have plenty of fun while in college and I most certainly did! I really had a great time in college and caught the biggest prize in my life, SLing there! Honestly, I didn't do badly in my class [ I have great results! ] and in fact , I graduated from MPLP with the most satisfying result in my life that is a distinction in my Teaching Practical [ A ] - Thanks to Mrs.Jackie, my lecturer. She gave me a good and encouraging review. I owe a lot to her for actually teaching us how to teach primary children at that time! Gosh! At that time I was given a good class to teach during my teaching practical and I did the best I could. I was really glad when my teaching practical lesson at the school was recorded by Mrs. Jackie and shown to new intake of trainee teachers for pointers and encouragement. Really, I was humbled by this experience and I felt happy.
Yunno, while in college I had spent my time on the three things I love - playing hockey, being in Kelab Kembara [ get to travel a lot and do a lot of outdoor stuff ] and learn the fine pointers of art. I'll start with hockey. We had a fantastic team from my seniors right through the end of my playing year. I had great teamates like Santokh, Azmi, Joel, Jega, Saga, Naga, Pushpa, Suresh, Leo, Ruslan, Musa, Vicky and many others. We really had a good time on the field. Among all my teamates, I have a special place in my heart for Joel Jacob and Azmi. They were easily the best players in the team. Joel was not very skillful but he makes up for hardwork while Azmi was the architect of the team. I also had the opportunity to play in the TTC Combined Colleges team competing in the FT Div 3 league at that time. It was a really humbling experience getting thrashing from Kelab Aman, Maybank and many other teams. We were there for experience as we had a very supportive Ketua Pengarah, our team manager who was a hockey and rugby enthusiast. I remember having lessons under Mr.C.Paramalingam, our one time Malaysian hockey team coach , Mr. Siva, his protege and a few noted coaches. It was tough training sessions but I have learnt a lot from these guys. In later years this experience had earned me many competitions trip as I represented SED, PBS region , my district and the state while teaching in Sabah.

The next was Kembara Club under two dynamic lecturers, Mr. Indran and Mr. Bernard! Great guys and I went to G.Tahan, Redang Island, Pemanggil Island, Bukit Takun and many others. It was at this club that I refined a lot of my outdoor skills. I have learnt it from these two great lecturers. The pictures will really say it all coz' I really had a great time out there and having great friend to share the experience with. It is something you would cherish in your life. I wasn't particularly crazy of rock climbing and all that because I find it to be really crazy but once you've gone thru it , it's really fun! My favourite is still very much Bukit Takun! The abseiling down is fantastic while the challenging terrain is just a fantastic climb. The other thing is I like islands a lot. When I had the opportunity to go to Redang and Pemanggil, I jumped at that opportunity. At that time, Redang Island was a real paradise of corals and abundance of sea creatures! Really beautiful! Then, there is always this opportunity to do canoeing and a whole lot of new things.

Then, there is art lessons. Though I am okay in sports,I decided to take up arts & craft as my 1st elective speciality. I am always fascinated with art and I had a good and slow talking lecturer for this. I learnt how to do batik printing, tie & dye, "canting" batik, mask making, wooden puppet on strings and learn finer points of painting. This helped me a lot during my teaching practical where I drew a lot of arts pieces for my teaching lessons during practical. Also, I did a lot of funny assignment cover design and it is one way to "cheer up" my weaker assignments, at times! Yeah! I don't copy assignment and I do work hard at my assignments but I try to lift up the spirit of the lecturers while they mark my assignment. Thank you, Mrs.Lian, Mrs.Jackie and many others who commented that they have a fresh pair of eyes everytime the mark my assignments! Usually, I'll draw some funny cartoon strips on my assignment cover so that they would laugh and have a feast to the eyes before marking. My art lecturer taught me creativity and it helps me until today. He taught me to be humble in learning and never be afraid to go and try out with my creativity.

One funny experience I wanted to share was my first day at teaching practical with 3 other class mates of mine. You see, that morning, we were 'semangat ' to go to a school to get first hand experience and we met this guy, loosely clothed t-shirt, a small straw hat and intensely planting some plants and flowers. He was so committed into gardening and when Haja Mohideen, [ second from left ] my classmate asked him whether we could see the headmaster of the school as we are going to do teaching practical at the school, the gardener just smiled and said that he was the headmaster! We almost 'pengsan' on the spot but we laughed and laughed for weeks! This headmaster was a really simple man, indeed! When we wanted to take a picture with him at the end of our stint, he told us that he woudl change in something else and viola! You can see in the picture that he was really smart looking with his loosely fitted tie! I actually like this guy because he is simple, no airs about him and he really cares for us - one of the dying breed of educators!
College was also the place I met SLing and this is very best of my college life, actually. Well, she was my junior in college. Honestly, I am one of those handfuls who actually marry their college sweethearts. There are many other who did not and that's really sad. They used to say that first year trainees are like red spot books [ very important and must be handled properly! ] while the second year and third year trainees are thrown to the open shelf to fend for themselves!!! Teruk, isn't it? Well, it's a vicious cycle!!! Yes, she was very supportive of me even until today.

See, college is fun but do your work and study hard. It's fun to be in college and you can have a great time without having to compromise your own personality, your character and the beauty in you. Remember, there are real dangers in college too. Keep your eyes wide open for shoddy character, casanova and non-trustworthy people!~ You'll know their "bau" soon enough! It is not different too during my time!~

So, watch yourself and have a great year ahead in college! To me, I am just having great fun reminiscing the good ol' college days!~