Monday, May 26, 2008
B104 - the roller-coaster?
The four years journey at IMU officially ended last saturday (24th May 2008). Well, I would say the year of studying pharmacy was like a roller-coaster to me. I’d call it the B104 roller-coaster.
Once you get up, you can never get down...
I still remember ZY and I got conned counseled by the same counselor as she assured us that BPharm is easy to study and not too hectic, blah blah blah. (which is not true at all!) She made me took my very first step to enroll into the programme and I was offered a place at BPharm. My studying-like-hell days just began. Since semester 1, we had this hectic schedule.
Yes, we studied from 8am to 6pm, almost everyday!
In semester 4, where "it was a nightmare!" we were required to sit for 8 papers in 2 weeks time. I'm glad that I'm still alive and kicking.
There were days where I couldn't finish my portfolio "lost" the soft-copy of my portfolios.
There were days where I was so pissed off with Clinical Pharmacokinetics & Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM).
Your friends will never leave you half-way...
I think that is quite true unless they wanted to "commit suicide". Our batch started with almost 80 students but ended up only 56 of us graduated. Some had got offer from local universities… I heartiest-ly congrats them for getting the course they wanted. Some dropped off for some reasons... I truly wish them best of luck in their future undertakings. Some were required to repeat semester due to some unforeseen reasons... I felt sorry to them. But don’t worry guys… Just take a ride again after a long rest. I know you guys can make it!
You may ask did I ever thought of leaving half-way? I would say YES… I still remember the days where my gang and I planned to credit-transfer to other universities since semester 1… but once we proceeded to semester 5, seems no one raised up that issue again. How weird?
I even bought the UTAR application form and paid for the postal order. I thought of giving up since semester 1… Anyhow, I’m glad that I’ve made it through.
There are ups and downs, twists and turns.
That is not a strange fact unless you never ride on a roller-coaster before. My 4 years life at IMU was full with ups and downs, twists and turns. For better or worse, I’m so glad I’ve made some great friends at IMU. They were there when I needed them most...
Perfect strangers -> best friends!
B104 roller-coaster is an atypical one as it turned perfect strangers into best friends.
I enrolled into the course all alone and it was a nightmare meeting 75+ strangers on the first day. You may see it as an exciting experience meeting new people… True, but I would prefer a long-known friend instead of a complete stranger. Nevertheless, I’m glad that some of these strangers have become my best friends at IMU. Just to name some…
Li Guo – He was the first one who talked to me at IMU. Our conversation started with him asking “Hi, do you speak Mandarin?”… I thought he was a lecturer at first but after we introduced ourselves, then only I found out he was at the same age as me. Unbelievable.
I would say LG is a kind person as he has a big heart (proportional to his size perhaps) and loves to help others. He is fun to hang out with as he can tell really interesting jokes despite of his book-worm appearance. He is VERY diligent… I guess no one would ever deny that and at the end of the day, he graduated with the highest CGPA in my gang. He has VERY high moral values as well… too many theories for him to tell you and I guess that is what holds him back whenever he planned to do some not-so-nice things.
For those who are not too close with LG, you may not know LG actually suffering from depression (diagnosed by our gang)… He has a big but fragile heart, so we’d appreciate it if you can try to avoid from hurting him psychologically and making him felt depressed. Other bad qualities? It’s for you to find out, if there’s any…
Yen Wei – His first impression to me is kiasu (in Hokkien, afraid to lose)… I still remember he kept asking other people STPM CGPA even on the very first day… When I found out he came from Chung Ling, I guess I can rationalize his act of asking CGPA around. You know, Chung Ling flooded with top students and top students are competitive in nature.
I would say YW is a “bridge” in my gang… He made good relationship with lecturers and my other batchmates… He is diligent and intelligent, with his ultimate aim of graduating with a first class honours degree. He is kind-hearted as he will also help out other when he is not too busy. He has made my IMU life much easier and I owed him a favour, in helping me to pass Clinical Pharmacokinetics and Clinical Pharmacy V papers. He used to be a great companion of mine as we can talk nonsense like nobody business and shiok sendiri. Other people might think we were suffering from some mental disorders as we used to laugh hysterically without others knowing what were we laughing at. Mind you… you might be the reason we were laughing… LOL.
Another nickname of YW is “rate-limiting step”. As the name suggests, he is extremely SLOW in everything but he never late for exams. How weird? Remember semester 3’s Extemporaneous Dispensing practical exam? Opps…
Zhi Yang – My first impressions was “Oh! This guy is sooooo quite…” as he (with his nerdy hairstyle) was sitting alone quietly with his two laps “sticked” together. When I get to know more about him, only I found out he is very talkative and he is a news-satellite. He knows everything that happened in our batch. Later, he joined LG and I for lunch at Food Avenue and our friendship had grew stronger. Over the years, his hair had evolved from nerdy hairstyle to spiky hairstyle, and to the hairstyle he’s having now. It was a good change dude.
You can hardly see ZY attending lectures as his biological clock is somehow different from normal homosapiens. He likes online-ing, chatting with his friends around the globe, styling and colouring his hair, and last but not least, clubbing. There was once we suspected ZY is not a human as he is gifted with a GREAT limbic system. For instance, he took only 1 hour (or less perhaps) to memorise stuffs that we need to spend one whole day on. We also suspected ZY has 4 stomachs (like cow) as he can eat A LOT, ask those who went Chicken Buffet with him…
Not forget to mention that ZY loved to text me especially during study break and it kept reminding me that the real exam date was approaching. Whenever I saw a message started with “How WK? I’m so scared!!! I have no mood to study now. Do you think I can finish if I start revising tomorrow?”… I know it was ZY!
Chia Whey – To be frank, I was not dare to speak to him on the very first day as he looked like a gangster (with his hairstyle and hair colour and etc). But finally, we began our conversation in IMU’s library… I was praying hard that he won’t kill me if I spoke something wrong. He was the next to join LG, ZY and I for lunch at Food Avenue and the four of us were having great time spending lunch together and talking nonsense. You will find CW as kind, helpful and genuine friend.
CW used to be very close with me as we were TWINS. In my gang, we used to be the “gay” couple as he we both can act really gay. My gang was so upset when we found out CW was required to repeat semester 5 and that made us could not proceed and graduate together. How sad was that…
CW… we might not be as close as before but you will always be part of our gang. We truly wish you all the best and WE WANT TO SEE YOU GRADUATING ON YEAR 2009!!!
Han Ping – we began our conversation when we exchanged our phone numbers in auditorium during the orientation week. His first impression to me was he is a banana! And the truth is HE IS A BANANA, but still he can speak Mandarin with English accent. How interesting…
I see HP as a big planner. He is good in planning and he has great plans ahead to achieve what he wants… I guess he is someone good to talk to on those financial planning thingy. HP has a nickname – BOLITA (which made up of “bola” and “wanita”)… For BOLA, football is his life. He loves to play football and he has won some medals for IMU pharmacy team… For WANITA, he has a girlfriend for 5 years (or more?) and he has been a good boyfriend. For instance, he will not join us for Wednesday movie day as he always spare that day out to teman his girlfriend. Am I’m being sarcastic?
Poh Hon – I guess everyone would agree if I relate PH with money. Well, PH will make sure every penny he spent worth it… To certain extent, it is a good thing but hmm… He is a tall guy who always falls asleep during lectures with his own style, a unique one – he used both his hands to support his neck from the back. Hard to imagine eh?
PH is a special friend of mine as he gave me the most “special” birthday present – Armada Strawberry. He is also my best “HI-HI” (or “WAVE-WAVE” or “YUPP-YUPP”) friend since semester 7… It was not hard for you to see both of us waving hands like there’s no tomorrow and greeting each other by saying HI-HI or YUPP-YUPP. Why were we doing that? We actually imitating someone (I’m not going to disclose the name here, you may guess it right if you smart enough?).
A life experience.
Like it or not, it’d still be a life experience after years of riding on that B104 roller-coaster. To me, it’s going to be a memorable one. 4 years is not a short duration and thank God I’ve been gifted with these great friends who completed the chapter of my university life. I’ll always remember the days we laughed together, the days we cried together (I’m exaggerating…), the days we skipped lectures together, the days we “plagiarized” together, the days we studied like hell together, the days we cheered together, the days we did stupid things together, the days we gossiped together, the days we stood at weird places together, the days we touchwood-ed together, the days we prayed together, the days we hang out together, the days we went out trips together… too many the days and I shall end it up with… the day we graduated together.
Once again, THANK YOU dudes! I’m so glad to have you all. To all B104ian – ALL THE BEST and we’re going to make great pharmacists! WE’RE PHARMACISTS!!!
* B104ian… I know I’m going to miss you guys BADLY, even from now… *