School of Social Sciences.

Freshmen Year, 2011.

SMU - Discover a different U

And so it begun with Unda. The blue house with hydro powers and the (lame) quest to save something. Yup, it wasn't worth remembering what that something was. Freshmen Orientation Programme was a good welcome back into the academic fold. What made it more interesting was the fact that for the first time in my life, I had cohort-mates from a wide age range. Over the years, it was the random retainee who would be an age anomaly in class, but that wasn't the case anymore. Younger females, foreign students, others who were returning to school after sabbaticals amongst the plethora of reasons. FOP was messy, fun and refreshing. It was a time to goof around, a time to just mingle and have fun. Minus the stuffy tent and the fact that I was missing a few World Cup matches, everything else was good. 3 days in ECP OBS with sun, sand, sea, flour, chincao, screaming my guts out in front of the container maze....

Paige. Lynette. Yilin. Thio. Clement. Zhuang. Joshua. Kenneth. Jian Wei. Alvin.

Convocation came and went, so did that sardine night in Zouk. SMU was fast approaching, but the end of the holiday didn't feel anywhere near. The summer was slowly ripening and there was that tinge of unexpectedness in the air. Next up, Social Sciences Freshmen Camp.

And so I went for that camp, knowing that the people I meet are probably going to be the ones whom I'll be seeing time and time again for the next 4 years. I declined pre-camp dinner and was left to go to camp on the first day not knowing anybody. Everyone whom I had kept contact with from primary school, secondary school, junior college, even the army, no one was going to the same faculty as me. With that, I trudged into the School of Social Sciences early in the morning only to be disgusted by the odd green camp t-shirt that I was given. Fast forward 2 days. Fast forward through numerous talk cock sessions, posing like fools in the botanical gardens, slacking our way through the amazing race and many other activities. SS camp was gone. Yet, it left behind that good feeling that the next 4 years didn't seem that bad after all. Wavehouse on the other hand, was, zzz.

Claire. Pam. Santi. Lydia. Daryl. Tim. Phang. Crunch. Justin. Peng. Rachel.

Right.

And so the 9 month holiday came to an end. 4 day school week was a joy to behold. Till I came to school and realised that most students do a 3 day school week with a mega weekend. Wet blanket, yes, but the sem had to go on. AW sucked away time like a perennially on vacuum cleaner. LTB meant meeting after meeting. TWC was slack. RMSS was boring and cold (literally). Sociology was all fun and laughter, but I came out of every class feeling paranoid and unsure about the world around me. Please note that that wasn't a positive thing. Datelines, exams, assignments, meetings, tests, meetings, board game, essays... they came one after another, with a few making repeated appearances. 13 weeks came by in a flash. And with its egress, December greeted me.

Leadership & Team building. Sociology. Research Methods in the Social Sciences. Technology and World Change. Academic Writing.

2011 and my 3 day school week was in place. The first week of school introduced me to the wonders of a 3 day week. Never in my life had I felt the liberation of the week come early on a Thursday night, save for the random public holidays that fall on Fridays. But to have it on a weekly basis was simply astounding. I got used to mono-tone in Political Science. I was wow-ed in Psychology class, but cringed at the readings every week. I felt at home in MC. CT turned out to be the mad class that felt more like a disco. BGS was just a formality to end the week after 4 rounds of class participation. Like semester 1, the weeks flew off the calendar with ease. Readings were lost to the hands of time, and so were my grades. I owned some, I got owned by some. I found out that my effort had a negative correlation to my grade. Odd trend, yet one that had the uncanny habit of biting my in the behind when I tried to put it to test. The anticipation of summer, the longing of the end, yet, the daunting of the finals. It was a rushed finish, yet, a finish nevertheless.

Introduction to Policy and Political Studies. Psychology. Management Communication. Creative Thinking. Business, Government and Society.

And that wrapped up my Freshmen year.

SMU is love-hate. There are things that I utterly detest, yet there are things that remind me why I'm here after all. I like the vocal culture, yet I cringe at the whoring during class part. I enjoy the competition, yet I baulk at my very own worry with regards to the bell-curve. But that said, I can't imagine myself in either NUS or NTU.

Sophomore here I come.