Expression #O12994 “Two Magical Words The year was 2010. The time was Study Week, just before the final exams. The problem was my Foundation studies. You see, for an SPM straight A’s scorer, I suddenly had great difficulty understanding the modules for my Foundation in Engineering. It couldn’t be that I had turned stupid. But staring straight at me was my Calculus mid-sem test paper with a pathetic 0.5 marks out of 12! Somehow, I felt that a ‘zero’ was less humiliating than 0.5! My marks for the other modules were also not encouraging. I panicked. I would soon drop out! Okay, okay, I admit. I was swept off by the Korean Wave the whole semester. I continued to watch dramas even during the Study Week. I needed help but my happy-go-lucky gang was also sinking in Calculus. So, I prayed for a solution. Yes, I actually knelt down and prayed! Then out of the blue, I thought of him. Hmmm…he looked like the quietly intelligent and patient type. Maybe he was the answer to my prayers? I composed a nice text message asking him whether we could study together. That was my creative way of saying “Save me!!!!!” I nervously pressed ‘Send’ because he was just a newly acquainted coursemate. Why would he even want to study with someone he barely knew? And he looked like the smart kind who did not need to study. I cringed in embarrassment at my own boldness. But almost immediately, he texted back “Sure, can”. Whoa! Let’s see if he was any good! My heart soared with renewed hope! I only had a few days before the final exams started. The first day we ‘studied’ together, I showed him my epic ‘0.5 marks’. He didn’t laugh. He didn’t ridicule. He didn’t even raise an eyebrow. But he must have thought, “@#$%! What have I got myself into?” Anyway, he sat me down in the library. And for the next 8 hours STRAIGHT, only breaking to drink water and visit the loo, he taught me the WHOLE semester’s Calculus in a very methodical way. We even covered past years’ questions. No harsh word, no sarcasm and no trace of condescension even when I asked less-than-intelligent questions. Just ‘Super-Grade’ patience. But there were many instances when his already big eyes widened further into two UNMC Lakes, when he saw me using my ‘self-invented’ methods to solve problems! Then he would feign resignation and say, “I’m gonna bang my head against the wall!” By the way, those big eyes were awesome. They could read words and numbers upside down effortlessly because their owner chose to sit across the table from me instead of beside me whenever he tutored me. My guess was it had something to do with the fact that our friendship was still very new. We weren’t even friends on Facebook yet! Anyway, he made Calculus very clear and easy, even bordering on being fun! He taught me smart ways of identifying and relating questions to the syllabus. My confidence rocketed sky-high! Bring it ONNNNNNN, Calculus! At the end of this first marathon study session, I was sure he would never want to see me again. But, surprise, he set a time for the next day! On Day 2, we again spent 7 hours straight covering Electromagnetism. Same patient way of teaching. He used simple examples from daily life to explain complex principles. The third day, we revised Thermal Science using only 5 hours because I had grown accustomed to his teaching method. The sessions became enjoyable because my mind was no longer foggy and the panic inside me had melted away. He had a great sense of humour, too. Like when he insisted that I tackle a question to determine the mass of an iceberg, I was already mentally exhausted and told him, “God created every biji of iceberg in different shape and size, so how to calculate wor?” He burst into guffaws. Then came the exams. Then came the results. Would you believe it? I scored distinctions in all those subjects! From a Zero (or rather 0.5), I became a Hero and obtained an average mark of 80 for that semester! With this newfound confidence, I devised a way of studying which produced good results in the undergraduate years that followed. I no longer studied with him because we went into different disciplines of engineering. However, in Year 2, when he got wind that I was struggling with an Autocad assignment, he popped by and once again rescued me. Like Mulan, I must have saved a nation in my past life to have accumulated such good karma that this guy, who despite having a very demanding course of his own and a busy social life both on and off campus, was ever willing to help me! Over the years, we became close friends. In fact, he became a brother that I never had. From this episode, I learnt a few things. One, prayers are heard and answered. Two, sometimes we need to swallow our pride and ask for help. Three, there are still generous souls roaming planet Earth. And so, in August, I graduated with good results for my BEng. Over the past 4 years, I was able to maintain my High Achiever’s Scholarship (HAS) which means that UNMC actually gave me one whole year’s free education! This is something that I wouldn’t even dare dream of during that Study Week way back in 2010. I am now gainfully employed while he is pursuing his MEng. I am sure he will be an awesome Civil Engineer in future. And if you are reading this, Agent 010 (my nickname for him), thank you so much for texting back those two magical words, “Sure, can” four years ago!”
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 19:37:06 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015