Convocation Speech

Ohhhhh yes!

Today is the day! I heard giggles, laughter, and people saying – why is she wearing this shirt? Did she just wrote something behind?

First day in Utar, my lecturer asked why did you choose Utar? Is this your choice? Your parent’s choice? Lady’s choice or no choice? That day my friends and I vandalized this shirt as an answer to my lecturer. Today, last day in Utar, I wanna change that answer, Utar is indeed my choice.

4 years in this Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, 4 years in this Universiti Tak Ada Rehat, we have learnt and grown. These 4 years have piled up by tears, sweats, crazy assignment loads, different lecturers, different friends, boyfriend, boyfriendssss (well imagination is not a fault right?) and my mom’s occasional phone calls.

Well, at different stages of the university life of mine, I have come out with different theme songs

First year – a whole new world, a new fantastic point of view

Second year, to my assignment group mates – what do you want from me?

Third year, to my lecturers – what do you want from me?

Final year, to myself – don’t go crying to your mama cause you’re on your own in the real world

So, there are times when we are confused, puzzled and tried to give up. Two years back, I still remember I stood in front of a dead body of a young man who had committed suicide. I can still remember how I got goosebumps and teary eyes just looking at him. I wanna say thank you to all of you in your beautiful graduation robes right now. Thank you for not letting anyone’s opinions drown out your inner voice, thank you for having the courage to follow your heart and intuition, thank you for making it here today.

Everything is hard. Getting a car park is hard, holding pee during traffic jam is hard. It is hard to not feel awkward when people sing happy birthday song to you. But remember that everything will pass. We need to learn to look at the optimistic side of the hardship and we need to have trust and faith in ourselves.

There are a few things I’ve learnt throughout these 4 years. First, stop making comparison. Every second you spend thinking about what somebody else has, you’re taking away the time for you to create something for yourself . Second, be patient. Need no rush. We are not Kardashians, we do not have family who have articulated success and give us the springboard to success. Think about that, we are lucky. We are incalculably lucky to be born, we are lucky to have the great families who give us the opportunity to get educated, we are lucky for them to encourage us to enter this beautiful university. If you come from a horrible family, you are still lucky for having the healthy mindset to not let anything be your shoelaces.

What is important here is YOU. What do you want to be in the future. Once you’ve set your goals, go for it. Strive for your success. May it be a tough one, only then you will appreciate the outcome of it.

So, I would like to end my speech like how I started it.

Ohhhhhh yes!