First and foremost, distractions from family members. Even though we have set up the time to remind family members that we are attending "university" from home, they just walked in casually into the room which sometimes annoyed us all, especially when sharing a room. During the first day, it's quite alright but on the second day it's just walking into the room, which can cause a lot of "chaos".
Secondly, the internet connection. Let's just face that technology really helped us a lot thanks to the Internet. Not all of us are lucky to have strong internet connections at home which led to some technical issues. If we are listening something important "in class", the internet connection cut off in the middle of the class and that would take some time to get the connection back.
Thirdly, turning on web-camera or webcams. One of the reasons that our lecturers encouraged us to turn on the web-cams so they could see our facial expressions and body languages. Not all of us are comfortable turning on our web-cams "in class", as we could feel thousands of eyes are staring at us. Some students preferred to have their webcams turned off because the teaching content is more important.
Fourthly, the absence of face-to-face learning. Although we were "in class", we couldn't sit next to our friends like we used to and talked before the lecturer comes in, instead, our computer screens replaced the physical presence. The Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia made the announcement that full face-to-face learning will be resumed in October. In July, campuses were opened as an early phase for students to come back to have access the facilities on campuses. That's all the challenges that were faced during online classes, gladly it's all over for now.
Although I couldn't meet my course mates physically, we still keep in touch through social media. I'm lucky to have them in my university life. I bet you wanna know more about them right? I'll tell you one by one. First off it's my best friend, Pamela, I call her Pam for short. We bonded over a hand-made pebble ring during our short semesters in January 2018. As they always diamonds are girls' best friend, clearly the bling did the bring us close together! She is the best big sister that I could ever ask for! She is my rock both physically and mentally.
Next up, another best friend of mine is Shree, I met her through Pam too. She has been my confidante throughout the semester, especially on the mental side of it because the final semester is always the toughest and the most challenging for any final year student. My mental health took a toll on me a couple of times, so we talked it out about the struggles we faced.
Need someone to cheer up? We have Raphael and Co! I'm talking about Aloysius, Ben Kin, Chester, Desmond, Raphael, Shaun and Nasrin. They sure put a smile on everyone's face. At some point in conversations, I have no idea what was going on, they sure shine a light in my university life. What's university life without any music and fashion? Carlson and Jinson are the people we are looking for! Fashion-wise, take a tip or two from Yuki, she always amazes me with her fashion, alongside with her PowerPuff Girls - Dayana and Shivani.
We can't reset the clock, but I wish we could to put everything at a stop and enjoy the moment for that one bit, but surely we can go beyond labels to achieve our dreams. The journey is almost coming to an end, hopefully, we will meet each other again sometime in the near future.
