I reminisce about the darndest things while driving home. Today, i remembered about my first day in uni, 24 years ago. Good lord, has it been that long?
It was early July, only my dad came with me. My grandfather had just passed away, so my mom did not make the 3 hour trip down south. It was only my second time there, the first was for the interview a couple of months earlier. UTM back then was not part of UPU, they had their own arcane / clandestine method of selecting applicants.
I remember it was a quiet journey, i was unhappy and bitter with my dad for a number of things, some trivial, some not. I know getting accepted into a good uni is a fantastic thing, but back then i had a lot of issues with my parents.
Registration for the residential lodging was done on the first day, academic registration was done later in the week during orientation. I don’t remember much about the process, except that it was very organized – moving from counter to counter within the two interconnected mess halls. There was probably lots of forms to fill and documents to file. I distinctively remembered opening a bank account, too. There was only 1 bank on campus. There was even a counter taking registrations for PALAPES (military cadets). HAH, like hell i’m going to join something as regimented as that.
The place was filled with freshmen, with their parents and families. Chinese, malay, indian, Kadazans, Ibans, and all. Everyone was happy. I notice i was the only one who came without my entire family. Every freshman brought their own pail, just like me. I guess i had to learn this whole “hand wash” thing i heard so much about. Amongst the crowd of freshman, were some of the best friends id make in uni, like Dave and Ray, but i’d only meet them days later.
After the centralized registrations, we were directed to our rooms. They wrote it down on a piece of paper for me – L23A102B. I was fortunate to get the smallest of the 3 types of dorms. L23 is like a small semi-detached house, one side numbered A, the other B. Each side had 4 rooms on the ground floor, a small living room with settees, an empty kitchen (no cooking was allowed) and the toilet. upstairs, there were two rooms, and a small store. Mine room was upstairs facing the back.
When i reached my room, my roommate was already there unpacking. The door was ajar, but i tried my key to confirm it was my room. It clicked, and he smiled and said “roommates.”
“Can you speak mandarin?”
“Not so good”, i said. Good thing he could speak good English then.
Then when all the registrations were done, my dad left for home and i was alone in uni.
L23A had 8 freshman, plus one arrogant senior. Of the freshmen, most were my coursemates, except 2 guys doing Diploma in Civil Engineering, and two doing Aeronautical. There were 5 Chinese guys, 2 affable Malay blokes and one Sabahan (who once was locked out of his room with only his towel on). We all actually got along fine, despite coming from vastly different backgrounds.
Anyway back to that first day. We were free until dinner, where we had to were our batik complimentary (cheap) batik shirt and gather at the hall. Dinner was rice, beef and veg (with side of horrendous pineapple soup) served in one of those trays with compartments. Then we had to listen to hours of long boring ceramahs about rules and growing up etc. Little did we know it was a preview of what we would endure for the rest of our orientation week.
At past one in the morning we slumped to bed, exhausted and asleep in seconds.
In retrospect, university was a great experience for me, getting to meet good and lifelong friends in those 5 years. They say college or university is where you rediscover yourself, how very true. But without getting ahead of myself, that, was my first day in uni.
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