Skip to main content

AACD: A Gap Year in A Pandemic

(You may be wondering what AACD stands for, or you may not... hahah)

Well, if I am committed enough and this does actually become a series, then I am calling it AACD which stands for 'An Anecdote of Curveballs and Detours' because... isn't that what my life has gotten into? Unexpected detours!

(yes I wish I can call it ABCD but anyway)

To celebrate my survival of uncertainties in life, aka my first anniversary of being a graduate, aka the so-called 'gap year' I had never expected to experience, I figure I may as well recount and recap what the past year has been for me. Maybe more on what I did, since I think I have talked (wrote) a lot on what I felt over the past year hahaha so here's a top three highlights of my (pandemic) gap year!

1. Gained a priceless internship experience

Some of my friends have told me that I always seem so passionate and excited when I speak of my internship in Teach For Malaysia (TFM) lol but I'm not exaggerating though, I really am! My internship experience in TFM, which coincide with the phase I was stuck in (a confusing junction unfamiliar to those who just graduated university) changed a lot of perspectives I have towards many things - on a personal and general level. I can write a whole essay on what I have gained in TFM (I mean, it was 6 months long!), but in summary, some of the things that I have learned include (but not limited to):
  • Knowledge Management: As an intern, I mainly oversee the knowledge management of the team so I was in charge of preparing minutes as well as compiling and organising resources on our work portal (in TFM, we use Confluence as our KMS)
  • Stakeholder Engagement: When it comes to project management, I had the opportunity to support my team in engaging stakeholders (especially the public sector). I have to say that my BM skill has been so helpful in drafting emails, letters and even in making phone calls/texts to gov officers :)
  • Research & Development: I have always enjoyed doing research! So, I was particularly excited every time I was given the platform to support in researching and identifying issues related to education. I read a lot on educational issues in Sabah and Sarawak in particular and eventually, I developed an interest in social issues that are happening in East Malaysia.
  • Monitoring and Evaluation: Finally get to apply the formulas and tools in Google Slides/Sheets (and also Microsoft Excel/PowerPoint) I learned in my 'Research and Presentation Skills' module in my second year. I assisted my teammate in analysing data for progress or impact reporting to stakeholders, and also data for internal tracking
Though all those above forms a huge part of my internship, things that I remember from my internship aka the highlights of my time in TFM is actually more 'social' than technical haha.
  1. Working culture: Someone used to tell me: “With TFM, when they recruit/hire, they take on people who share the same mission. They know exactly why they join.” People I’ve met and talked to in TFM are those with a VERY high sense of purpose in life. They’re very purpose-driven and goal-driven (I guess also mission-driven). It is such a privilege to work with people of these traits, especially since I do find TFM values highly resonate with mine since the day I applied
  2. Learning about education inequity: I love the opportunities to learn about the cause TFM is fighting for, especially from the things shared in our Slack channel. The Teach For All conference was also one of the highlights in my internship that I have enjoyed the most, as the conversations and sharing sessions are so stimulating and inspiring *teary eyes*
  3. Working in a team: It’s technically my first time working closely within a team in a professional setting, and I have learned a lot (and have a lot to improve) on communicating within a team, exploring ideas, brainstorming together and make the most out of the space for discussion and negotiation. It wasn't as overwhelming as I thought it would be, thankfully! XD
Overall, if you are looking for a valuable learning experience and looking forward to completing an internship feeling *highly* inspired, I highly recommend TFM as a place for you to start! 

(also, guess who got featured on TFM website XD)


2. Tried out new things

New things always excite me weehee! I signed up for a volunteering project organised by Small Changes (SC), and as a volunteer, I was required to fundraise for the project we are working on. It took me a while to think about a fundraising project, but since I am in love with reading and have a passion for writing, I ended up offering a proofreading service (and also resume review) to raise money for the initiative by SC. It has been a wonderful experience, and I am so grateful that I managed to raise a total of RM241 (which is beyond the initial target of RM150 set for us)! I am still touched and thankful for the support I have received over the two months (May-June), and of course, credits and shoutouts to my English teachers who have done a great job in making me comfortable in using English as my second language hence being able to assist my friends in editing and reviewing their assignments and CV/resume :)



3. Of course, drowned myself in BOOKSSS!

This section needs no explanation haha. I won't actually call myself an avid reader, but I do think I love reading a lot. Being unemployed and a fresh graduate made me think a lot about what do I associate myself with, what do I think myself of, who am I actually without all these things I have been 'identified' with. Who am I, without being a student of this uni, without being an intern/employee for this company, without volunteering for this organisation, without living in a particular country, or identified to a specific race/religion; who would I be, what would become of me? The past months have made me realise, without all that, I would still be reading. Hamizah would still be holding dearly to her books, and that's probably exactly the things she would fill her treasure chest with.

I initially aimed to read a total of 15 books this year but I have already achieved my target halfway through the year hahah alhamdulillah! I may need to set a renewed target but I have been so occupied lately so I haven't revised my reading goal for the year (oppss!)

In case you are interested, here's a list of books I have read this year. The ones with * sign are the ones I would recommend others to read, while the ones with ** sign are the ones, in my personal opinion, not only worth reading but also worth buying! (provided we have the same taste in the kind of books we read la haha)




Was that it? No la, I mentioned just now it's my top three highlights, so there is actually more but I am trying not to write lengthy blog posts anymore (is this not lengthy hmm this is questionable Hamizah)

I will probably share a little bit more next time on the things I have done or maybe, in other words, some of the things you can do (in case anyone here is considering taking a gap year...?) but I can't promise anything! Haha mainly because I don't have that much free time I used to have and it has been tough for me to find the inspiration to write, well, I guess you know why hehe

So, shall I say stay tuned, or nah? I am not sure myself but I guess it's a goodbye from me for now, and please stay safe my virtual friends!







p/s: Would really appreciate it if you can also sedekahkan al-Fatihah to my aunt, Zubaidah M. Shariff, who recently passed away on 1st July 2021 (20 Zulkaedah 1442H) after battling against covid-19 for over two weeks. May Allah accept her 'amal and kindness and bless her with Jannah, Amin.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Arkeologi?: Satu Perjalanan

Kira-kira lapan bulan yang lepas aku ada tulis satu ' post ' tentang subjek arkeologi, atau secara spesifiknya, aku cuba nak kongsi sikit (berdasarkan pengalaman yang tak berapa nak ada ni) apa yang ada dalam bidang arkeologi ni. Tanpa aku sangka, susulan post aku yang tak seberapa tu, aku mula dapat beberapa soalan dekat ruangan 'comments' dekat post tu pasal bidang yang aku tengah belajar ni. Mungkin selepas aku dah terangkan serba sedikit apa yang ada dalam bidang arkeologi ni, ada segelintir pembaca blog aku ni yang berminat nak menjadi ahli arkeologi. Alhamdulillah, rasa bangga pun ada, rasa terharu pun ada... TAPI Saudara sekalian, aku bukanlah orang yang sudah pun bekerja dalam bidang ni, apatah lagi orang yang berpengalaman dalam bidang arkeologi ni. Maka coretan kali ni ialah coretan secara rendah dirinya sebagai seorang hamba yang baru saja berjinak-jinak dalam bidang ni selama 15 bulan... (bukan 15 tahun ya!) Kepada sesiapa yang dah pun ba...
10 comments
Read more

Arkeologi?

“Archaeology is about everything.” – Mark Roberts, 11.06.2018 Memandangkan tak ramai orang buat course ni (setahu aku), mungkin orang tertanya-tanya apa yang ada dalam archaeology degree ni sebenarnya.  Bila lecturer aku cakap ‘everything’, memang dia maksudkan  everything .  Maaf kalau agak bias sebab besar kemungkinan aku akan kongsi daripada perspektif seorang pelajar UCL, instead of pelajar arkeologi secara amnya huehue Arkeologi ni, nak dipendekkan cerita, nak kaji cara hidup orang zaman dulu. Tapi, cara nak mengkaji tu sangatlah luas, therefore this subject is very, very interdisciplinary.   Hmm jadi, arkeologi ni, pasal apa sebenarnya?  1.        It is about history , politics , and economics Kalau nak faham orang, kita kena cuba letak diri kita kat tempat orang tu kan? Macam itulah arkeologi. Kalau nak tahu macam mana dan kenapa certain things happened in the past , kita kena ta...
32 comments
Read more

"All is Well!"

"Orang kata, big challenges are for people with big heart " This post is going to be filled with loads of quotes, and the one I just begin my post with is one of the first quotes that comes to my mind when I feel like ' everyday is a tough day at this point '. And recently it has been a quote I am reminded of the most. This academic term has been the toughest time I have ever had in my university years so far. Moments of freaking out, worrying and stressing out while trying to sort things out were COUNTLESS. But anyway, that's life (okay while writing this phrase I literally sing the Frank Sinatra song 😂 so for the fun of it, let's just put that bit here hahaha). That's life (that's life) I tell ya, I can't deny it I thought of quitting, baby But my heart just ain't gonna buy it And if I didn't think it was worth one single try I'd jump right on a big bird and then I'd fly *SIDETRACKED* (I am sorry for an early...
3 comments
Read more

Letting God

No incident in life is an accident. When my best friend first gave me the book 'The Art of Letting God' by Ustaz Mizi Wahid, I somehow had the gut that it will become something I really need in the not so distant future. Only a week after that I came to realise why Allah sent me the gift through her. Being a scholar of this one particular organisation (if you know, you know) for more than three years now, I have always been convinced (by my own self if not other people) that we will be guaranteed with a job by the time we graduate from universities. Not to say that I've been working less harder than I'm supposed to all this while, but I cannot deny that part of me has always been having this assurance that the beginning of my career is kinda sorted out by the time I got my degree scroll in a few years time. But...the reality turns out to be taking a whole different path; life seems to be harsher than what we initially thought. Little did I realise I was a bit dis...
1 comment
Read more

Oh My English!

"Are you born in Britain?" my Romanian teacher once asked me. "Is English your first language?" asked my British friend, Alex, a friend I made from my summer school. "Did you go to any English tuition class?" asked Ong, my internship colleague. Disclaimer:  do not put a high expectation on me! I can assure you that my English is not that good... well, the fact that I had to repeat my IELTS last time is one of the proofs hehe But I just feel like looking back at how I get to speak in English, (though not really fluently, just enough to be able to have a conversation with other people) given the fact that I am such a kampung girl and English is undoubtedly something very, very foreign to me. My family speak full Malay at home. My dad speaks Perak dialect in his hometown, while my mum speaks Javanese with her family. So maybe for the sake of simplicity, all of us have been using standard Malay as our first language despite living in Terenggan...
2 comments
Read more