Experiences Makes What You Are Today

I had a flash in memory lane yesterday. I had a chat with an old friend named Megat who is now working in Qatar. He was my housemate back during my uni years in Melbourne Australia. He took a month leave from his busy life in Qatar (he is an engineer with an oil and gas company there) just to participate in voting in the recent General elections apart from getting aback with his friends here.

I forgot how the conversation started but along the line, we started talking about the various ‘odd’ part-time jobs we did back then during our 3-4 years stay in Australia. You see, for most of us JPA students, the monthly allowance was just enough to pay rent, food and other essential needs. To save for leisure, well… lets just say, we stocked up on ‘Maggi’. So, we worked to earn some extra cash.

In Australia, as students, our visas permit us to work a max of 20 hrs a week. So I started my first job in the university's café as a cleaner. Then after, I did a lot of other ‘odd’ jobs to survive. It ranges from a few days to 2-3 months. I delivered pizza, worked in a bakery, became a kitchen hand in an Asian restaurant, a cleaner at a shopping mall, picking fruits and vegetables, statistic analyst, administrative clerk at the Post Office, factory cleaner and painter, taxi driver, research assistant and a tutor. But the longest job I did was as a train cleaner. It supported my leisure and traveling needs for 2 years.

Cleaning trains was easy money and the job was fun. I clock in at 11.30 pm and finishes at 1 am everyday. I sometimes cycle 30 minutes to work or take a 10 minutes drive. That was my life then. It pays more than what JPA gave me. During holidays or times when I felt too tired to go to work, I will have my house mates join me. They get half of the day’s pay. So, Megat was amongst the frequent volunteers. I know he did not really need the money (he was a Petronas scholar) but he enjoys helping out a friend. I can never forget how many times he was there for me…..

In my opinion the experiences I went through in the jobs I did matured me to some extend. I learned the concept of humility, to appreciate others less fortunate, to really value ‘money’ and of course independencies. I know everyone has their own experiences to tell, I just wanted to share one of mine.

Hey that’s my 2 cents on the issue, what’s yours???