Later on, my kids started going to primary school and I was pleasantly surprised to find the education here is nothing like back home. So when I started my design education in a cool university in Malaysia and then went to NZ to further my education in graphic design – I was the happiest I had ever been because I could finally be in my zone of genius, doing what I LOVE and am naturally good at. Sorry for the very stressful opening of this post – but it’s the truth!

I was SO happy that I was almost bursting at the seams because I felt like I’m finally out of a prison cell!Īdios! Sayonara! NEVER going back there again. I was BURSTING with joy! I danced, jiggled, did the hokey-pokey or whatever you call it. So, when I finally graduated high school – you can just imagine how I felt! Plus, we were considered lazy and were punished if we did not complete our homework after the holidays. They sometimes did but probably only a handful of times. The teachers never really gave us a break either.

We had 7-10 subjects to study for the year and most were compulsory for us to take even though it doesn’t make any sense to us or help us in any way for the future. In Malaysia, we have subjects imposed on us all the time.

“Man… how they like to torture us.” That’s what I always thought to myself. Though these were not compulsory, most people I know including myself would at least have one or two extra classes outside of school.Īnd believe it or not – we were also given tons of homework during our holidays. But in Malaysia, students were given tons of homework, on top of our after-school activities, sports, clubs or society meetings, not to mention extra Math/English/Malay tuition classes.

I don’t know much about the education system in the US. But unfortunately, what I remembered most was that I felt extremely stressed during those years. I’m sure I can recall good times like going on our wonderful school trips and laughing a lot with my friends in high school. So, as you can imagine, I had to work REALLY hard to continue to stay in the top class. I had many friends who were super intelligent and smarter than me. I remember that being a student was extremely hard.Īlthough I was in the top class for most of my high school years, it wasn’t without HARD work.

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