Can't Get Over It... - GKUTM and Me

Song of the day:
Dido
"Life For Rent"

Golden Key became part of my life after I was elected into the committee and was appointed the historian of the club.

Golden Key International Honour Society Logo

It all started after the members’ induction ceremony which I mentioned earlier when the then committee called for new members to come for new committee interview.

Amy and I were very interested in the positions on show and thus both of us went for the interview, which was held on a Wednesday.

Both me and Amy were interviewed. I remember filling the form and rank my choices of position as follow:

1. Historian
2. Vice Secretary
3. Community Service

Maybe the 2nd and 3rd choice weren’t exactly what I wrote but historian was my top choice nevertheless.

I got interviewed by the president, Jason and the vice president, Karen. 

Then I received an sms from Kee Yew, one of the directors during their session for a meeting. Amy also received the sms and we went together to attend the meeting at KTDI (another residential college within the campus).

The meeting gathered several people who also attended the interview previously. Then, Kee Yew informed us about his purpose of the meeting and then distributed the tasks.

The meeting was actually to gather all potential committee members to organize an event known as “Homecoming 2006”.

In this event, an obstacle race would be the main event where contestants had to go through a series of different games/obstacles in order to read the ending point.

So, the preparation of this event were started by setting up a booth at my varsity’s library, PSZ (Perpustakaan Sultanah Zanariah) and conducted for 3 days.

I remembered that the number of contestant were very very low and therefore different solutions were gathered, including opening the event to non-members and also contacting our close friends to obtain more contestants.

Of course, I called my bunch of fun loving course mates and they both were super interested. Till today, I really thanked them for that.

Before the day of the event, I think we managed to find more than 60 contestants which was roughly our target.

The committee members also went to the site, which is an army training site to observe the area and plan what we could do with the site.

Finally, the day arrived and everything went smoothly, albeit some expected hiccups which normally happened during such event. 

It was still a good one to remember as everybody was pretty happy with the event and had lotsa joy. Even though I did not join and raced through the obstacles, I did enjoy working to make the event a success.

“Homecoming 2006” sort of marked the beginning of my GK life. 

Note that during “Homecoming 2006”, the committee members for this event was not official committee of GKUTM yet as we still had to go through another programme to train up the members. I skipped the programme due to some undisclosed reason though.

Prior to the training programme, the potential GK committee had to also organize another GK event known as “Appraisal Night 2006”, where it is an event to commemorate the achievements of the out-going committee members.

I took part in a singing performance together with Johan (vice president to be) and Amira (Academic Programme Director to be). Honestly, Johan and Amira were picked to perform as both of them play the guitar.

Originally, we planned to perform 3 songs with me singing all three, while Johan playing 2 songs on guitar and Amira playing the last song on guitar.

The songs were 

1. “More Than Words” (a super popular song by Extreme and covered by Frankie J),
2. “Kau Ilhamku” (a song by Malay artist Manbai)
3. “Wake Me Up When September Ends” (by Green Day)
   

We practised on numerous occasions but I just couldn’t master the Malay song as I just couldn’t remember the lyrics. 

However, in the actual event, I only performed “More Than Words” with Johan on guitar as I missed the last few rehearsals due to family matters.

(Me and Johan, performing "More Than Words")

The “Appraisal Night 2006” was a pretty fun event held in Chimosa Restaurant along Jalan Kolam Ayer. Those who know where the famous Kolam Ayer Laksa is, will be able to find the exact location of the place. 

Me and Aifen during Appraisal Night 2006

And also this was the event that I knew Aifen, who’s currently furthering her studies in University New South Wales, Australia. 

After I was officially appointed the historian through the official office bearer installation ceremony (which I was absent due to personal problems), there were 3 more GK events providing the best memories in my varsity life.

I remember that the committee of GKUTM planned to organize a community service project (which I was an “expert” while I was the Community Service Director for my old club Interact Club during my secondary school days).

They ended choosing Rumah Seri Kenangan in Kempas as the visiting location. I guess some Interactors of SSI, JB would still remember where it is.

As I was caught up with other commitments during that period of time, I only helped out in the preparation of the event.

However, I volunteered to be the “chauffeur” for GK regional director Mr. Jimmy Teo as he came down to JB from Penang on the actual event. But I couldn’t follow through the entire event as I had to travel to KL at around noon time so after reaching the location, I stayed for a while and took a look around the area.

Rumah Seri Kenangan is actually an old folk’s home for old people with different backgrounds.

Some were homeless, some were ex-convicts, some were basically widows. 

But rest assured that they are given the best treatment as a Chinese old man talked to me about his life in the area. He was a pretty approachable old man and a few of the participants were also listening to his words attentively while the old man talked about his past.

You know usually during such events, there would be opening speeches. The speeches were then followed by a special musical performance by the old folks using different musical instruments.

After that, came a dance session when I got pulled onto the stage and dance. I couldn’t believe that I actually DANCED! I did the “agogo” and danced with the Chinese old man with joy and absolute fun.

Too bad I did not take a photo with him but I still remember the scene to date. It was truly a memorable one.

During my GK times, I also had the chance to become the Emcee (master of ceremony) of 2 events; one was the New GK Member Reception Night (July 2006) and the other was the New Members Induction Ceremony (Jan 2007).

It was a pretty exciting and nervous experience as I had a little bit of a stage fright to be honest but these experience did help me to overcome this fear and making me more confident while making my presentations in front of a crowd.

Well, a lot have been written on GK events. I eventually faded off after January 2007 due to my lack of participation. Yet, the memories remained in my heart.

*Note that the pictures of me were taken before 2008 as I was fat then.

**Also note that I'll post my blog entry regarding my convocation very soon.