Still a long way to go..

Coming to the University of Malaya was not exactly what I have planned but life was against me and I must endure the reality. I was planning to go to Manchester for September 2016 entry, everything was perfectly going as planned except for one thing, scholarship. Malaysia was at the midst of economic downturn since 2015 that forced JPA and MARA and few other scholarships to reduce the number of scholars being sent abroad. I was one of the victims. At that moment, I have already accepted the offer by University of Malaya to study Biotechnology for the 2nd intake in February 2016 when I tried to apply for MARA abroad scholarship program. MARA was supposed to fund students with offer letters from UK universities they have listed in the scholarship website. I was ready to apply and submit my application as I had received four offers from renowned UK universities (Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham and Queen’s). I thought of accepting offer from Manchester as it had a better reputation and the course offered to me was what I wanted.

A few days after checking the scholarship website, the application opened and I clicked on the link that directed me to the application portal. I was shocked to see that the abroad scholarship program that I supposed to apply had been changed to local scholarship program. It was just few days ago the portal was there. I was not wrong, but there was nothing I could do about it. I tried looking for different scholarships but they ended up disappointing me. One of them was Khazanah Global, to make it short I was called to sit for IQ test and I did not pass it. Khazanah Global will provide a full funding for their selected scholars to further studies abroad which really suited my case. Sad and disappointed, I moved on and here I am entering my 3rd year study in the University of Malaya soon. How time flies, it feels like just yesterday when I first stepped my feet into this university.

It has been quite a journey getting here and I need to live in the present without having to bother about my past that will only drag me down. Contemplating about things that I could not accomplish will not get me anywhere. I focus on finishing my degree and I have made it this far. I am thankful for my course mates who have been helping me a lot throughout all these semesters. A thank you is never enough for what they have done getting me where I am today. A special thanks to Yayasan Sime Darby Bursary for believing in me to become one of the scholars. It has been a huge motivation to me ever since. I am going to start my research project soon that I am really looking forward to. I decide to major in microbe biotechnology that deals with fungal, algae and bacteria. My research project will focus in one of those. It may not be easy, but it is going to determine if research is what I am really into and I’ll see how my future plan goes from. At the end of the day, every cloud has a silver lining. When things are not going as planned, there is a reason for it. Perhaps bigger things are waiting, I just have to trust myself!

End of Year 2, moving to Year 3 soon!

Aaronn Avit Ajeng, PhD

Still a long way to go..

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