Not so long ago, I was all excited about going back to school. The stationery shopping after a full decade was fun. Haha. Then, I had problems managing my intensely hectic schedule and called it quits. At the urging of my course mates, I re-registered myself the next semester.

It’s been three and a half years!

The time-juggling feat hasn’t been easy. While I breezed through some modules effortlessly, I had a hard time reading some of the stuff chucked in my face. But it’s been pretty enriching and enjoyable, especially since I took two electives that were not related to my core subjects.

In Modern Chinese Literature, I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Chin Kwee Nyet- a former radio and television news anchor. I could have sat there all night listening to her perfectly enunciated Mandarin. A term later, I was totally intrigued with what I learnt in Singapore Sociology. And it’s been really satisfying churning out wordy essays- something which I haven’t done in a long time.

Even before I clear this hurdle, I’ve been looking at courses for the next academic year. Heh.

Two papers this week, then two more the next. And I’ll be done!

In 2009, I gleefully announced that I was going back to school. A year later, I declared I was quitting. And that was that. There were no more updates on this blog over this issue after 05.04.2010.

Well, I had resumed my identity as a part time undergrad under the radar. It’s largely due to the people in school. I ‘left’ with the intention of resuming some day, then I eventually decided to rough it out with the current cohort, instead of having to make new friends all over again. Hahaha.

Fickle is the word.

My peers are awesome. They give me constant reminders about assignment deadlines, and examination pointers- which are really essential since I don’t appear in class most of the time. And some of my seniors had been buzzing me with encouraging words, along the lines of “No one said it would be easy to juggle work and studies. Just help one another and everyone will breeze through this!” Really. From the way reference notes were readily shared, no one could detect a single hint of competitiveness. My other friends often joke that I receive such treatment because of my day job, but I beg to differ. They are really nice people, and conscientious students who will finish up everything by the end of this year, while I continue to slog till next May.

Semester Three was amazingly easy. I attended one or two out of 24 lessons, and walked away with relatively decent grades. I won’t be the valedictorian for sure, but the sense of satisfaction was tremendous. Semester Four has been full of surprises, coupled with some nasty shocks. “What do you mean my work is only worth ___? Oh, yours too? Right. This must be a prank or something.”

I have a rather challenging paper this Friday. Some of those literary works are too cheem for my liking. Just as any examination candidate would say, WISH ME LUCK!

So I happily went back to school last January and thought I could successfully juggle my work and studies. It turns out that I’m wrong.

I had been rather upset, especially in the last couple of months. And the negative vibes were evident to the people around me.

The work was piling up by the minute. When I say work, I’m referring to the numerous things I have to do apart from my morning show. Production, production, production. Shows, shows, shows. And more shows. And even more shows. Since late last year, I’ve had to decline an unprecedented number of engagements. People want to hire me (and slip money into my pockets- thank you very much), but I just couldn’t find the time.

時間就跟乳溝一樣。擠一擠就有了。

沒錯。

但提升自己甚麼時候都可以。

事業方面，我現在處於衝刺時期… … 外加另一些私人理由，所以必須做出這個決定。

I’m quitting (temporarily, I guess), because the opportunity costs are way too high.

In addition to the module I dropped last month, I’m withdrawing from another two. However, I’ve completed the assignments (50% of the grade) for the first module this semester, and started on a second one, so I’ll finish off these by sitting for the examinations in May.

M, being one of the first to know, exclaimed, “But you went public with your decision to study! Won’t it be highly embarrassing to quit now?”

No, not at all. Why should I care? It’s my life, not theirs.

I feel ten times happier already.

Edit: In just three hours, I received five msgs/emails/tweets from people telling me that they want to quit school too.

Look… Me is me. You is you. I know it’s rather unconvincing for me to tell you to grit your teeth and pull through this process, but do not allow anyone (including me) to sway you on this matter.

I would love your undivided attention and devotion when it comes to things like where to go (New Zealand anyone?) or which facial services to use (People with acne should try Bioskin‘s Bio P2X). But I really should not wield any influence over your academic path.

I repeat, DO NOT quit school just because I did so. Or I’ll spank your butt the next time I see you.

People following me on Twitter would know that I was exceedingly agitated over the weekend. Amongst other things, the school assignments were causing a huge headache.

Having skipped a couple of classes, I thought I was getting my just desserts. I was facing the music. Orbigood for me…

But it turned out that the guys who had faithfully attended each and every lecture and tutorial were having trouble completing the assignment as well. In spite of the looming deadline, we couldn’t help but make fun of a gross grammatical error. (The irony is heightened by the fact that we are taking a language course.)

How I envy CS. He’s at one of the Ivy League institutions on a scholarship. He doesn’t have to juggle work with studies. And he gets to buy snacks in gigantic packs. Oh my.

P/S1: Thanks to my kawan kawan for the help in completing the assignment. We have only two hundred more to go. Woohoo!

P/S2: The people who flooded me with calls and SMSes this morning… I appreciate that.

The new semester begins next week.

There were a couple of emails highlighting this very important issue.

Change of assignment submission deadlines to one day before the day of the week of the class.

What?! Can it be more ambiguous?

Seriously, if you have people reading your letter three times just to (try and) understand what you’re saying, you’ve failed miserably. I shudder to think what they are teaching in the mandatory “Effective Communication” elective.