For the next one-and-half year or so...

From: The Straits Times, 15 January 2011, Soapbox

Enjoy university - while you can
Little luxuries such as free time and flexible hours will be missed at work

By Eisen Teo

IT HAS been only a week, but my Twitter and Facebook feeds are already jammed with updates from younger friends on the one thing that holds captive their time, attention and money - university.

Some are the sad sods who have signed up for 8am classes - a crime against humanity, if you ask me - for reasons that remain unknown to me.

The persecuted emit anguished cries of pain on my social networking feeds during those early hours, followed by silence afterwards as they slip into a catatonic state.

Then there are those who bemoan the need to print or photocopy the required reading material for lectures and tutorials.

Part and parcel of school work right? Not if there is just one printer and photocopier for 2,000 people, each with 500 pages to print and copy, or so I'm told.

Still, hardworking students will find a way to reproduce the texts, most of which will go untouched by the end of the semester, because there is just not enough time to actually read them after you have printed and copied them.


Throw in project group mates who do not do their share of the work or even answer calls, laptops that malfunction midway during lectures, and lecturers who are less exciting than watching paint dry on walls, and it is no wonder my social networking feeds now read like a Shakespearean tragedy.

Maybe I am a glutton for punishment but I actually read their updates with more than a tinge of wistfulness. Yes, I miss school.

It is the little luxuries that make it more enjoyable than work to me.

Such as the hours, for one thing. Work requires me to be in the office nine hours a day, five days a week. In my university days, I had five modules a semester. That was about 15 to 20 hours a week, tops.

Okay, classroom attendance does not include the many hours spent doing homework, which leads to my second point: In university, I could read my books and write my essays almost any time I wanted, as long as I kept to deadlines. If I felt like sleeping the day away and rushing my homework at 3am, I was free to do so.

Not so at work now, of course.

I cannot take afternoon naps like I used to at school. I cannot pop out halfway during an editorial meeting to grab lunch the way I used to sneak out of lectures (sorry, sirs).

In school, I was accountable to no one except myself for my grades. Now, at work, I am accountable to my boss, my co-workers and my readers.

Don't get me wrong: I don't hate work - in fact I love it.

I love ferreting out good stories, and I enjoy listening to people telling me their stories. I relish the challenge of writing simply yet lucidly for my readers.

I have also accepted the transition from school to work as part and parcel of growing up.

But give me a choice to relive any part of my life, and I would definitely choose my time in university.

So to my friends who are still struggling in school: Make the most of these pen-pushing days, as they will be the best times of your life.

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This article is so close to heart. It exactly spells out my thoughts about this busy but enjoyable phase of life. While students are ranting away on their boring lectures, expensive textbooks, badly organized lecture notes and, of course, the dreadful tests and exams, I guess they are also trying hard to make much out of this period of freedom before stepping into ever-harsh working society.

One important point that makes a lot of sense is, the accountability of our actions. We are responsible for only our own grades and results (to a small extent, others' grades too, in the case of group projects). If you skip lessons and procrastinate homework, no one really bothers. But in work, your actions will affect your surrounding colleagues, superiors and even the company. Because of this, the dread of waking up early in the morning for school can never be any more than going for work.

It has already been 5 semesters since I entered university, and I would say the experience has been great so far, despite the constant worry about grades. Few years down the road we might just realize that grades don't really matter.

Of course one of the most enjoyable part of university life is the inter-semester holidays. When can you ever get a chance to go on a tour without leaving any worries behind?