Labels: 1x KISS

Why Do You Do What You Do, SMU?
By Shermeen Tan, SMU; Photography by Marvin Lowe, SMU

City campus. Short skirts and chunky accessories. Antique vases in the library. Seminar rooms with swivel chairs. Laptops open and cups of coffee in the middle of a cluster of students frantically typing away…..Welcome to SMU - where town's a stone throw away and a student cries if you crash his/her laptop in Week 13 (well, either that or you get strangled).

This is SMU where Week 15 means exams, Week 13 means a non-stop slew of presentations and report deadlines and when killer eyebags are the new fashion fad, while Week 8's mid-term "break" is just a joke of the actual definition.

If you think about it, business is all about networking. So just imagine the benefits, considering that your entire current cohort will probably be the next crop of business, finance, economics and accounting individuals you'll meet when you step out into the working world."

Sounds a tad materialistic? Perhaps. That's a vibe some mention about SMU, and it's something I think most SMU students would admit themselves. We have a culture that's undoubtedly vivid and dynamic, but at the same time, with this glossy sheen to it.

The "gloss" is this picture-perfect quality SMU has about it - from the architecture of our new campus to the way students interact with each other to how all our events are presented. Everything seems a little larger than life. It's a prevailing surface pleasantness that is neither bad nor good; a superficiality that one might have to agree that it is necessary, like an occasion that calls for polite niceties. One could say it's similar to the corporate world, where everybody strives to upkeep the façade of civility and everything smacks of political correctness. So, I guess we're doing very well for a business school then, apparently we've even managed to simulate the corporate-environment.

It's an ironic testimonial: our "marketing" is too good. Most students have learnt to "package" themselves so well that the overall feel of the population is one that is beginning to border on "plastic". Can you blame us? After all, doesn't it make perfect sense to want to only showcase your better side? In the business world, that's what you always do with your product anyway. Marketing isn't about telling lies, it's about drawing attention to the best and sweeping the rest under the carpet. Half-truths, if you like.

So there are a lot of times when what you see in SMU might not be what you get. There are the events with big glossy posters everywhere and swanky advertorial emails that hype you up only to fall short of your expectations; there are the articulate, well-dressed acquaintances who you suspect are more (or less) than what they seem; the project mates that drive you up the wall, but you are forced to remain cordial with for yours, theirs, everybody's sake; and of course, the SMU "interactive pedagogy" and "participative methodology" that's much talked about, but frequently take a backseat to "8.30am-tiredness" and the usual student reticence when faced with the "I-won't-talk-if-nobody-else-in-class-is" atmosphere.

But hey, you know what?

I still love SMU and am really glad to be where I'm at. I know it sounds sappy, I know it sounds as if I'm giving in and being politically correct to appease my university's administration, but I'm not. I didn't get paid to say that (but if somebody wants to, SURE, by all means, be my guest!).

SMU's a university where you can have a blast, if you want to. There's a lot to be gained if you're willing to step out from your comfort zone and socialise, to try things you've never done before. True, the projects will stress you up and make you pull all-nighters in the GSRs; the food prices here are atrocious even with discounts (logically, we all understand it's the rent and prime urban city land which equates to EXPENSIVE EXPENSIVE EXPENSIVE, but don't sue us for complaining); and sports facilities, um, what sports facilities? (Okay, to be fair, besides our very impressive gym and a newly-opened multi-purpose sports hall.) Even so, just be confident and proactive, and sooner or later, you'll find your comfort niche and settle in.

The harder the days in skool, the sweeter the holidays.

Labels: updates

Ta da! the attendees.

My granny, aunty and mummy!

The cake was really fantastic. From secret recipe. Chocolate Banana.

One word: Shiok! haa.

ok. then last week i went to sentosa for the fireworks show, Songs of the sea.
It was lovely. Though we had to pay. But i guess it was pretty worthwhile.

h
Some spectacular from the show, a stroll at the beach after a day's work is pretty relaxing!

My ever dearest Miss lala.

Labels: updates

• i knew what cabbage and mushroom tasted like with types of alcohol.
• Did some justice to my kind of music.
• Treated my pals drinks.
  
• Had a love of love showered on me.
  
• Nonetheless, fun.
• A new friend found too. i'd keep this friend an acquaintance more like it i guess.
  

• Flags of our fathers (4 popcorns - due to the surround system)
  
• United 93 (3 popcorns)
  
• Perfume, the perfect murderer (2.5 popcorns)
  
• Had pasa malam food
• And snug in bed to the max.
  

• i had 3 nightmares in a row.
• i woke up thrice in the entire night.
• tired mind and disturbed morning.
• received a happy sms and email in the morning.

• these days people don't take their interview time slots seriously.
• No ethics.
• Excuses overload.
  
• Jobs.db.com is an effective medium that gives you
  proper interviewees who are polite and nice.
• I need to go to the gym more often when i eat sit eat sit on the phone type of lifestyle.
  

Labels: dynanic-ism