Mentem's Blog Talk

I'm pretty sure, like me at some point of everyone's life, they would go through the excitement of graduating high school and entering college. The ideal college life, portrayed in movies, of constant partying, meeting boys, the freedom of wearing whatever you want to class and no longer waking up at 6:30am to catch the bus to school. What's not to look forward to, am I right? Transitioning from a government high school culture to a private college setting gave me a huge culture shock. Suddenly, I was no longer told what and when to study anymore or how to do my own research for my assignments. The secondary education in Malaysia has been so focused on the idea of memorising to succeed and get good grades that they neglected teaching the things that are you would come to use in real life. Entering college, I realized I didn't know how to write a resume or tell the difference between a resume and a CV. I didn't know the professional way of writing emails or...

Growing up, I was always the first to leave parties and gatherings with friends. I would miss out on the good parts of a typical high school life, such as never experiencing sleepovers at my girlfriend's house because my Asian parents would say, " You have a bed at home. Why do you have to go over a friend's house to sleep?", or the mental preparation with a detailed PowerPoint slide of where I want to go, who I'll be going with, what I'll be doing, why I want to go and how this outing will not a waste of time. This was extremely demotivating for me growing up because it instils fear of voicing my thoughts and opinions, as well as restrained me from the freedom of exploring my curiosity. I always understood my parent's underlying intentions of protecting me from making mistakes that perhaps they've experienced or from it being the catalyst of a bad situation. But life isn't always a ' prevention is better than cure ' case. Kids, a...

No words, just listening I was faced with a rather difficult situation not too long ago. My best friend from high school was currently undergoing a crisis in the new career he settled for early this year. He landed a rather stunning 3D’s Designer position in an interior designing cooperation which also paid him a rather handsome starting salary. Things went seemingly great for him at the time until he laid eyes on someone who would turn out to be his first ‘office crush’. I remember clearly that he did not take too long to begin to narrate to me all the amazing opportunities and benefits that this current company was offering him. But, the special focus for him at the time was this girl he had feelings for in the same company. In a wave of excitement, on the usual weekly meetups we would have as close friends to ‘chill out, he couldn’t wait to tell me all the times he would get the opportunity to converse with this girl he admired. Weeks past and he was making a lot progress ...