Throwback v4
"When there's a will, there's a way"
My favourite quote.
I have always been envious of my Singaporean debating friends.
They were the top of Asia then, unbeaten.
They flew the Singaporean flag high at every international competition.
They had a robust debating community from Primary School to university, where the best of the best will go to Oxford, Cambridge & NUS to then conquer the worlds debating scene.
It annoyed me that the international community knew Malaysia as the country "next to Singapore".
It intrigued me then, how a university like NUS can beat the best debaters in the world from Oxford, Harvard & Sydney.
I started "stalking" the debaters from Singapore.
I watched all of their speeches on Youtube & would attend as many competitions in Singapore.
I remember being so obsessed in being as good as them, that i memorised some of their speeches (word-by-word) & even dressed & spoke like one of them.
In the end, it's all about willpower.
When i was in the foundation centre of IIUM, we would have many training sessions during semester break.
Unfortunately, the dorms would be closed then. The Uni admin shut down the electricity to ensure no one overstayed.
I didn't have money to stay elsewhere as my home was in Johor & i really wanted to train.
So, i sneaked myself into my dorm during semester break & stayed there for weeks without electricity.
I'll jump the fence every night to buy food across the road.
Every morning i'd be at the academic block with the other debaters training & to charge my laptop so that i could train on my own, in my dark dark room at night.
That's when i knew there were no ghosts at my dorm (Mahallah Aisyah ), despite all the horror stories i heard, as i stayed there alone for weeks without electricity.
Fast forward, when i first started uni debating, Singapore was at the top of Asia.
By the time i ended, Malaysia conquered Asia. I was awarded Best Speaker of Asia x3 times & Malaysia would consistently be in the Top 10 teams in the world.
My juniors would break many more records which stamped Malaysia's name in the eyes of the world.
"You'll never beat Malaysia", the chant which i will never forget.
