Last week, i went to my organization family day (Which one is better? Club or organization? Both sound tiring and pressuring. Haha.). It was held on Saturday. I thought the time will overlap with my replacement class but it didn’t. So, I can’t give that as a reason to be excuse from coming (I really dun wanna go). So, I make a promise that if another friend of mine go, I will go. The best about this promise is my other friend need to be wake up or he’ll miss it. If he misses it, then I will not go either. Unfortunately that morning, he wakes up early by himself.

Overall view, the morning program is not for me. First, the participant is younger than me. Even though the different is 1 or 2 years old, but I dun feel comfortable around them. I dun have any grunge with younger people. It just most of youngster nowadays does not have any respect for elders. The first time you met, they’ll be nice and respect you. The next time, after they know one or two about you, they start to change to what in malay called “pijak kepala”. That is the reason why I said I wouldn’t come if my other friend doesn’t come but along the activities, he left me alone in youngster world. That is so cruel of him.

Secondly, the activities are not for person like me. I don’t mind running around, answering question this and that. What I can’t stand is doing activities that have objectives. Let me explain. First and foremost, this is a family day. From my experience, family day is supposed to be where family like people gather around to do something fun together. And none of my family day till that day, have an objective in their activities. Will you have fun when whatever you do that day has a meaning behind it? If it is a motivational program I don’t have problem with it. But for family day, this is absurd. I certainly don’t have fun doing something thinking that “what is the reason we do this?” . Family day supposed to be fun and not educational.

What I like most in the morning program is the Usrah session. For people who never had one, Usrah is a process of knowing each other. You tell every person what you want them to know about you. In that day, we had several Usrah based on criteria. 1^st criteria are according to month of birth follow by place of birth and lastly colour of shoes. This is much fun than running around in the academic block since it does not have any objective. The task is just introduces yourself so that people will know you the next time they see you around the campus. In this session, we had even introduced ourself in a form of poem. In the process, we share riddles, share what the most unforgettable experience we had in the university, and even share a few tips for people who’re going to apply for the internship next semester.  Who know introducing yourself to people can be this fun.

The last program is the dinner. It was held at 5pm. Actually, at that same time, we still had a replacement class. A good thing is that our head of department is in the class and he went to the lecture telling that we will leave the class early. At 4.50pm, after our leader stand up, all of us members stand up and leave the class together. Well, if I’m in the lecturer shoe, there is several feeling and thinking I can have.

1. Is my class this boring that they rather go to their dinner?
2. Are they really this many of people to go to the dinner or is there a fake among them?
3. Don’t they think my class is more important than their dinner?
4. Don’t they have respect to leaving the class when I’m still teaching in front?
5. Don’t they think this topic will come out in the exam? Do they think they’re so smart not to listen to my lecture?

Thinking about it, we do have the lecturer permission. Is just that the time we leave the class in not appropriate. There is a moment when the lecturer is editing the slide and not teaching. I do ask the leader to leave at that moment to avoid making any disturbance when the lecturer is teaching but he did not understand. Since I’ve been teaching SPM’s student for a while, I do feel what the lecturer feel when our student leave the class while we’re teaching. It disturb our feeling of teaching, distract other students who want to hear our lecture, it’s a waste of time since we had to get our students attention back, and it can make us forget what we want to say at that particular time. Sorry Mr Khor. We didn’t mean to dishonor you. We do like your teaching by the way.

This is the part that make we want to write this blog. At the speech before the dinner, the committee have to seat at the front facing the members. The first person who gave a speech is the head of all the departments. Well, in my opinion, his speech is a little bit long. Who in the world want to hear a long speech before dinner? At that particular time, most of us are thinking about the food. I’m glad that his speech is motivational and inspiring which is not a waste of time listening. He will pass his position as the head of all departments to someone else next semester to go for internship. After the speech given by the head of all departments, to my surprise, there is no speech given by our head of department. If I’m a head of department and this family day is an appreciation for my subordinate under my wing, I think I have to say something even “thank you for all your good work” to the members under my department. I’m not sure if this is his decision of not giving one.

After the speech, there is a ceremony of giving souvenirs to every person who had put their effort in teaching their students from UPSR, PMR, and SPM. This again surprised me since our head of department is only helping in giving the souvenirs, instead of giving it to us. If I remember correctly, in every event, there is a person who in charge of helping this kind of ceremony. There is also a ceremony of giving prize for the participant of morning session. If the part of giving the price is not given by our head of department, it’s ok for me. But not giving the souvenirs personally to the subordinate under him is an insult for a leader. I dun know if the flow is well prepared by the MC or this is a last minutes preparation. For a formal organization, this is not a better way to done it.

At first I fell odd seeing my head of department face change. The first face he makes is a happy face. Along the speech and forward, his face changes to what seems like people feeling insulted and a little bit sad. Is he that hungry to make such kind of faces? But after putting my self into his position, I do feel that kind of way. Firstly, the family day is an appreciation for what he and us have done as facilitators. At least what he can do there is giving some motivational speech for the new generation that gonna replace our position since we’re going to internship or at least say thank you for our great job. A little honour will not gonna cost you. Just make him feel that he is being appreciated and look like an important member of the organization. This is my point of view. I evaluate people by their way of handling people emotion. We’re not just striving for greatness. Care for peoples feeling that might get hurt in doing our job. (empathy, not sympathy ok? Sympathy will only make things worst).

At the end of the dinner, nobody notice anything wrong about our head of department. If you’re reading this blog my friend, plz forgive me if what i see is not exactly what you feel. You told me yourself from your face. I can’t ignore it since i can read it. Maybe somebody doesn’t care about these small2 things that occur in their life. But if we don’t hesitate to change it, nobody will ever change it for you. You choose what you want people to do to you. If you don’t mind, then people don’t mind doing it again since you did not say anything from their action.