Recently I had been a counselor for my two friends. They were about to make a choice that will change their lives. Well, both were about the same nature, job opportunities. They had difficulties of choosing what is best for them. So I gave them some opinions in a hope that it might be a little help for them to come to the wisest decision.

One of them had asked for my opinion whether she should go into teaching profession since she has been offered a place to settle down for DPLI course in UTM. She said that it has been her dream since her childhood to become a lecturer and this could be the right path and the first step to attain her dream. It is also her mum’s hope that one of her children could become a teacher. But the problem that she faces is that she had received two spectacular offers from two major companies here in JB. The offered salary I could say is totally a vast difference if she were to be a teacher. So, she really had difficulties in choosing what is best for her. Both choices have their own strengths and weaknesses. There are things to be sacrificed for choosing any of them. Bak kata orang Melayu: Ditelan mati mak, diluah mati bapak. But having to read quite a motivational article recently, I started with a simple answer. I told her, “Doing things that I like is the reason I get out of bed every morning.”

Just imagine, if tomorrow you have a date with your loving boyfriend or girlfriend, would you rather feel excited and counting hours to reach tomorrow? Surely, you will be motivated to wake up the next morning and start your day with a smile to ears. But let’s say tomorrow, early in the morning, you are going to a class, which you hate most because of its lousy content or lousy lecturer, will you be motivated to get out of bed? I think most people would feel so lazy to start their days. They mind end up getting up on the wrong side of the bed.

For me, doing things that I like is a motivation for me to get out of my bed, fold my blanket and set off to work. Imagine if you know that everyday you are doing something that you totally have no interest in, would you want to get out of bed? Would you even want to open your eyes the moment your alarm clock rings? Would you do your work wholeheartedly? Would you perform well? I asked these questions to myself quite umpteen times. These questions really reflected me during my practicum session. And it really seconds my first sentence of advice I had given to this particular friend of mine. When I was in my practicum session for three months, I couldn’t imagine how tired I was with the works that I needed to complete everyday, right from school administration work, lesson plans, classroom activities, daily reflection, and all that it takes when you call yourself a teacher. And I am also quite a person who is so lazy to get out of bed and hard to be got out of bed when I’m feeling rather tired. But still as I had known that I was going to do something new everyday, I woke up easily without giving my Nurul a hard time to wake me up..hehe..(Nurul please agree with me!), I prepared myself and set off to work with my friends. Although it had been quite tensioning having to deal with school and kids, I love what I was doing so I managed to change all the problems and queasy feelings into something positive, something that can change me to become a better person and to make me become more matured.

When we do something that we like, we will see that the world is an interesting place to live in so I hope my two friends here will end up doing something that they like so that they will feel what my friend Esun always says “Hidup ini indah!!!