Sometimes I like to ask myself, why did I choose Engineering, especially Mechanical Engineering. It is a sunset industry in Singapore. Many people advised me not to study Engineering as it is really tough and there is not much demand out there. They are speaking from experience, but is there anything else that interest me?
Dreams...What are my dreams? When we were young, we have some crazy dreams. "I want to be a pilot when I grow up." "Flying an aeroplane, especially a fighter jet looks so cool." Then I was exposed to anime and especially gundams. Flying machines everywhere shooting beams and stuff. Cool!!! I want to make these machines in the future for fun! Or if I were good enough, I might want to even pilot them. However, being the lazy me, I have never tinkered with anything. I like to tell myself that I will do so in the future, but the future never arrives. I am lazy, a person who only likes to boast but with no actions taken. People ask me, if you want to do these in the future, have you tried building anything? Have you opened up devices to see how things work? Do you think you are able to build your machines alone? Somehow nobody seem to actually crush my dream by saying it is impossible to build, they will say it will not happen as there is no need for it as everything is autonomous and we are in the age of stealth. Will I continue to dream? Or will my dream be shattered by myself? Or will I do something about it? Only time will tell....
Saturday 24 October 2015
Friday 16 October 2015
Why Engineering? Specifically Mechanical Engineering
I like to ask people why they study a specific course, I wanted to see how they came to the conclusion, is it a similar method that I used? I will always explain after that why I chose to study Engineering, and specifically Mechanical Engineering.
During my junior college life, I am just your average student who took the standard combination of PCME, aka Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Economics. This combination is the most common one and usually people who don't know what they want to study in the future, they will choose this combination. Why? As it is the combination that can allow you to go anywhere, to get to any course that you want, provided you do well and get very good results. I already knew I am not an essay writing person due to my lousy command of both languages. However, it was during my 'A' level economics examination that confirmed my choice. I told myself that I did not want to write any more essays. Hence using the method of elimination, I have eliminated courses like Accountancy, Business Administration and all the Arts and Social Sciences. I did not even consider things like medicine and law as I did not have interest and actually to be honest, I am not smart enough either, so there is no point considering. My choices are left with Science, Engineering and Computing. I did not see much hope in studying Science as my impression of studying Science will lead you to only two paths - if you are very good, you will be a researcher/scientist, if you are just average, you will end up being a teacher. Knowing my own abilities, and that I cannot teach for nuts, Science is out. There is another point actually, I believe that Science seems way too specialized. Leaving with Engineering and Computing, I did not like Chemistry and Biology, so those 2 engineering courses are struck off. It is mainly down to Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. I find it hard to learn programming and it does not seem to suit me. Seeing how I struggled a lot for circuits during my younger days, I chose Mechanical Engineering.
During my junior college life, I am just your average student who took the standard combination of PCME, aka Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Economics. This combination is the most common one and usually people who don't know what they want to study in the future, they will choose this combination. Why? As it is the combination that can allow you to go anywhere, to get to any course that you want, provided you do well and get very good results. I already knew I am not an essay writing person due to my lousy command of both languages. However, it was during my 'A' level economics examination that confirmed my choice. I told myself that I did not want to write any more essays. Hence using the method of elimination, I have eliminated courses like Accountancy, Business Administration and all the Arts and Social Sciences. I did not even consider things like medicine and law as I did not have interest and actually to be honest, I am not smart enough either, so there is no point considering. My choices are left with Science, Engineering and Computing. I did not see much hope in studying Science as my impression of studying Science will lead you to only two paths - if you are very good, you will be a researcher/scientist, if you are just average, you will end up being a teacher. Knowing my own abilities, and that I cannot teach for nuts, Science is out. There is another point actually, I believe that Science seems way too specialized. Leaving with Engineering and Computing, I did not like Chemistry and Biology, so those 2 engineering courses are struck off. It is mainly down to Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. I find it hard to learn programming and it does not seem to suit me. Seeing how I struggled a lot for circuits during my younger days, I chose Mechanical Engineering.
Sunday 11 October 2015
University Life
It has been sometime since I last blogged as I was busy with university. Life in university is really different. I always heard people saying that the stress level every semester is like "A" Levels again. Initially, I didn't believe them. I guess I was arrogant and didn't know the true horrors of university. "A" Levels again? It is really an understatement. I have no idea if it is because of me not studying for close to 3 years and I am not used to studying or university is just SUPER FAST PACED. Once you cannot get a concept in one chapter, you are basically dead. All the doubts will start to pile up and snowball. Hopefully it is just a thing that I am still not used to but I have to adapt.
In university, I heard someone saying "university is like the hunger games of academia". I guess it is very true, especially in the grade obsessed culture of Singapore. I agree I have that mindset too, where grades matters. However, I believe many people will agree with me that being able to have a comfortable pace of learning and being able to learn what we like will be ideal. Reality is so much different, grades do matter especially if you want to graduate and find a job quickly with better pay than the rest.
I guess I have to go back to studying again. The never-ending projects and tutorials will continue to reduce my sleep but I believe everyone is going through the same process and will have to compromise on things. For me, I think I will have to compromise on sleep. How long will I be able to keep this up? I wonder...
In university, I heard someone saying "university is like the hunger games of academia". I guess it is very true, especially in the grade obsessed culture of Singapore. I agree I have that mindset too, where grades matters. However, I believe many people will agree with me that being able to have a comfortable pace of learning and being able to learn what we like will be ideal. Reality is so much different, grades do matter especially if you want to graduate and find a job quickly with better pay than the rest.
I guess I have to go back to studying again. The never-ending projects and tutorials will continue to reduce my sleep but I believe everyone is going through the same process and will have to compromise on things. For me, I think I will have to compromise on sleep. How long will I be able to keep this up? I wonder...
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