That moment when I am officially an undergraduate student of IIUM, I already had things that I want to achieve throughout my degree years. Some of those things are I want to be one of the Mahallah Representative Committee (MRC) and IIUM Student Union staff. I never imagined that a first-year student would be able to achieve that position. I thought that only 2nd-year students and above can be an MRC or IIUMSU staff. The reason is simple. Because we're new students and we don't have enough experience related to that positions. There is just no way that we will be accepted to take those positions. That's what I think...
But little that I know, there is actually first-year students that have become an MRC and me myself become one of the IIUMSU staff when I am just a first-year student! It's really shocking to believe to be honest. Well at least for me! 😛 I just thought about how I had wasted a year of my life to fulfil my dream of becoming an MRC. But looking back at what I had done throughout my first year, actually, I did not waste anything at all!
During my first year, I hold a position called Block Representative Committee (BRC) which is under the MRC. Generally, it is a position where we help the MRCs in conducting programs as well as taking care of students welfare in Mahallah (hostel). But since we are in a pandemic, the second job scope is not really in action. Because everyone is at home. Duhhh. I learned a few things during I hold this position, but for me, I am still unsatisfied. I did not achieve the objectives of why I want to take this position. Because of that, I applied for the subcommittee of Public Relations and Advocacy of IIUM Student Union's position. Hoping that I can learn more and new things from this position. And it did! 😍
For the subcommittee position, I am responsible for handling IIUMSU official social media, specifically Twitter. I post tweets as well as answering students inquiries and collecting students concerns from the direct messages as well as tweets. So, if you had contacted IIUMSU through Twitter, most probably you were talking to me 🙊. Anyway, if you think that this job is easy, I would say it is not that easy. When it comes to communicating with other people, like a total stranger person, we must always communicate in the right manner as well as making sure that the other person understands the information correctly. I have also experienced a situation where students were angry and say bad things to us. This is where I learned how to communicate with 'angry' people efficiently and professionally. hahaha. The best thing about this position is I know a lot of things about my university. To whom we should ask if there is this problem or that problem, what we should do if this happens. A lot of things. I really really love this because I am not only able to help myself when things happen in the university, but I also can help the students. And that's the most satisfying thing that I feel when I'm taking this position.
So here's the thing. If you ever feel like you are too young for certain positions in the university, no you're not. Don't make age as an excuse for you to dump those opportunity. Age is not important. The important thing is your personality and characteristics. Age won't help you do your job, but experiences and good personality will. Now when I mentioned experiences, how about people who don't have any experiences? Here's my advice. If you're confident enough to apply for top positions, please just do so. You might make mistakes here and there, but I believe that you will learn and improve in the future. On the other hand, if you're not confident enough (like me), do apply for lower positions first. Maybe a subcommittee of societies or projects. You will be more confidence eventually as you will be familliar with how certain things work. To be honest, I prefer the second one as it will reduce mistakes at the top level. Because you know, when the top management is problematic, those who are at the lower level will also be affected. But hey, you are allowed to do whatever you believe that is true. You don't have to listen to me though. This is just my personal opinion. 😁