Chapter I

My name is Alex Lee

I was delivered into the world on the 19^th June 1986 approximately 1500 hours in Ipoh, Perak. Born in the nucleus unit of 4, I’m the youngest in the family. My childhood life was spent in a small town called Menglembu, which is situated about 7km from Ipoh town. I got my first taste of formal education in the kindergarten in ACS Ipoh. My four most memorable moments in the kindergarten was probably:

1. The treasure hunt game in which I failed to even find an item whereas my ah singh friend found 2 pencil sharpeners (talking about fairness!)
2. My first stage appearance at the end of my kindergarten days. We are all supposed to announce our ambitions in front of the audience consisting of teachers and parents. Dressed in a checkered shirt neatly tuck in a short pants and carrying a brief case, I walked to the mic and declared “When I grow up, I want to be a business man!”.
3. Eating tasteless porridge during recess. Yuck!

ACS Ipoh

Back then, I was a good natured boy, who’s obedient, innocent and only knew Hokkien, and after graduated from ACS, a little bit of Bahasa Malaysia and English. I guess I briefed through my first early 6 years pretty much like every other kid.

With my limited language proficiency and near-zero knowledge about the world, I marched into the next stage of my life: the primary-school and the secondary-school days. I was enrolled in St. Michael Institution, Ipoh (SMI) for both primary and secondary education.

Alma Mater SMI Ipoh

The two are located side by side, situated beautifully in the heart of Ipoh. I’ve had my best days in those days. Below are the few noteworthy events during this stage of my life that have more or less influenced me to become what I am today:

1. I have naughty friends. They are the ones who taught me how to curse, how to relief pressure off random car tyres while waiting for school bus, how to catapult or better known as ‘lastic‘ motorists while in the school bus, how not to do homework and still capable of passing them up the next day, how to skip extra-curricular activities, how to ‘lepak‘, and many many more. Yet they are the ones who taught me among others, how to take things easy, how to speak cantonese, buy me junk food, influence me to buy a tamiya car, to play starcraft and counter strike, to talk crap, bull and mindless jokes, do jack-ass stuff together, and the best of all they taught me the value of friendship.
2. I have decent friends. They are the opposite of my naughty friends though not entirely. They are the ones who influenced me to study hard, taught me how to solve tough equations, how to be academic driven, play football and badminton together, join school clubs with, go tuition with, hang out and have good clean fun, talk crap, bull and mindless jokes.
3. I was thrifty. In my primary days, I used to buy hero cakes or probably just plain noodles during recess and made sure I never spend more than RM 1 if I could help it. My parents asked me not to simply spend and I obeyed. Was I obedient or what?
4. I’ve have had badminton trainings from the age of 11 to 15. It was tough. At times, even the warm-up sessions are enough to get me puked. However, perseverance got me through and I enjoyed the adrenaline of the game. Since then, determination and willpower has a new meaning in my personal vocabulary. One of my ambitions back then was to become a national badminton player but of course I never did. I love badminton.
5. I rose from an average student to become one of the top students in my class to one of the top students in my school. In terms of academic, I thought I was champion, at least on the personal level. Having gone from average to the point of being the top 10 in the school was an arduous journey from the day I strived to be among the best but seeing my effort paid off was the best gift I could give myself for working hard. I was ecstatic. Nevertheless I was humbled by my beginnings and never will I forget where I started out. Friends and family played a big role and I learned the sense of humility and the importance of setting achievable goals. “Do your best” was my motto.

I graduated from high school in 2003, with SPM qualification and no special talents. Perhaps not well rounded enough having only excelled in academics but not much in other fields. Bits and pieces here and there in terms of extra-curricular activities and skills. Overall, I was a typical teenager with no major inclination towards any direction – I was never too passive nor too active. I was the product of influx influences from my naughty friends, good friends, family, surroundings, and self discovery.

At this stage of my life, I dare say I still have not really understood what I really wanted to become. From businessman to a badminton player, my ambition was diversified. Feeling obliged to follow the science stream, the choice was narrowed down to the famous four professions: doctor, lawyer, accountant and engineer. Doctor was ruled out because I didn’t want to work with sickness. I never really had the knack to ‘argue’ with people, hence out goes lawyer. Accountancy was deemed too boring for me. Engineering seems pretty cool. Having said that, the selection was obvious, but still it was all too vague.

Nonetheless, I had myself convinced it was the right choice and got myself enrolled in University Technology of Petronas (UTP), choosing chemical engineering among three other major engineering fields namely, civil, electronics and electrical, and mechanical. Architecture wise, UTP’s academic block is breath taking. Till today, it awes me everytime I pass by the chancellor hall and the information resource center (IRC).

UTP Academic Block

I must say, workload in UTP was next to none. Studies, assignments and projects demand a lot of my commitment and time but I balanced it up with sports, mainly badminton, watching movies and series of all sorts, playing computer games occasionally and strum the guitar whenever I can. I would rate my life as a student in UTP as so-so. I say this for a few reasons but not limited to the list below (their significance in descending order).

1. The workload was high, and that leaves very little time to do things that I really enjoy.
2. The clubs and society was not appealing to me for reasons I do not want to mention.
3. Unacceptable regulations being rigidly enforced like the case of wanting to summon me a freaking RM 30 for wearing a puny chain and jade that I have had worn around my neck for all my life.
4. Double standard – I wish not to elaborate.
5. Relatively expensive and limited choice of food.
6. There are no bench akin to those usually found in the park to sit around except in the so called football field.

Not wanting to sound ungrateful, let me now list the brighter side of my life in UTP. (none dominant over the other)

1. I make a lot of wonderful friends.
2. I enjoyed my foundation years.
3. People in UTP are generally well behaved, motivated and high-achievers.
4. UTP is well equipped, from its infrastructure to its competent staff.
5. I learn a lot. Be it in my studies, sports, friendship or religion.
6. Life at this stage taught me to be more independent, think more critically and objectively, and impart me with the necessary knowledge and solid foundation.
7. I understand myself better.

There exist at certain period of time during this phase, the lowest point in my life. I was somehow stressed, get angry easily, and worse of all, blamed and shunned the people that I care about for the dark chain of event that has happened. I am sorry.

I need to change for the better and a deeper soul searching began.

I start this blog to chronicle the journey of my life. I’m 21 now. A new chapter of my life has started and I want to establish it with a positive note. I’m a quiet and soft spoken person who probably wouldn’t tell much about myself. So I’m going to lay out a few things for you to get to know me a little better.

List 10 of your personality traits

• Good-mannered
• Soft spoken
• Sensitive
• Sporting
• Friendly
• Humble
• Know when to have fun and when to be serious
• Aware of my position and role
• Disciplined
• Positive

How do you spend your free time?

• Upkeep youthchapter.com and blog
• Play sports, usually badminton or swimming
• Watch movie/series
• Surf the Internet
• Play guitar
• Listen to songs and sing a long
• Play computer games
• Read a book

What are your believes and principles?

• Be a good person does not require a religion
• Working hard and committing my resources are essential to produce good results in whatever I do
• Do my bit for the environment and society
• Respecting and value other people’s opinions and critics
• Do more listening and pay attention to details
• Help others whenever I can
• Make sure that I enjoy my life
• Don’t be idle for more than half and hour

Who do you admire?

• People who do what the enjoy doing for a living
• People who fight for a better world and environment
• People who are positive, energetic and fun to be with
• People who earned their success through respectable and good effort
• People who are altruistic

Topics that I am into

• Food
• Entrepreneurship
• Music & singing
• Movies
• Human behaviour & relationship
• Travelling
• Electronic arts
• Science

What are my goals in the next 10 years

• To lead a healthy life
• Graduate with CGPA 3.97 or higher
• Get youthchapter.com up and running by the end of July 2008
• Seek help and get enough inputs to run youthchapter.com
• Keep youthchapter.com alive and flourishing
• To have some small projects started and succeeded through youthchapter.com
• Get enough resources by 2012 to invest in a café
• To have owned a café
• To have earned RM half a million by the age of 30
• Stay happy and keep on enjoying my life

My wish list

• To go to the outer-space
• To have a definite answer to this question: are we alone in the universe?
• To own a yatch
• To be a millionaire
• To travel around the world
• To see poverty and famine eradicated
• To see the world without physical war
• To have a healthy life

Miscellaneous

• I adopted Alex as the prefix of my name just recently
• I have soft spots for furry animals
• I don’t go shopping often
• I’m not fuzzy about food. I’m glad I have enough to eat
• My all time favourite motto is “JUST DO IT”
• I’m thin but generally healthy
• I’m good in singing or at least I would like to believe that
• I like creative advertisements and animations
• I don’t smoke
• I don’t like beer
• I like to look at clouds
• I dig breakfast
• I’m afraid of disgusting flying insects and creepy crawlies

There you go. A zip through my life, a slight revelation, and a little confession. Welcome to my blog.