In Those "Hallowed Halls Of Learning"

Unlike Charles Lamb who wandered around the deserted, hallowed halls of learning at Oxford during vacation time centuries ago, I had the unique privilege of attending classes at British Columbia's version of Oxford, Simon Fraser University, albeit for a short while! I was invited to participate in a pilot project for career development practitioners in B.C., and though I'm not one, but just teach the Labor Market Focused Curriculum to new immigrants, I figured it would be a welcome change to my humdrum, established routine and gladly took up the offer. So there I was, with 14 others in the classroom, and boy was I glad I didn't heed my initial misgivings about the course!

I must admit I had a wonderful time getting back to school and playing the role of a dedicated student all over again with all the requisite reading, discussion, and general hobnobbing with my wonderful classmates. Strange how you meet all these fantastic people by "happenstance" who leave an indelible impression on you! And oh yeah, it would be remiss of me not to mention our professor, Kon Li, who did a remarkable job of keeping us on track, at the same time, imparting to us those much-needed career development theories and code of ethics. He was a well-informed professional who thoroughly knew what he was talking about, yet took care not to impose his ideas on us, but rather, allowed us the freedom to air our views, voice our concerns, and share our opinions with others in the classroom. See the picture below of myself with Professor Kon Li, courtesy of my classmate Suddhodan.

It is indeed sad that the course was rather short-lived, but then again, all good things have to come to an end, don't they?!? To have had such a wonderful experience with my phenomenal classmates was something more than I could've asked for. I must make a special mention here of Balkaran, Luke, Suddhodan, Morteza, Gina, and Camille who enlivened the class regularly with all their views, with the rest of us (Maria, Heather, Qais, Abdul, Jessica, Luis, Inge, Hae Eun, and myself) occasionally chiming in our two cents' worth.The best thing was that all 15 of us spoke and were heard! The funny part was that just because I answered one or two questions during the review, Suddhodan was joking around that he wanted to sit next to me during the exam, and on the last day, when the Professor told us that if anyone needed oxygen during the exam, in that claustrophobic theatre room, we should let him know, Balkaran piped in that if anyone needed oxygen they could always sit near Olivia! Yeah, right!!! I was laughing my head off, actually! The shot below, again courtesy of Suddhodan, who was thoughtful enough to have brought a camera to the class!

Let me say again that those hallowed halls of learning at SFU brought me invaluable experiences of knowledge, friendship, camaraderie, sharing, warmth and geniality, and I shall always remember each one of these people I interacted with. It was also a dream come true for me to be a student again (read my earlier post "Deferred Dreams Or Wishful Thinking?" - Sep. 2009) and I'm grateful indeed for some of these unexpected pleasures and joys of life! I'll take them, please, however small and short-lived they are!!!