Abnormal!

So today I attended my first Abnormal Psychology class. A fellow classmate predicted that our lecturer would be short, fat and bald...but boy, he was totally the opposite of those! Dr. RK's tall, not-so-fat figure, greying hair and sense of humour gave me the impression of somebody's grandfather. Or the type of old-timers who like to spin yarns to the young tourists.

He is the first lecturer who did not brief us on course contents, etc for the first class. Instead, he proceeded to tell us his entire life story, starting when he was born in Thailand up till the moment he stood in our class. And I'm not kidding either. But of course, he did not simply tell his story to entertain us...there must be some value or moral in it. Relating his advices to his story, he told us that that there is no point in being angry with people to the extent of doing something you don't like. For example, my lecturer didn't like Agriculture; but he majored in it just to prove to certain people that he had it in him to excel in that field. And he did succeed, but then he found that he wasn't happy with what he was doing. Hence the second piece of advice - when doing something, make sure you do it for yourself. And you have to decide what it is that you want to do, because if you really do it, then the chances of succeeding is higher. And need I mention that he kept us laughing during the entire time?

I was waiting for him to ask if anybody wanted to ask him anything. This is because in his introductory slide, he wrote "Assoc. Prof & Clinical Psychologist" beneath his name (you may recall that clinical psychology is among the many careers I am thinking of). So as soon as he asked the customary "Any questions?", I immediately raised my hand and asked if he was a practicing clinical psychologist (to which he said was a very good question). He said yes, he has a practice in IIUM (and somewhere else which I can't remember). He is also a consultant for the National Heart Institute (Institut Jantung Negara, IJN) - they call him to do a psychological assessment on a patient before the patient is operated on. This really, really attracted me. I was so excited to get a practicing clinical psych to teach us, because he can share his experiences when teaching us in class. Plus, I can ask him anything should I want to pursue this career.

Alhamdulillah, I have been lucky to get great lecturers so far. However, there is one lecturer this semester who is, umm...rather slow in teaching. But never mind. Looks like we'll just have to adapt to her style. And try not to fall asleep at the same time.