They Say They Need An Honest Answer

They say it’s important for me to answer this question with complete honesty in less than 500 words. So here goes nothing. …

What Would You Consider As Your Biggest Achievement And Why?

It would be near impossible for me to single out any of my past achievement as my biggest so far. Not that my life has been a long sad excuse of existence, I just thought of all the things I’ve achieved up to this moment they're all simply so, err, not that remarkable. You see, at 30 I’ve yet to win the Nobel Peace Prize or an Oscar, so to declare anything as the ‘biggest one yet’ is such a, well, bit phony for me.

But thinking about it now, there's maybe something else I’ve done that I am particularly proud. Not exactly ‘biggest’, but close. So I’ll just go out on a limb and say; getting my first degree has got to be my proudest achievement in life so far, next to completing this pathetic attempt of self-glorify write-up.

And here I tell you why it was such an amazing feat for me.

Because it was my first achievement that really matters. Honest to God, growing up in a small town, Segamat, I never thought I would go much further than my house driveway. I seriously thought I would end up working as an Assistant Supervisor at the local supermarket, or be a tired government official in our local municipal. So having given the opportunity to study abroad really opened the door for me. I was not only got a chance to travel half across the globe, I got to see the world from a different set of eyes too. I was exposed to so many different cultures and values; how was it felt to be a minority and a foreigner and how other people saw and treated us. It gave me a new perspective on things I didn’t usually understand and really did open my mind greatly and man, I am so glad for that.

Because it really makes my mom proud and that she would gladly take the credit for it. Now my mom has something to gag my annoying relatives anytime they brag about their bratty grandkids or about their son who just comes out of prison. She’d just polish my framed diploma in front of them and smirk. Give her a break, she’s entitled to that, I was the first and only son from my mom’s side that graduated with a degree. And has yet to be incarcerated.

I am not saying that whatever good things that I’ve achieved right after my graduation ceremony didn’t matter or not as important, Of course they do. It’s just I feel like anything great that had happened in my life so far has the beginning from that one single moment, one single accomplishment that even 10 years down the road later, I’d still look up and manage to shed a proud tear or two (Okay, I was being completely overdramatic). That is why it was such a big deal for me.

And of course, being able to recognize and list down every single success in your life, pick the biggest one yet and write a couple of paragraph explaining your choice; that’s, I believe, quite an achievement by itself. Not many people would and can do that, don’t you think?