A true story is always the best story.

Specially dedicated to my godsister Jamie Yeap Tsuey Shan,

may this story of mine serve as a motivation and a reason to hold on and keep hoping even at the toughest of times.

March 16, 2010


Madame S: You don't want to do Mechanics?
Me : No.
Madame S: What about Chemistry?
Me: No.
Madame S: But why do you insist on Electronics then?

In the French grading system, the total mark for each paper/test is 20. The minimum passing grade is 10.

In the picture there are 2 rows: Etudiant and Groupe. The marks in the row Etudiant shows the average marks I scored while the marks in the row Groupe shows the average marks of the whole group(us 12 Malaysians in the Preparatory Program).

So as you can see, during Semester September-December, I scored 3/20 for Electricity whereas the group's average is 8.5/20. So I ranked 12th(last) among us.

And Madame S, who is the person in charge of our education affairs here in France came by to visit us after the 1st Semester to see how things were going, and to know what we planned to do next.

Me: Because it's the only thing I'm interested in. If I do anything other than that, I won't make it far.

Madame S: Well I hope you know what you're doing.

I have never felt so devastated before, so many things ran through my head: regret, confusion, anxiety. How can I hope to be an Electronic Engineer with such a terrible grade? I felt so lost, I started to blame myself for taking up Engineering while I know that Maths and Science were never my kind of thing. I regretted, I should have taken up Mass Communications or Teaching instead. And I cried.

Then I realised that it's useless for me to regret any choice I've made and any mistakes done. What I could do then was to only work harder and patch things up the best I could.

Father, help me to give the best I can give and bless me with what I deserve.

For Semester 2 I scored 10.5/20 for Electricity which is the minimum passing grade, though there was improvement but it wasn't good enough to make up for my bad start. I ended up with a 6.8/20 average for Electricity, something not-so-favorable especially for those aiming to take Electronics.

Madame JB: Don't discourage yourself, Leong. Keep your hopes high. When you get into an IUT, you'll start all over again from 0. Then you can catch up with what you have left out before. I feel that this is a wise choice for you because in IUT, you'll do a lot of practical work which will help you understand and learn things better. And you're very good at it, you'll do fine.

Madame JB was my Electricity teacher back in the Preparatory Program. She was like a mother-figure to me, she believed in me even when I lost hope on myself.

May 31, 2010

Madame S: I have just received a positive answer from the IUT of Bordeaux.

It was simply the most touching moment of my life. From failure I have managed to bounce back and been given a chance to start all over again. =)

And yes, I have promised myself that there will be no more nonsense from me, I'm getting serious now. I'm given another chance to make things right and I can't afford to screw it up no more.

This is what happens when a has-been-failure realised his mistakes, made the best out of his situation and held on till the very end:

From upper-left(clockwise):

Electrotechnique: 17/20, Electronic 1: 14/20, Electronic 2: 17/20,

Industrial IT: 20/20, Electrotechnique DM1: 16.5/20,

Electrotechnique DM2: 15.5/20.

Noone can "do better than the best", but you can do better since you have not seen your best yet. You have not given in 100%, you will never reach 110%, but in fact, you have only given 90% and yet to reach 100%! - Have you seen your best?

What's best about this story with a happy ending is that it's all true testimony. =)

May God bless you in the same grace as He has blessed me.

Special thanks to my parents and friends for their endless support,

to Ying Ning who listened to me and consoled me,

to Madame JB for guiding me and believing in me

and to God for His mercy and kindness and never letting me down through it all.