Cambridge: They made me an offer I cannot refuse.

I've decided to start blogging from 2011 onwards, in an effort to document my life in this time of rapid change and progression. I will, in all likelihood, be facing a lot of interesting new challenges and excitement as I brave the overseas for tertiary education. Perhaps blogging for the public would also encourage me to do more exciting and fulfilling things for it's sake.
(I hope you get the "The Godfather" reference in the title.)

**

All 10 of us Cambridge applicants had been waiting anxiously for the time to come; when we hear from Cambridge. Like all the others, I generally avoided thinking about it too much. Doing so could really make one a mad insomniac.
Term started on January 5th, 2011, the same day that Cambridge officially posted the outcome, but nobody would know until they either email us or we receive the postal. It wasn't long after that some replies came, starting off with rejection, rejection, rejection. Disheartening though it may have been, all of us remaining hung on to that little hope that maybe we may have it different.
And then came an email one evening after dinner. All it said was, "(blank) Regards, Lesley" and attached was a document called "sng.pdf." Lesley Shaw is the admissions tutor at Emmanuel college. So in all likelihood, the document that I had just gotten was a reply letter. Immediately, my heart began to race. The answer to conclude all the effort, hope and waiting was finally here. I called out to some of the Nadzi upper sixers who were around that I had just got a reply! They came rushing but I decided that I needed to open it on my own so I made them leave again.
After what seemed like forever waiting for the document to load, a grainy copy of a letter appeared before me and I quickly scanned it for clues as to what would come next. I did as I always do in times like these, I made myself believe that the worst was to come. I made myself believe it was a rejection letter.

"Dear Christopher," it began. And in the most foreboding tone it said: "We have now considered your application..." *sigh* Still believing I was reading a rejection letter, I scrolled down haphazardly as my eyes caught sight of an "A*AA." I paused for a moment and then scrolled back up to the first sentence. And then read the next.
"I am pleased to be able to tell you that we have decided to offer you a place for October 2011,..."

Mind disconnected from eyes and speech, it took a while for me to register what had just happened. Not very proud of this but the first two words I yelled out after that were "holy" and then, no not our bovine friends, but another word for biological excrement. Jon, Win Sern and Saiful quickly came running.
Reading the letter the first time really generated some heavy emotions, and then some. Tears began to welt in my eyes as I hugged my friends. I could not really believe what I was seeing but as I began to fathom the magnitude of the letter I had just received, it really hit me like a huge rubber mallet. 
I had done it. Somehow, I had done it. Cramming the entire Bio AS during the summer holiday, working day and night on the personal statement and the tricky Cambridge Overseas Admission Form, studying the entire Immunology Online text book, reading up medical ethics for the interview, doing so many mock interviews and everything academically oriented years before this all had become justified and worth it, if not more than so. The odds are insane – 22 Medicine places for non-UK/non-EU applicants and of those usually around 3 are from Malaysia. I am truly, truly blessed and grateful to be one of the fortunate Malaysians to get in for Medicine.
If there are two people in this world that I succeed to make proud, it would be my Mum and Ms. Sarah. So those are the first two people I called. Saiful immediately posted it on Facebook before I could stop him and the news began spreading like wildfire, oh the wonders of Facebook. Well of course it's great for so many people to be congratulating you and all, but what really touched me most was the utter and genuine self-less kind of happiness many had for me. Someone said it was like she was Charlie's friend and Charlie had found the Golden ticket. :') 

"The kids who are going to find the Golden Tickets are the ones who can afford to buy bars of chocolate every day. Our Charlie gets only one a year. There isn't a hope." - Grandpa George

There's always hope.
All we can do now is hope and pray hard that Daniel and Patrick will get a Golden ticket too. There is a good chance they will be picked out of the pool, I am very hopeful. If four is the number to beat, then these two must get it!


Meanwhile, I thought I'd leave you with some pictures of this kid who just got an offer to study Medicine at Cambridge:

Heh. Well at least I make Mummy happy.

:)