Yesterday I organised the second PR Managers Community Network gathering for the Group PR and Communications Managers. The theme for the gathering this time round was Corporate Identity and Branding, a topic which I had actually wanted to study as a second degree.
In the PR2U session, a session where we plan to have external speakers share about a certain topic, I invited my old lecturer Mr L.C to give a presentation about branding as he is one of the branding gurus in Malaysia.
Mr L.C and I go way back in my IACT days, of which I have never blogged about since blogging was not "in" at that time. In IACT, where I studied mass communications, marketing and advertising (it was a really general diploma), I was blessed to be under the guidance of several good lecturers, the best being Mr L.C who thought me about branding, campaign planning and copy writing I believe.
I remember days when he would ask me questions when he knew I was either:
a) half asleep
b) talking to my friends
c) trying to finish my home work
d) daydreaming
At times like this, I wore my 'deer-in-the-headlights' look and quickly blurted out something (sometimes it was right sometimes, totally helpless wrong!) and tried to look as if I really knew what I was mumbling. He would laugh at times and say it was a "good try" and sometimes he would just give me a haughty look and turn his face away from me and say 'moving along...' Needless to say the classroom would erupt into laughter when he said that.
Now even though I 'occasionally' disrupted the class or feel asleep or daydreamed, I really loved what I studied and it came naturally to me. There was no need to really study per se. I found it easier to learn by case studies and examples of which he has plenty of. I was always eager to debate or question him about things when I was awake and fully functioning and it was always interesting and informative to hear his retorts and explanations.
So yes, I believe I was one of Mr L.C's fav students and this was affirmed by him yesterday *woot woot* and as Mr L.C continued telling my colleagues about his teaching days and how I was a good student and how it would be pleasure to mark my exam papers as he had memorized my ID number, I was struck by how much he remembered about me. He asked me about what I had done after getting my diploma and if I had gone to USM or if I had succeeded in going to Australia. I had actually forgotten about this plan of mine to go to USM since I could not afford to go to Aussie. After all this time he remembered...
I have to say the feeling of being remembered was like a 'high' of sorts. I felt happy that someone remembered me. Some of you might think it sad that I could be this jubilant about something as trivial as this, but in a world where I get few affirmations, this is like a refreshing drink of cool spring water.
So yea... thanks Mr L.C for remembering. For being a good lecturer and for giving a super presentation yesterday - all of us learnt a lot. And you know what, as Mr L.C spoke, it was like being in IACT again in one of his classes and I felt happy. The feeling of wanting to pursue my studies coursed through me again and well... who knows... perhaps I will one day soon though for the moment, I will start with some of the branding books that I have bought.
Although it was a long long long day, it was a good one. Mr L.C, I hope we meet again soon. I thanked God for having you in my life as a lecturer and a friend.
