I Never Called Myself a Daughter of the University

I went to the event just to attend. That was the plan. I didn't know I was nominated for anything, let alone three categories.

I found out inside the program. Student of Promise. Top 3 across all 35 UiTM campuses, selected from all registered OKU students for holistic excellence in academics, leadership and community contribution. I sat with that for a moment. Didn't fully know what to do with it.

But that wasn't the only thing on my mind.

Four days before, I found out the VC was coming. I was still deep in my internship work. And I decided to write a memorandum.

Nobody asked me to. I just knew that if he was going to be in the same room as me, I wasn't going to let the moment pass. I wrote it during whatever time I had left after work. Finished it. Printed it. Brought it secretly to the event.

I was worried I wouldn't get the chance to hand it over. That someone would stop me. That my chaperone would find out and shut it down before I even got close.

When I handed it to him, my mouth stopped working.

He didn't brush it off. He didn't hand it back. He called his PA over. They took a photo.

And that was enough.

The Student of Promise award came after my batchmates' convocation. I wasn't walking that day. I hadn't finished yet. But I was still in that room, still receiving something, still being counted.

Most of my batchmates only got to speak to the VC on their convo day. I got to hand him something first.

I thought about all the semesters that felt like they were going nowhere. The extended timeline. The tears that had been building for a long time.

Maybe they paid off. Even just a little.