Livia Alfian

“Education is just a learning process, your future determines what you are.” Have you heard it from your friends, families, lecturers, or even your part-time work supervisors? For me, it continues even today. As a student, I believe we all want to quickly graduate and step out of school. Isn’t it a loop that everyone follows? Completing primary school just to get into high school; completing high school to enter college; deciding which major to enrol in University to get a “DEGREE” to be looked up as part of today’s community. We’ve all been or will soon be into it. As for me, I was born in Medan, Indonesia, and I came from a normal family, nothing special, like most of us here. I do have hobbies but as a Year 3 University student, time might not be as sufficient as before for me to pursue my hobby on dancing. Still, I have this belief in me, whenever we work hard and exert tremendous effort on the things we do, the result would definitely not disappoint us.

With this belief crafted upon me, during my college years, despite tough times where I sometimes feel like giving up, the result was never what I expected. At the graduation ceremony, I was awarded the “Jeffrey Cheah Special Entrance Scholarship” for a full scholarship deduction among all the hundreds of graduates, to pursue a degree of my choice in Sunway University. On that day too, I set a life goal for myself, in which I promise to continue to make my parents proud and believe that I can pursue my dreams as long as I continue to trust myself. Even though I've repeatedly heard from my friends, either in my hometown or in Malaysia, to continue my studies further away, what set my mind to choose Sunway is how it has helped me to make up my goals in life. I am very thankful to be selected as the one to receive this golden opportunity, in which I believe, many of the graduates would be more than pleased to have received it too. To be who I am today, it’s not possible if Sunway didn’t give me the aspirations and prove to me that hard work does actually pay off. If I previously had declined this opportunity, aspects of my university life would be harder during the ups and downs, just like every one of us here, we might have not seen the worth in ourselves. I am writing this to motivate fellow scholars out there to believe and trust yourself. The success process might take a long time. I wasn’t who I was during my primary school years, I slowly built this moral in me. Most importantly, good things take time. Even though you might have heard this hundred of times, but trust me, progress isn't made overnight. If you have the aim, set your mind to it and trust yourself, you can. In the end, I promise the results won’t fail you. It’s important to remember that even the most successful person has had their downtimes, but to look at it from a positive perspective and learn from mistakes, is one thing that differentiates them.

Today, being a scholar, I continue to drive this belief and motivation, spreading positivity to all my friends and family members. I repeatedly assure them to never let down their aim and goals in life. If they couldn’t do that for themselves, who else could? I am always willingly happy to help all my friends and families, guide them to the best of my ability, as they pave their path, both in academics and life goals. As for the future, I hope I could leave a mark as a proud Sunway student. To my fellow friends who are reading #MySunwayStory, I hope it inspires all of us to be a better version of ourselves. Sunway University is truly the place of golden opportunities and aspirations. Thank you, Sunway!

Livia Alfian
BSc (Hons) International Hospitality Management
Jeffrey Cheah Special Entrance Scholarship