My story began when I was 12 years old. My father had stopped me from entering secondary school so that I would be able to take the fast track and complete my IGCSE. That was when I experienced total freedom as well as BOREDOM. When people are given too much time to themselves, they would definitely end up being frustrated and bored as I was. I tried studying but did not see my examination dates getting any closer as I had not signed up for it. So life went on with me being free and not thinking of my future at all.

When I turned 14, surprisingly my life took a big turn. My family made a big decision to travel to India. We resided in Goa, next to the ocean and explored the neighbouring cities whenever we had a chance. However, six months later we returned to Malaysia because my sisters wanted to complete their studies.

We had relocated to Langkawi due to my father’s job and at the age of 15, I experienced my first part-time employment at Artisan’s Pizza. The path to coding began when my family urged me to create a website for our Homestay business. YouTube was my sole tutor and I was over the moon simply because I had learned the ways to change colours and manipulate elements using CSS. All of the knowledge that I self-taught is etched in my memory to this day.

Why Forward School?

Later on, I got hired as a cashier in Holiday Inn Hotel when I moved to Penang. It was then that I felt that I needed education in order to advance further in my career and life. Coincidentally, I was retrenched from work when I was 19 years old and that was itself a blessing in disguise. The moment I had stopped working, my journey in education resumed. I was determined this time to get my certification for secondary studies. However, due to financial issues, I could not complete my O-Levels. Hence, the other option was to get my SPM certificate. Everything was perfect until my tuition tutor pressured me to study daily at the centre from 10 o’clock in the morning until midnight. I had always balanced my life with studies and sports, thus I decided to self-study after quitting tuition. Every day, I managed my time well by studying until late noon and continued to play sports with friends until evening. I had completed my SPM examination successfully and the next challenge I faced was choosing the best college to further my studies.

As I already had experience in Web Development, my dad told me he would look for colleges that were offering IT/Software Engineering courses. That was the first time I learned what Software Engineering was about. Therefore, fast-forwarding to a few months later, my father had been surveying courses related to tech for me and then introduced me to Forward School. Both of us felt that this college provides a valuable course for students and I was very eager to get some of that practical hands-on training my way as well which was a major reason why I chose Forward School.