Ever since we finished our last exam on the 19th of June, we all promised that we’re going to meet up again during the winter break. Perhaps go to the cinema, travel to Moreton Bay to watch some whales, or go to some nice places that we’ve never been before. But there’s only one problem: we all have different schedules. It’s just so hard to get everyone together!

So yesterday (knowing today is already 2 am), I contacted Jay Jay and told him that we had to meet up because I’ll leave Brisbane for New Zealand tomorrow (which means today!). We decided to meet up at a coffee shop in Toowong on the same day and invited our friends as well. Thankfully there were 5 people came — including myself. Some people couldn’t make it though; Chris wasn’t feeling well, Pick is currently in Sydney, and Yusuf had to do something else.

Anyway, there were Jay Jay, Jerry, Nanda, and Richard. Jay Jay was my project mate (for SAD course). He is graduating this semester and is still thinking whether he’s going to take Honours degree at UQ. If not, he’ll go back to Singapore in few weeks. He is a very nice guy who talks a loooot (in a positive way)! It’s always fun to talk to him coz you’ll never feel that you’re running out of topics! Hehehe. (Honestly, I always like to be around talkative people, so that I don’t have to talk a lot ). He invited me to his birthday party last month and was KIND enough to separate the meals for “muslim people” from other guests. Jerry was also my teammate; we were in a group together for our project in 2005. He’s soooo clever!! I remember that he helped me with my assignment (C language) few years ago. He’s currently doing Honours degree and was my tutor for Web Information Systems course. He’s a great and calm guy! Nanda is the only guy that was present whom I’ve never worked with. Last night was perhaps the first longest conversation I had with him. Although he’s an Indonesian, we usually just say hi if we bump to each other at Uni. He’s supposed to graduate this semester, but because something happened, he might or might not be able to graduate this semester. He’s a good friend of Jay Jay — and that’s how I came to know him. Richard is a friend of mine whom I worked with for two projects, one was SOA and the other one was SAD. It’s always great to work with him. He’s an Australian who did few years of Army — that’s why he’s the oldest compared to us. He’s the only person last night whose status is “taken” — we joked that he shouldn’t be with us that day, as all 4 of us are single .

We talked about so many things, one of which was our plans in the future. I told them that I’m going to do Master degree later on and will choose IT-related degree once again. And you know what??? NONE of them supported my idea! Jay Jay, Jerry, and Nanda argued that I should better do other degree (e.g. business) because if I do Master of IT, then I’ll most probably redo the whole thing (i.e. take the same courses as in Bachelor degree). And Richard said, “Why don’t you just get a job?? GPA only matters when you’re getting your first job. After that, it’s about experience!” Oh gosh, I suddenly felt regret telling them about my plan hahahaha. Well, my purpose of pursuing Master degree is to learn more about IT (advance stuff!), because what I learn at UQ is quite basic. So I’m hoping to advance my IT knowledge by doing Master degree. But they argued that what I’ll learn in Master degree is THE SAME STUFF what I’ve learnt at UQ! “You’re just wasting money! Take business degree! It’s a very important field as you need to manage people! You only need to know technical side of IT in a “low-level” job like system analyst. But you need management knowledge to go further up (e.g. project manager).” Yes, I do know about that. But the problem is that, I’m only interested in IT! And I can’t study a subject that I’m not even interested at!! To be honest, I was actually consider looking for a job — in hope that the company I’ll be working at will financially support me to pursue a Master degree. And the good news is that, there’s a vacant position at one of the biggest companies in Saudi Arabia — my parents told me. They’re looking for a female employee in IT field and there’s a good chance that I might get accepted as my dad’s close friend works there. My parents told me to apply first — whether I’ll get accepted or not and whether I’ll accept their offer is not a big issue. They just want me to apply. God… I’m so confused. I was soooo confident that I was going to take Master degree, but now I’m faced with choices again! Jay Jay reminded me again about it when we’re about to go back home, “Amalia. You go back and think again, ok? Don’t make a mistake!”

We met at Toowong Village at about 8 pm. We then walked to one of the coffee shops nearby. Richard went home first, as he had to do some packing for his trip to Gold Coast tomorrow. Jay Jay, Nanda, Jerry, and I stayed there until about 9.30 pm. It turned out that Nanda drove a car, so he sent me home . Actually, I invited them over to my house. Jay Jay’s hand was hurt, so I told him to come over to get some bandages. I served them ice cream and we talked so many things for one more hour. It was sooo fun!! A great night, indeed! Thanks so much guys!!!

* L-R: Jay Jay, Jerry, Richard, me, and Nanda