Dear Papa,

  Here I am writing to you again.

  You left us 8 years ago, after a brave but painful fight with cancer. Here I am, remembering you once again.

  Yes, I still remember how it felt like 8.5 years ago, when you sat us down in our living room after a visit to the clinic, and told us the doctor had found cancer cells metastasised to your lungs.

  You didn't know how you got them. You didn't know how long you've had it. All you knew was that the doctors gave you 6 months to live.

Some call it the calm before the storm. The lull before the tsunami. The feeling of unease because something big was gonna hit very hard very soon.

  We didn't know what to expect. We didn't know how to handle your illness. All I knew back then was that a major chapter in my life was about to end.

  Something was about to change. I must get a dose of manhood. I must grow up real fast. Whether I like it or not, that was what I must do.

  And that's the reason I started this blog - to document the changes that I was going through that particular phase of my life.

  Eight years since then, things have been falling into place more or less like a routine. Found some success in blogs. Started my business. Found a girl. Things has more or less become very... predictable.

  Until now.

  Papa, that feeling of unease is coming to me again.

  I'm in the process of starting a new business concept. So far, things has been exactly smooth-sailing. If anything, the project has been continuously delayed by contractors and impracticalities in design.

  I'm feeling uneasy because although I'm optimistic about my project, I do wonder if others share my optimism.

  How I wish you were here to guide me!

  Two, I am very, very happy in my relationship with Ming. And I understand eventually I must settle down and start a family. At the same time, I know being in a relationship is so different than having to provide and care for a family.

  How different will things be when I eventually settle down? Truthfully, I don't know. I just hope I have the ability to be a good husband and father, just like you are to me.

  The Elections is tomorrow.

  Although I think the current administration is doing a decent job thus far, the response from the ground is overwhelmingly pro-Opposition. It is almost as if the only people left supporting the Najib are those related to the candidates, rural folks or Bangladeshis.

  The Opposition-led rallies night after night have been crazily massive. If these sentiments were to translate into votes, I think we'll be seeing something quite unprecedented in history. Never thought I would be seeing a two-party system ever happening in Malaysia in my lifetime, but after tomorrow, who knows?

  I can only hope that whoever leads our country tomorrow is able to restore our confidence in the education system, so we can happily send my children to school here, and stay as a family in Kuching. Last thing we want is to see our family unit split apart again because of the lack of opportunities here - like the way it had split ours.

  What they say is true. Tomorrow, we'll be voting not for ourselves, but for our future generations.

  Papa, all your life, all you ever wanted is a better future for us. How I wish you were here to see change happening right in front of our eyes.

  I miss you, Papa.

Love from your youngest son,

Kenny

I wrote this entry more than a year ago: "Don't Go To University For The Sake Of It".

Till today, I still get feedback from students who agree with my piece, show my blog to their parents, and then make me kena abuse from their parents because they think what I wrote was too controversial.

Of course lah, I wasn't saying don't go to University and just lepak lepak scratch your balls do nothing.

I was simply saying that if you haven't found your passion, don't spend too much time and money on higher education.

Rather than spending 3 years in University doing engineering, another 3 years doing Masters, then after 6 years realizing that wasn't what you love to do for the rest of your life... why not just spend more time discovering where your passion lies in the first place?

I wanna write this piece as a follow up to that blog entry.

Some students say, after finishing SPM, they still have no idea where their love lies. To that I say, start doing research lah!

Most Gen Y-er are clueless about what they expect out of a job. A good way to learn how to marry your career with your passion is to start reading up on anecdotes written by those who have already done it. The myStarjob.com Career Guide (available both online and in print every Saturday) is a good place to start.

I feel every student, out there gotta be doing this as early as possible. Find out as much and as early as possible about what your future job might entail, because what you imagine your job to be and what it actually is might be very different.

Don't say you want to study to become an Oil & Gas Engineer because of you "heard" people say the money is good, then later regret when you discover you don't actually wanna live on an oil rig with seagulls as friends!

But hey, if taking a helicopter to work everyday sounds exciting to you, then by all means - chase your dreams!

Once you got a target career to work towards (even vaguely), start educating yourself. Not just in terms of completing your assignments and University degree, but also by attending seminars, workshops and talks by industry leaders.

From my experience, many industry people are very frank with students about the realities of the working world. I don't mind walking to a seminar full of fresh college graduates and tell them straight that they can't go into a job interview, expect to get a senior management position and a fat pay cheque that comes with it!

Next, start applying for your dream job!

I get tons of application from graduates every we advertise for it. One thing I always enjoy doing is reading resumes written by those who put an extra effort onto it.

Nowadays, pretty much the only acceptable way to apply for a job is via the Internet. And please, don't just send a one-line e-mail with an attachment of your resume. Always write a cover letter.

Here's how not to write a cover letter:

And this is one of the best, perfectly-blunt and brutally-honest cover letters I have seen:

Gotta love an honest job applicant sometimes.

Nowadays, you can even send in VIDEOS instead of your cover letter. myStarjob.com called it a Visume.

I love it.

It's so much more enjoyable to watch videos of potential candidates than to read boring resumes that almost all sounds the same!

When you upload your resume to MyStarJob.com, you have the option of uploading a video of yourself too so your potential employer have a chance to see how you're really like. Perfect for those applying for positions like model, actor or Old Town Kopitiam waiters who like to pretend customers don't exist.

But there’s more! From now until mid-March, you stand a chance to win a weekly prize worth RM100 if you do the following:

1. Register as a myStarjob.com member (registered members can proceed to Step 3).
2. Upload your resume (Word or PDF format).
3. Answer 1 question correctly.
4. Click submit!

If you're lucky, you might even with the overall grand prize – an awesome car!

Not bad eh?

So once you got your dream job, you too can join the rest of us working crowd and get stuck in a traffic jam every morning to work!