UTAR Alumni

APRIL 2014

Be self-disciplined and succeed

By Sanggari Krishnan

First-Class Honours Bachelor of Arts and Social Science (Hons) Psychology, March 2013

irst of all I would like to thank God for being with me and showering me with His grace all this time. Achieving first-class honour has been my dream since I joined the course and I feel glad that I have achieved it.

I must admit that I have really put in a lot of effort to achieve it as I always believe nothing comes our way easily. I always make it a point to finish tasks early so that there will be a lot of time left for me to perfect them. I have been applying this to all tasks such as assignments, group work, presentations, studying for exams, extracurricular activities and so on. Overall, I would say that my hard work, being disciplined and desire to achieve have brought me the success.

My main motivator has been my mother, who has been motivating me ever since I was a child. She taught me to be strong in times when there are full of obstacles. She often says, 'Face obstacles now with the thought that you will succeed one day. Don't lose hope, pray to God with a pure heart, work hard and be a truthful person.'

Sanggari with her mother during March 2013 convocation

Furthermore, I would consider myself a good self-motivator and that helps me a lot. I always engage in self-counselling where I tell myself positive things and never to lose spirit in any situation. Another motivational factor is my desire to always perform, achieve, win and be the best.

I chose to study Psychology mainly because of my personal liking of the field. Second reason was my intention to improve my life and myself after studying the field. I can say now that I have got what I expected earlier. Through the course, I learnt about our everyday life, communicating with others, the reason behind one's action and so on. Most of all, I learnt about coping with problems and that has been my best lesson ever. I have improved myself, my relationships with others and many other aspects of my life. I have also learnt about mental health and its importance to human society. I wish to become a successful clinical psychologist in the future to pursue further knowledge on mental disorders.

Campus life has been one of the best times of my life. At first UTAR was not my choice but it turned out to be the best decision I have ever made. I gained a lot of experience and learnt to be independent at all the time. I joined many extracurricular activities especially the Peer Helping and Peer Mentoring programmes where I made a lot of friends. Many of them are good people who are my best friends that will last a lifetime. I used to hang out with friends, and go gatherings, for movies, vacations, and out chatting with them during my free time. I truly miss my campus life and if I ever get the chance to go back to UTAR and contribute in whatever way, I will definitely do so.

Sanggari with friends

To the juniors, I would urge you to enjoy your university life as much as you can. But, you must remember to balance your time between work and play. Study smart and play hard. Be honest with yourself and others. I strongly advise you to strictly discipline yourself as it is the main key to success, because honesty, self-control and self-motivation, which will lead you to success, require self-discipline.

Lastly, I would like to personally thank every single person who walked along with me for the past four years in UTAR. Thank you all. God is great, may He bless everyone. Smile always.

'Wow! I love all these gifts.'