FUN RUN SUSKOM 2020
PERSAKA (Persatuan Mahasiswa Sains Komputer) has organized a sports event called SUSKOM (Sukan Sekolah Komputeran). This event will be held every year and open to all UTM students for registration in participation. Basically, this event will be held for a few days and provided many options for activities such as e-sports, indoor games, outdoor games and extra games for the students to participate. The purpose of this event is to provide co-curricular activities for students to join and allow them to maintain a balance between curriculum and co-curricular activities. Besides, it gives an opportunity for students to go out and participate in sports instead of only studying and do assignments in the room.
As a student from the School of Computing, I like to join the activities organized by PERSAKA as a kind of support to them. I have participated in SUSKOM 2020 which joined the extra games called “Fun Run”. It is like a trail running activity that needs to run around a part area of UTM for 3 kilometers. The reason of why I joined this activity is I wanted to challenge myself to give myself an attempt to run 3 kilometers around UTM which I never try before. This activity also allowed me to explore a part area of UTM. In fact, this decision really challenging for me because I have not run for a such distance in a long time since I focused on the achievement of study. Hence, I really appreciate this opportunity to join a sporting event at the university. At the same time, I wanted to test my physical body strength and willpower, and cannot wait to see my result. Other than that, I also wanted to give myself a chance to meet new friends from the other school and faculty of UTM. It is difficult for us to meet new friends from the other school and faculty in a university because the students are separated according to the specialization field of study. The study environment is fully occupied with the people who study the same specialization field of study. So the only way to meet new friends from the other school and faculty in a university is through participation in this kind of event.
After I signed up for this activity, I have been added by the committee members to a WhatsApp group. In the WhatsApp group, the committee members brief us with some details of this activity such as the road map and the tentative of this activity. All the participants must clearly understand all the progress of this activity so that we can follow the right instructions and complete this activity smoothly. Before the date of this activity, the committee members give a friendly reminder to us in the WhatsApp group. They reminded us that prepare ourselves with the appropriate wear and arrive on time.
On 7th May 2020, I woke up early and prepared myself with tied up hair, sportswear, a water bottle and a small towel. Before going to the meeting venue, I have bread as my breakfast. At 7 a.m. sharp, I registered myself at the registration booth in front of Block N28A, School of Computing. Since not all participants arrived on the time, I decided to meet some new friends while waiting for the other participants. I mustered up the courage to walk towards a crowd. I start the communication with some interesting topics. After that, we asked each other about our specialization field of study. From the conversation, I knew that they come from the Faculty of Science and they participated in this activity together to gain the same experiences. We communicated well and have fun when talking to each other.
After half an hour passed, all participants are arrived and registered. We began this activity by warming up our bodies. We do aerobics together with the committee members. We are having joy while warming up because of the funny action of the committee members. The funny action of the committee members considered as a kind of support for us to encourage us to finish the run later. After that, we started to run. The committee members have prepared three checkpoints in between the running path. When we arrived at the checkpoint, we are given a rubber band to indicate that we have passed this checkpoint. There is a different colour of rubber bands at the three check points, which means that we have collected all the three colour of rubber bands before reporting ourselves at the finish point. If we cannot collect all the three colour of rubber bands, we will be not given the certificate of participation because we cannot prove that we have finished the run.
Furthermore, the committee members prepared themselves and stand beside along the path to take care of the participants and make sure that the participants are run using the correct path. They are ready just in case if an accident happens or somebody needs their help. During the run, there is an accident that happens to me, which is my sports shoes have broken. I did not notice until I accidentally fall down. Luckily, I did not get a serious injure. However, I cannot continue to run without sports shoes. A person found my problem, which is the friend that I just met while waiting for other participants to arrive in the morning. She noticed that I need help and she report this problem to the committee members. The committee member decided to send me back to the final point using a motorcycle. I agreed with her decision at first, but I rejected her after thinking because I am not willing to give up on this challenge. I believe that I can overcome the problem and achieve the goal in the end.
Therefore, I continue running without sports shoes. I wear only the socks to continue this journey. My new met friend took care of me and give me help along the way. I remembered that there are many students looking at me with strange eyes along the way. Although it is embarrassing, I ignored them and told myself, this is a very worth-collecting experience in my life. I will not give up until I finish this challenge. Finally, I used approximately an hour and a half to finish the run. When I arrived at the finish point, I give the three colour of rubber bands to the committee members to indicate that I finished the run by passed all the checkpoints and run using the correct path. Many people praised me and admired my determination. I am so excited that I finished this challenge without giving up easily. At the finish point, all the participants which already finished the run are given the certificate of participation, bread and mineral water. We take rest, chit chat and eat the bread together. After rested 15 minutes, we ended this activity by having a photo session with the committee members.
By joining this activity, I learned and develop myself with communication and social skills. I jump out of my comfort zone and made my friend circles bigger by meeting some new friends who are from the other school and faulty of UTM. We become closer friends even though this activity is ended. Although we are from different school or faculty, we have the same topic to talk and discuss because we are the student who comes from different state or country to UTM for studying. Social skill is a significant skill in meeting new friends because we do not know each other before. By joining this kind of activity, I learn how to start a communication with new friends. Interesting topics are always the key to a continuing conversation with new friends. From here, it can arouse their interest in me and wanted to become my friend. Communication skill is also important to ensure that we do not misunderstand peoples’ idea, thinking and words. This is very important especially we are taking instructions from the committee members before starting the run so that we follow the correct instructions. These skills must be developed to make sure that we can communicate well and avoid misunderstanding with new friends because we meet many kinds of people every day.
The importance of communication and social skills can be seen through the accident that happens to me during the path. If I do not perform the action of meeting new friends, there may nobody willing to help when my sports shoes broken down. It is always good if someone can give help to you when you face problems. That’s the importance of making friend’s circles bigger. Although an accident happens to me during the path, I never regret that I made the decision which is to continue this challenge without sports shoes. As a return, I gained this experience, and I learned some new skills. Fortunately, I have developed good communication and social skills through participation in this activity. I have successfully achieved the goal of the development of communication and social skills, and successfully complete the challenge. Although it is very hard to balance our study with the activities, it is still a wonderful journey for me to learn new skills and meet many new friends. Although this journey is very tired, I am very happy to gain this experience. I successfully finish this challenge and achieve the goal. As the result, I am satisfied with my willpower, but my physical body strength still needs to be improved.