Questa è Enida

I felt high.
High like a million dollar lady last week to have been invited as a panel speaker at a forum in Shah Alam. So high, I was actually flying over the highest peak of Bukit Kayangan. That, for a creepy-crawly like yours truly perasan high-muck-a-muck, is high. I must admit, I didn’t come down to earth for many days after, as my head was stuck in the clouds. No other creepy-crawlies have ever got the opportunity to be a fellow penalist with Jimmy Ong and to be talking about the ‘Wow! Factor’ in Event Management. (I did use the word perasan, did I not?)

And when I thought one million was high enough, I was made to feel like a six million dollar woman when the program head and advisor invited me to be a judge at another event in the same week. Now, that was a bit tough for me. (To be judgemental, that is.) I can be critical, yes. Every breath I take is a critique. But to be judgemental is out of my mental capacity. When it comes to students’ performance and output, I evaluate. I don’t judge. So, evaluate I did. That six million dollar opportunity was not a saxophone, I wasn’t going to blow it!

And boy o boy sweet home Alabama! Did I ever have a blast!

It was one of the best I have seen! For a faculty of which English is not the media, it is surely led by someone who understands that speaking English will not jeopardize the sovereignity of one’s maternal language. And I simply loved their tag line: “English, we’re speaking it!” (Though to many, it sounded like: “Bahasa, we’re skipping it!”)

The highlight of my 1+6 million dollar week, however, was not the speaking at the forum. Nor it was the judging evaluating the students’ performance at the Grand Finale. It was what happened just as I was leaving the hall.

I heard the sweetest hello.