2007 ~ 2012 |
98
A NEW CAMPUS AND THE BIRTH OF SASS
twenty-one, and I stay in a student residence with
three others who are from Sunway College. I want to tell her that I feel everything, too deeply (that
I’m a tad dramatic).
In Dr Andrew’s class on contemporary fiction,
I study the trauma of Akiko and her marginal
existence as a silenced woman, labelled as ‘crazy’,
with her intimate links to the spiritual realm in Nora
Okja Keller’s Comfort Women. I’m twenty-one,
and Dr Andrew weaves the connections between
memory, forgetfulness and trauma. We study texts like
the 1959 film Hiroshima Mon Amour, which intertwines
a couple’s present romance with the ponderings of
the past, the after-effects of a horrific atomic bomb.
In the graphic novel Maus, we explore experiences
of a Holocaust survivor and the heartbreak of survivor
guilt. I step out of myself to understand the suffering
of others, and the quirkiness of the strange and
comical Dr Andrew keeps me entertained. (“I need
chamomile tea,” he gasps when arriving for our
lesson after having braved heavy traffic.) “Do I navel-gaze too much, Dr Sharon? What if
my thesis doesn’t bring meaning to others, only to
myself?”
I’m twenty-one, and on a study trip to Yogyakarta,
Dr Yeoh brings his students to visit the Kali Code river
community. Children with beautiful faces play along
the polluted river, and wizened faces of old women
break into warmth when I look into their eyes. I think
of God, and my classmate, Abeer asks why I think so
often, or why I’m so quiet. In the darkness of the
room we share during our lodging, she asks,
“Are you still alive?” “Zeena, can you help me buy Milo O ice?”
“Then, isn’t that good enough? It makes a difference
to you!”
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I’m thirty-one, and I teach English at a college.
My students bring me tears and laughter. I practise
gratitude for my education, for the pain and pleasure
of assumptions and preconceived notions ruptured,
for the healing that took place in the form of kindness
of mentors, the beauty of travel and listening to stories
of ordinary living at the riverbank, and for the laughter
at the Monash cafeteria during meals with a friend
from Maldives.
“Milo O Ice? What do you mean by Milo O Ice? Would
you like me to choose for you, Milo or ice?”
Cheah Wui Jia graduated with a BA (Hons) in
Psychology and Writing in 2011. She also holds an
MA in TESOL from University of Nottingham Malaysia
(2014). She is currently teaching at Han Chiang
University of Communication, Penang.
Meeting a resident of Kg Kauman during ISO Yogyakarta (2009). ▼
◀ In a session on
disability during
ISO Saigon (2011).