A part-time full-time student

Okay does that title even make sense?

I've been a full-time bachelor's degree student majoring in psychology since 2012. I probably didn't feel this way back then, but now it's getting clearer to me that although it's a full-time course I'm taking, the effort I put in is nothing more than part-time - probably even lesser!

I'm not saying it's bad, and I'm not complaining either. In fact somehow I'm glad to be aware that while studying psychology full-time, it's actually something I'm doing simply to gain more knowledge. Probably I can call it... a hobby in disguise? It's been clear since the beginning that I never planned to venture deeper into the field too.

Got caught in an interview with Lee Chong Wei at the Malaysia Open 2014.
Badminton- One of the things I do part-time with full-time devotion...
...and passion.

Since when I first started, many people - lecturers and course mates especially - have been asking questions like: 

"What do you want to specialise in after you graduate?"

"You don't plan to do a masters in psychology? Then what are you doing here? What do you plan to do after you graduate?" [Note: getting a bachelor's degree in psychology only makes one a psych degree holder. A master's degree is required for one to become a psychologist]

Before the first week of this semester, I used to feel uneasy when I get questions like that - the second one especially. But when I met this interesting professor from New Zealand for probably one of the most boring subjects in our degree course, I suddenly found the answer to that question - and which actually made sense. 

Cow brain dissection last year.
Eww, I still smell the pungent scent of ethanol just by looking at this photo.

According to Prof. Nigel, a very successful businessman acquaintance of his was getting a lot of resumes from many outstanding business graduates, MBA holders etc. while he was recruiting new blood for his expanding company. When our prof asked this businessman why did he not offer the position in his company to any of the MBA people who sent their resumes, the businessman said, "I don't need business graduates. I can get people who know nothing about business, and I can teach them about my business better than any other universities out there can, within six months." [Note: quote may contain inaccuracies]

The businessman, surprisingly - or not - was looking for psychology graduates and philosophy graduates alike. His reason: "I need people who know how to read, write, and think. These are the people who are able to do that."

Of course it shouldn't be generalised, but I thought it made sense. 

Now I know why I'm lucky.

These two years in psychology has made me read many articles I never thought I would try. It also made me write many pieces of work which fields I never thought I would even come to understand thoroughly enough to be able to write on (i.e., not sports, not life, but SCIENCE!). While I've always thought I think a lot (the good way and the bad way), I think I've also learnt to think in more different ways, about new topics, from different perspectives. 

So I guess being in psychology does teach people to read, write and think - though indirectly. 

It's really ironic how I'm actually doing a BSc now, when back in high school one of my biggest dreams was to get out of maths and science, and dive into the world of arts and literature. Who would have thought that after three years in the artistic field, along the boarders of the entertainment field, I'd venture back into science? At least I didn't. 

But it's really good to know that being in science this way is actually helping me grow artistically too.