My Influences Throughout Life

During my childhood, I was mostly influenced by television. I was exposed to cartoons like The Looney Tunes, Sesame Street, The Simpsons and the X-men. Disney movies also had an influence on me as well. I was also an often listener of the radio and listened to songs from Tupac, Shaggy and The Backstreet Boys. On the outdoor scene, I spent most of the time at the playground with my neighbourhood friends. I even played sports games like football, badminton and baseball. At the same time, I was sent to tuition 3 times a week where I mostly learned how to study and read.

As I grew, my interests grew as well. I would play football almost everyday; much more often than before. My interest in music started to change as I listened to music like Nirvana, Incubus and Limp Bizkit. I also started reading books and short stories. Through television, I started watching more matured shows like Friends and South Park. However, once in a while I would flip through the cartoon channels. I was introduced to the internet at the time but barely used it.

When I finished school, I experienced working life by working part-time at Pizza Hut as a waiter and at Golf Malaysia as an office boy; both for a duration of 4 months. At the same time, I studied part-time at British Council and learned English at a different level with the teacher teaching in a method which I truly respected and enjoyed. During this period, my interests started to change. I started listening to classical music like Bob Dylan, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. I scarcely watch television anymore and instead watched DVDs and used the internet more often.

After that period of time, I had grew an ambition to become a writer. I started to read more books and fate brought me to 2 books that changed the way I perceive the world. The books are '1984' by George Orwell and 'Writing Poetry from the inside out' by Sanford Lyne. I started to notice my surroundings by reading the news and the history of the world. Whether it is through an article from the newspaper, a magazine or the internet, or novels, poetry, quotes and lyrics of a song; i've never stopped reading.

Now here I am at IACT College, expanding my knowledge and learning something new everyday. Whether it is good or bad, it does not matter because I once read the spanish poet, Federico Garcia Lorca saying that writing poetry is like “hunting a tiger without a rifle”. I hope one day I will be the writer I see in my dreams for “what the self describes, describes the self”.