The life I had in UiTM Puncak Alam was my first life in college, finally felt like a college student. I was always living under the same roof as my parents. I never left home. I remember when I was in form 2, I went to a camp for 3 days and 2 nights, I cried during both nights because I missed my parents and home so much. So it was hard for me to leave home to go to college, but I was excited to face a new life. The college life. I still remember the first day I arrived at the campus. My mind went, “oh my God, am I really here? Is this happening? Is this real?”. I didn’t know what to feel as I was supposed to be in Dengkil. Dengkil is the campus designed only for foundation students. But I ended up here, in UiTM Puncak Alam. The college was huge, I found it kind of tough for me. I remember when I first saw the famous stairs in UiTM Puncak Alam, my mind went “ah, this is going to be such a waste of time to climb and go down all these stairs just to go to the college and the faculty”.
Turned out, my life in UiTM Puncak Alam was the best college experience I’ve ever had. I didn’t have any experience in college before this, but, I have to say that my first experience in college has to be the best one, which is in UiTM Puncak Alam. I met such amazing friends here. I remember when I first arrived at the campus, my parents, along with my youngest brother, accompanied me to Dewan Berlian to help me bring my luggage. Then, I went inside Dewan Berlian, followed by a few volunteers who helped me to bring my luggage into Dewan Berlian. I sat down for a while, tried to process everything. Then I met a few of my classmates for the first time, Erin and Adelia. We chatted for a while. Then it was my turn (along with all the girls who sat at the same row as me) to stand up and get ready to get into the bus. I registered, brought my luggage and my important belongings with me, and went into the bus. I saw my parents and my brother for the last time that time. I waved them goodbye as soon as the bus started to move. I sat in the bus, tried to process everything again. I looked out the window, saw PTAR for the first time, and felt a sudden urge to cry. I couldn’t believe I was finally there. And kind of I noticed how long the journey from Dewan Berlian to Kolej Dahlia 3 was. It was long.
As soon as I arrived in front of Kolej Dahlia 3, I took my belongings and went out from the bus. I went to cafe Dahlia to register for college. At that moment, I got the keys to my house and my room, D3-3-10, room 3. I was really hoping that I would get good housemates that I could click with. I went back to Kolej Dahlia 3 and saw two of my housemates for the first time. One one them was my classmate, Anisdiny. There were only the 3 of us that time, we were waiting for the lift. I couldn’t remember when did we start talking. All that I could remember was that we went straight to our rooms to organise our stuff. I got room number 3. Anis got number 1 and the other girl, her name is Farah, she got room number 2. A few minutes later, we went out from our respective rooms and for the first time, I saw the girl who got the 4th room, her name is Erin. Farah first asked us if we wanted to have lunch together at the cafe, we all then agreed to have lunch together. At the cafe, we talked a lot. It was kind of awkward because we just met each other for the first time. We didn’t know each other that well, besides our names and the place where we came from. But that night, we studied together in the living room. We did our journal 1 together and we had a little conversation. At that point, I knew that we were getting closer. A few days later, we started to watch movies together and chat a lot. Day by day, we became closer and closer. They are now my best friends that I really can’t live without. We only have known each other for 2 months, but it was long enough to dig on one another's pasts because we lived under the same roof. We saw each other everyday and we talked everyday. We saw the bads and the goods in one another, but that made us more transparent with one another. They are the ones who have made my life in UiTM Puncak Alam meaningful and I am so thankful to have such amazing housemates in UiTM Puncak Alam.
Besides my housemates, my classmates are also the ones who made my life in UiTM Puncak Alam so meaningful. We had our first gathering during our first day in UiTM Puncak Alam, in Cafe Dahlia. Almost all of us were there. We talked like we had been friends for so long, of course we were a little awkward as we didn’t know each other in real life yet. My first impression of my classmates was like, “they are so different in real life” haha. I still remember that we talked until Maghrib. The next day after our registration day, was our first face-to-face class with Miss Hannan. She taught us Listening & Speaking. I remember I was late for the second session as I estimated the time wrongly. Erin called me and said, "Where are you? We're on our way to class." I then rushed to go to the bus stop. Glad that I had Nurin who was also late with me haha. At that point I started to decide that I should not wake up an hour early before class. I should wake up earlier. Like one and a half to two hours early before class. UiTM Puncak Alam is a huge campus. It takes about 10 minutes from college to the faculty by bus. Not to mention that girls from college Dahlia have to climb some stairs to go to the bus stop.
Here's an appreciation message to my classmates: all of you are the best classmates I've ever had. I've never thought that I'd get this close with my classmates. We did a lot of activities together in UiTM Puncak Alam which is super cute. I still remember most of our activities in Puncak Alam that we have done together. We met one another for the first time in college Dahlia, we went to classes together, we went to Cengkih and The Warong together, we had "tea-time" together, we studied together in Angsana, celebrated birthdays, went to SCM together and a lot more. I honestly do not only consider all of you only as my classmates. All of you are not just my classmates, but my close friends. Thank you so much for making my first college experience so meaningful. I honestly do not think that I'd have such an amazing college life without all of you. Thank you again.
Let's not forget all the food in UiTM Puncak Alam. Cafe Dahlia, Cengkih, The Warong... The food was tasty, not to mention that it was all cheap for students too. I remember my classmates and I would always stop by Cengkih before class to have breakfast. For lunch, after class we would stop by The Warong to eat. My favourite menu in The Warong had to be the honey chicken with rice. It was sweet, sour and spicy which I like, and it was only RM7! I like variety in my food and the honey chicken was just everything I needed. If there was no class, some of us were willing to go to the bus stop and travel a bit just to eat at The Warong. If I didn't feel like walking too much, I'd go to Cafe Dahlia and buy Nasi Berlauk. My favourite stall in Cafe Dahlia had to be the takoyaki stall that sold takoyaki, corndog, caramel coffee and a lot more! As far as I can remember, there was not a single day that I didn't buy from that particular stall. I also like Nasi Berlauk from Jebat. Again, the food was all cheap in UiTM Puncak Alam. We didn't have to think too much before buying the food. How I miss.
Sadly, I can't no longer experience UiTM Puncak Alam and its beauty. But I am incredibly grateful that I got to experience UiTM Puncak Alam. At first I didn't like it, but I came to love it after a few weeks in UiTM Puncak Alam. I didn't even feel like leaving the place as it was extremely sentimental to me, even though I was only there for about one month. I don't know if this is good or bad but I didn't miss home at all. Probably because I thought I was doing better academically when I was at the campus. But of course, I missed and had my family at home in my mind all the time. Thank you so much UiTM Puncak Alam for the great experience. I will surely come back one day, Insha Allah.