Alumni Rep

I'm currently considering the post of being the Alumni co-Rep for my Uni here in Malaysia. Yes, although I have graduated over 10 years ago, however, we still keep in touch with our fellow uni mates on numerous occasions in a year. Thankfully, our Alumni is unofficial, which means there's no pressure to HAVE a function each year and neither is there a fee for everyone to pay nor an AGM to attend.

So as part of an initiation into the duties of a rep, last Friday I was invited to another NZ uni's alumni gathering which was held at the NZ High Commissioner's residence. Preparing for another round of being a wall flower, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the guests were extremely pleasant and hospitable. I ended up staying on longer than I intended.

But then again, these people know each other and have reached a certain status in their life without having the need to prove their worth at functions like these. It was fun reminiscing NZ with them and I found out that if you do a PhD in NZ, your entire family can go, with your spouse being granted a work permit and your school going kids enrolled in local schools. Fees for your PhD and your children are in domestic fees. Which means HUGE savings! And this is open to anyone, not just NZ grads. Interested, anyone?

So on Friday I hear good things about going back to NZ, then on Saturday I meet the pepper spray stranger (who says he's a Kiwi now) at the eerie mall who insists I should go back to NZ to "fight for my rights" and save a million bucks on my children's education. I wonder what holds for me today.

While it was fun, I am still uncertain if I could ever attend functions like these on my own once the current rep steps down. I'm no social butterfly and my other co-rep (yes, it needs two people to fill the current rep's shoes) is worse. So I'm still mulling over this new responsibility.