My name is Alistair. I bet you’ve rarely heard that name.

Whenever people hear the date of my birth, they always say that I’m going to be very lucky. if you’re wondering what it is, it’s 19/01/1999. See the amount of 1’s and 9’s?.

Well, to be honest, I’ve never believed in that. Like the majority of young adults, my story is the same as yours. An introvert who joined a big city college with big hopes and dreams that are yet to be fulfilled. So, here’s a small insight into my life.

 My name is Alistair. I bet you’ve rarely heard that name. Well, it’s the Scottish take on the name Alexander which in Greek roughly means “The Defender of Men”. But I like the Urban Dictionary’s definition better (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Alistair).

Trust me it’s 99% true, the 1% being the part about blue eyes. Sadly, but not regretfully, the reason I don’t have blue eyes is that I’m Indian, where the populace wasn’t born with majestic sky blue eyes. 

 Besides that, I love music. – I mean LOVE music- I’m a strong believer that music can be made anywhere by anything if you really set your mind to it.

Have you heard of the song ‘Kryptonite’ by 3 Doors Down? Well, the lead singer of the song came up with the beat for the song in high school. He was daydreaming while hitting his two pencils on his table and had a ‘Eureka Moment’. Amazing right?

Take a look at traditional music, the Indians have their ‘Tabla’ which is basically bongo drums but they take it to another level by banging it like a million times a second. I myself play a few instruments; the guitar, piano, sometimes the bass guitar.

I have to be honest, I’m not very good, but I give it my all when I play. Somehow, playing the guitar actually gave me a sense of purpose. I’d come home from school and go straight to my guitar and start learning how to play different songs on Youtube.

My parents wanted to send me for classes, but after experiencing piano classes with the strictest teacher I had ever met, I told them I’d stick to learning through virtual teachers on Youtube that couldn’t shout at me if I had made a mistake because they were thousands of kilometres away from me.

Eventually, my friends persuaded me to play in my church as part of the choir and so I did, and to this day I play the bass guitar, which isn’t all that different from the acoustic guitar (once you get the hang of it), for the church choir.

 I tend to listen to more ‘Rock and Roll’ songs. As a child, and having an older brother, I rarely listened to nursery rhymes.

Yes, the only nursery rhyme I knew was ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ because my brother would blast Guns N’ Roses, Nirvana, Foo Fighters and much more of these types of music on the radio which I was forced to listen to, but it eventually won over my affection. It could be some version of Stockholm Syndrome, but I prefer to think of it as the former.

On the 21st of February 2017, the band Guns N’ Roses performed live in Perth, Australia. My brother was a big fan of them so of course, he went and I accompanied him.

It was at this moment, watching Axl Rose running at 50km/h from one end of the stage to the other, I knew that I wanted to do that. And like every person who listens to rock music, I had to form my own band.

My younger brother and I are ‘Kings and Jesters’ -please don’t ask if I’m the king or jester- We have a few songs on Youtube which I think are decent, but I’ll let you be the judge of that. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMy6sok4YZE). 

Furthermore, sports are an important part of my life. People like to say that I’m an athletic person based on my looks, but I have a feeling that’s because I’m really skinny and look like a runner. ( I’m not that fond of running as a sport) I’m more of a football person. My favourite football team is Liverpool FC. Right now they’re at the top of the English Premier League, the frontrunners to win the Premier League Title, which means I can proudly say that I support the best team in English Football, once they win of course.

The reason I support this team is mainly that I was brought up by a family of Liverpool supporters. My dad, his brothers, and his dad are Liverpool supporters. So every week I’d hear their rendition of the club song ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, which is worth a listen I might add. I think this club has sentimental meaning to me because back in the day, my grandfather and I would watch matches together. He couldn’t really hear or see that well because of old age.

So my job was to watch it with him and tell him every time something happens in the match. The only part I hated about this was telling my grandfather when the opponent scored because he would get really sad. But when Liverpool scores, let me tell you, you wouldn’t see a happier man than my grandfather.

My grandfather was also acknowledged as the oldest Liverpool FC fan in Malaysia which made him very proud. He was 94 at that time. I also dabbled in the high jump in high school, which I’ve won, 3 years in a row, and volleyball, where my team got a third placing in 2016 which was a pretty big deal considering that the volleyball scene in Klang is dominated by Chinese schools. 

Moreover, I wasn’t a person who would normally participate in the events that my church would organize, but ever since one of my closest friends started forcing me to attend the events, I have been actively participating and even helping to organize these events.

Little did I know that by doing this, I would eventually make even more friends and break out of my introversion. The joy and satisfaction I would feel in my heart were truly fulfilling and it made me want to do more of these types of events.

This is where the SEP 100 Programme comes in. I joined as a UCC Scholar which meant that I had to participate in community service events such as tutoring needy children, recycling, and many more events. Through participating in these events, not only did I manage to help others, but I also helped myself. Let me explain, by helping others I was able to find a sense of joy that I had never experienced before.

The warm feeling that I felt after doing this really inspired me to be the best version of myself. Besides that, by communicating with people of different ethnicities and cultures, my view of the world changed exponentially, and I realized that there was so much more to the world than just my view. This is why I know that I had to do my part and start helping out in my church by volunteering.

Lastly here are some quick facts about me. I love watching TV series’, I’m half Indian and half Sri Lankan, my great grandfather was the first Asian banker in British Colonial history and the founder of Oriental Bank Malaysia, I have 3 dogs and I do not think I am very lucky.