Author :Bell Chiang

一个成长的故事
Chapter 1
Once upon a time, there is a lovely couple living in a corner in the city, with 4 cute little daughters. And I am one of the 4 cute children. My name is Bell, and I am the second child in the house.
Since we were young, my parents treat us strictly. I was not allowed to go out to shopping malls or even friend’s house for parties until I reach the age of 17. Even for now, when I want to go out, I have to
“apply” for “license” to go out, which includes details of my friends that will be going with me, and also the time and date of the occasion.
Apart from that, we are also not allowed to work outside, until the day we graduate. I believe dad is trying to protect us from any potential harm that we could get from working outside as part-timer. In Chinese, people call me a flower inside the greenhouse (温室小花).
Just because I am a flower in the greenhouse, I am an introvert. I have no confidence in whatever decision I have to make, because all these while dad will be the only decision maker at home. Each and every decision I made, I will seek for his advice and get green light from him.
My dad really protects me a lot. This makes me very weak physically and mentally as I do not have the opportunity to explore the real face of the world- the ugly side of the world.

Chapter 2
Time creeps by really fast. A blink of eyes, I am already 22 this year. It is time for me to accept challenges and ugliness of the world. But, the fear of making wrong decision due to low self confidence is still in me, when I am out of my safe zone.
How to go for interviews when I don’t even dare to speak to strangers? How to answer questions when I usually go blank when questions pop out?
Then, HCE came into my life to educate me about soft skills. To be frank, I don’t think this is useful at first. I just go there for the sake of joining and give “face” to my friend who invited me to join. I can tell, I was enjoying myself like a kid, playing a fool in the workshop, and go through all the tasks with a big smile on my face. When the department provide me the report, I didn’t even read it properly. I just scanned through and that’s it.
Worse off, I even forgotten where my report is after a few days, until my enthusiastic friend continue to approach me, asking me how was it. To return her enthusiasm and determination, I go home, read the report again and again, and started to be active in the programmes of HCE.

Chapter 3
I started as a member in HCE, trying to create awareness among the colleges for the mock interview session. I am the person who is in charge of building good relationship with the students. I started to learn ways to communicate through emails and ways to gain attention and find opportunity to convince the students about importance of enhancing oneself. To be frank, I am really not good in this. Communication with others is always my weakness, especially face to face or even telecommunication.
I used to feel really nervous (sometimes worse till I feel like sh*t!) when I have to make a phone call TO MY FRIENDS. Even to friends, I feel nervous, what’s more to strangers? The barrier in me is seriously low self confidence. I do not know why, but somehow, I just feel scared when I have to speak, especially in English.
I still remember, somewhere in May 2009, HCE collaborated with The Star to host a talk in One Utama shopping mall. I was one of the facilitator. When my superior asked me to rapport with the people, I actually wanted to run away from the studio. Seriously, I did not know what to talk, how to start a conversation, and how to get people’s attention and introduce myself. Frankly speaking, I have to salute my friends, Kelly and CK who manage to talk and talk non stop with the people who they facilitate. Truly have no idea what they shared with the people.
I still remember clearly, my superior actually said I sounded like tapes that got stuck in the player. >_< However, HCE did not give up on me. In fact, they place their trust in me; continue to let me continue with the project. After a few months, I even got the chance to handle a project on my own. For the first time, I got to plan and make sure everything is on the track. And also for the first time, I was forced to call the associations and ask people to join our workshop.
When I know I have to call, I actually cried in the toilet for 20 minutes (shame shame!!). But after that, I hold long breath, calm myself down, and give it a try. At first, I admit, I really had difficulty in talking. Tangled tongue, broken English and low confidence tone is what I had. But after several calls, I manage to hold back my anxiety. I started to talk calmly to the people. And I manage to tackle what is in their mind and prepare myself with solutions to the problems that they may ask me.
I would say, the workshops I have attended in HCE taught me to prepare myself with various questions that I may encounter from the people saved me from having twisted tongue and blank mind when I am in a conversation. This really helped to boost up my confidence level.

Chapter 4

Finally, I took my retest. The result was up to the satisfaction level and finally, I am being promoted to the leadership level.
The change in myself, I would say is a huge one. From a highly introvert, I am now able to mix around and talk to strangers in a calm way. This is something which I couldn’t do in the past. Now, I am able to do it. And I even challenged myself to speak in English (this is a big no for me last time because I cant and have no confident in my own English level). This is because I know what the real meaning of “communication” is. It is about transferring your thoughts to the people around you. The medium that you use isn’t really that important. Whether you are using perfect English or not is not important. What matters the most is your sincerity and you have to be sure what you want to tell and make sure your idea reaches others. Of course, having to speak in perfect English is superb, but if you couldn’t speak in fluent English, no harms starting from a broken one.
Another change in me would be my brain ratio. HCE gave me the chance to expose to a lot of brand new things which opened up my eyes, ears and soul. This adds a lot of points to my general knowledge and also my courage in voicing out what is in my mind. When I have more knowledge and also courage, I am more confident in the things that I am going to deliver. I have more experience in live now as compared to a lot of young people outside. I am independent and am able to view things in a bigger picture. This is really a good one because this shows that I can think a step further than others.

Chapter5
In a nutshell, HCE really helped me a lot through out these 5 months in transforming me to a better lady who will soon face the society.
Thanks, HCE.