After the Graduation Ceremony… ^_^

Yeeeeei ! 😀 Graduated as a BEng(Hons) Software Engineering with a blast on the stage ! 😉

that moment when they called “W.U.A. Alwis”, the next thing I know, I jumped on to the stage shouting out and while leaving the stage shouted out saying to the whole audience “Amma, I’m a Graduate !” (Mom, I’m a Graduate !) One of the best moments of my entire life… 😀

Oh well everyone was acting like robots and walking across the stage 😛 So I thought of doing something truly Human and Fun, most of all it was my moment to cherish ! 😀 hehe xD

Very well it has been an extraordinary, amazing and epic journey throughout last 4 years at APIIT Sri Lanka ! Specially my Mother who believed in me since the beginning, when I told her I needed to achieve my dream without wasting time going around like everyone else.. and my Father who supported me from the fullest in everything ! Thank you ❤ !

I honestly had the best time of my life back at APIIT, with all the crazy fun and incredible hard work… I would say I rebranded myself there.. 😀 It was a place where I was pushed to realize nothing was impossible, and recognize my hidden strengths and move forwards… Also I was truly lucky to have such an epic bunch of friends ! I really love you guys and will surely miss yol 😀 !

Finally but not least I would like to Thank all the Lecturers who guided us all the way to achieve this amazing achievement.. Thank you all ! 😀

Oh yeeeeeeeeeee xD Lalalaaaaaaaa 😀 ^_^

Just a moment before the Graduation…. ;)

And the day is finally here, officially

Graduating in BENG(Hons) Software Engineering (Second Class First Division) ! xD

Reminds me of the very humble beginning of this dream, when I decided to drop off from my A/Ls Mathematics stream after 6 months of time waste…

When I decided to chase my dream, my passion for technology and innovation, that desperate need of achieving my goal…

Whereas most of my school friends got rid of me thinking that I’m a loser to skip the time waste of A/Ls and jump start my Undergraduate studies, even though they didn’t even know the meaning of what a “Degree” was back then ! 😛 (Seriously everyone thought, I was doing a computer diploma even though I tried to explain that I’m studying for a degree lol) When they were going for Tuition classes I was going for undergraduate Lectures, which I still remember most of them ignored me even in the buses ! 😀 lol

Well after all the hard work and incredible journey of over 3 years end, while my old school friends are still doing CIMA, SIM and all the typical lame courses you do when you waste your life with A/Ls, and trying to find their way… here I am,

Right after my final exams, I got recruited as

a Software Engineer by one of the top IT companies in Sri Lanka just by the age of 21, earning piles of money each month since then, and living my Dream to the fullest ! ^_^

Never underestimate the power of a passionate crazy Dreamer ! 😉

YES I DID IT ! 😀

During The Final Year Project… The Reality from my Undergrad Eye…

The Final Year Project, for those who are undergraduates may know what am I talking about as for others, just wait till you get into a University, which is one of the most important pin points of an Undergrad Life. Some call it, “Thesis”, “Final Project”, “Final Research Project”, and so on, but nevertheless it is the Project that every single Undergrad is suppose to complete in order to graduate at their Final year of the Degree Program. I’m writing this based on my personal experience during I was an undergraduate at APIIT studying for my Software Engineering degree at Staffordshire University. Most of the people do not talk about publicly about this period of Life, moreover no one is bothered or everyone expects others to experience by themselves. But I thought of giving a little glimpse of it for all the curious young minds out there… 😉 I think it would be much better for a fresher to be aware of this huge storm they are gonna face someday ahead the years.

The Heat…

It all begins at the beginning of the final semester of the final year, even though traditionally at APIIT, we have to start working on it according to a schedule from the first semester of the final year, well well  but everyone waits till the last moment to heat up themselves 😛 ! My fellow colleagues would definitely know about what am talking about 😉 lol Anyhow the heat increases, with the less time left, final assignment projects, final exams and so on, and added to that your supervisors and assessors of the project haunting you xD ! I still remember how we used to hide ourselves whenever we saw our supervisor or assessor.. Oh man, Good memories ! 😀 And also in the middle of all that, your parents and friends asking you about the project and and mentioning the fact that you are at the end of your degree you have to make them proud and all that talks ! -_-

The Stress…

The stress basically starts up with the heat which arises with the beginning of the final semester, which is caused by the facts, the biggest pin point of your degree life, the final project which everything depends on even your Honors class (1st Class, 2nd Class, so on) of the degree, speaking of which the FYP (Final Year Project) directly impacts on your final grade of the degree. Does not matter whether you have been a brilliant student through out your undergraduate life, if you screw this up even slightly, all that would be useless. This is the moment all your parents, cousins, friends, and neighbors are waiting to see the results of, which indeed is a killer stress having to imagine all those people around you staring at your final outcome. Specially the parents of yours who has spent a huge amount of money on your studies if you are an undergraduate of a private university.

The competition of course among the fellow batch mates, which is something always goes behind the back of everyone, in fact a known bitter truth no one likes to talk about. Among all that the fact that you have to deal with your final assignments, projects and exams, OMG talk about STRESS ! Imagine, having to study and work for your projects and exams while having to finish and entire research by your own and compile a full professional level undergraduate thesis by your own, YES ! that is what am talking about ! With in that very few months, you have to manage all that. This is a huge disadvantage for every single student, but which will eventually give a good experience for the student.
Even if you work hard, what if the final out come of the project does not suffice the objectives of your project ? Oh boy thinking that was one of the huge stresses I ever had personally. The stress is all those above added up together, like a frigging thunderstorm roaming around you, a huge rock on top of your head. Trust me this stress is the biggest an undergraduate would ever go through in his life.

Your Parents.. Responsibility.. Money…

The responsibility of the amount of money your parents have spent on you, whereas for us, having to be studying at private University where our parents had to pay from millions for our studies as payments. The funny thing is even though they have spent such a huge amount of money, we still can not guarantee proper grades, because does not matter how much you have paid it all depends on all your hard work as a student.
And the worst is that being in a private university which has a very strict line of academical rules and standards for course work for students, OMG, the pressure is even more higher. Knowing that even the slightest thing could screw up the whole degree which would waste all your parents money, would literally begin to give a heart attack every single time.

Well that is of course if you care about the money your parents have spent on you and if you really wanna succeed in life with a good degree. This comes as a true motivation at times, well for me it was more of a motivation rather than a stress which is of course was a bit of a stress. Knowing that you somehow have to make your parents proud and prove them that they have not wasted their hard earned money on you, yes it comes from the bottom of the heart and when they see you working so hard to make them proud, nothing else would make them proud even if you loose. Some parents puts their whole life in jeopardy just to send you to a good university and lead you to a better life, specially in those cases the stress on the student is too damn high, and it is their responsibility no matter what…

Doing Something out of the Box ? Good Luck Son !

So I heard that you are hoping to do something out of the box yeah ? Oh well Boy, Good Luck ! I don’t about other Universities, but as in at where I studied doing something totally new and creative or totally out of the box for Your Final year Project, is like literally hanging your self. lol ! Its gonna be a huge risk that you would be taking, but it would all be totally worth it at the end IF you succeed ! but if you mess it up or if you are unable to fulfill the objectives you have defined at the beginning, oh well everything would go down the drain no matter how well you have done so far, what kind of a good research you have done. This would actually kill you when you are in the middle of all the stress, knowing that you are literally putting your neck out there for this new creative idea you wanna do for your project. And also when you tell people about it, (if you are an ordinary student) everyone would go like, Are you crazy ? You wouldn’t be able to finish it on time ? Is that even possible to do ? -_- and all that shit. Well if you are a well known talented student, they would go like, Oh WOW ! Thats awesome ! but isn’t that a lil risky ? 😛 lol either way all these outer environment would freak you out. And knowing the fact that You are on your own, oh boy, the pressure !

Sometimes this drives you crazy while you are going through all the final assignments and exams and crap -_- Yes I have been there. I still recall my Supervisor used to tell me, do you think you would have enough time to finish this up with the limited time and all these work you have got ? And every single time I heard that, it literally freaked me out, BUT I never gave up on my self, I knew my skill set and how i should achieve it using them and moreover I had a huge passion for the idea I had for my Project, which literally drew me to success. So hopefully I never had any doubts. This usually happens if your supervisor or assessor does not know you much as a student, even in my case he used to doubt me all the time, asking me whether I was able to do the work, asking me to show him the work I have done already every single time and so on. But do not get put down yourself, keep on working from your best and prove them wrong. 😉
Starting off is a huge problem whereas when you dont know where or how to start off prolly because no one has done that before, but do not worry, start somewhere and keep on researching. At the end of the tunnel you may find a light..

A Reason to be Proud..

If you think about it, in one way it is a reason to be proud of your self, when everyone else in your batch is doing some obvious random useless crap which has already been done before by the past seniors, YOU in the other hand is doing something EPIC ! something no one has ever done before. Trust me son, this factor will keep you on top of the world ! Even telling people that you are in to such a huge risk, such an innovative creation.. BOOM ! You would know the feeling..
Being different always feels good (well at least for my personally), but do not let it totally blind you with it. Keep an open mind, think of every single circumstances, always remind yourself of the risk that you are taking and be alerted.
If you are going through this, just know, You are taking a huge risk, but DO NOT GIVE UP and NEVER STOP BELIEVING ! NEVER LOSE YOUR PASSION ! no matter what they say or whatever happens. Just work hard ! work your *ss off ! 🙂 You will see a miracle at the end…

Your Friends and The Competition…

This is some kind of a dirty truth which no one would like to talk about. This is a moment where you get to choose between friendship and your personal success. But just because that you don’t have to be a total di**. Even though this is evaluated individually, there is still a competition going on between everyone in the batch, because at the end of the day everyone is trying to achieve the best GPA and get a good class from the degree, specially given the fact that 1st classes are given for only the best few.
Sometimes a good friend of yours would refuse to help you out with your project if they are jealous of you and they would probably ignore you. Be alerted, this happens with most of your so called friends 😉 or else they would lead you to a wrong path just to mess you up.. So be careful son !

Along with this some people decide to completely put down their friends in every single way possible, out of jealousy and out of being scared of other’s success. Which is really pathetic but some losers can not help themselves. lol 😛 Most of the time they would condemn your Project Idea, make fun of it in front of everyone else, discourage you saying that you can not do it, you wouldn’t finish it and so on such lame drama.. lol
Therefore make sure to stay away from such losers specially during your final year project and always surround your self with a supportive crowd of true friends.

You honestly don’t want to.. but you have no Choice…

During your Project days, with all the given stress and workload, you get extremely busy and sometimes unfortunately your friend comes up to you and ask for help with their project when they know you are good at it. But so sadly you are also extremely stuck and messed up with your own project in a totally different way which you can’t even figure out, at times like these you have to make a choice and like it or not you prolly would have to give priority for your own project having to turn down your friend who is in need… This is totally fair unless you are doing it out of your selfishness and competition.
I have personally faced so many situations like these during my project days. So what I did was trying to explain how I’m stuck with my one and how much more I have to finish in my, being politely said that its their responsibility be fair and understand the situation and approach someone else for help.
I had this one friend who was a girl, she asked me for some help with her project, and I said alright fine, I ll try my best but I’m also honestly messed up with mine. But later I forgot to get back to her with the help because I was really stressed and stuck with mine. Because of it until this day she does not speak with me. Funny enough she is the only one who acted like this when everyone else understood. So these kind of cases would be there once out of 10 times 😉
Well given the obvious reasons, its their responsibility to understand. It is a two way path actually you should be honest and give the fair reasons and they should understand the given circumstances. If they don’t cannot help it, this is about your future man !

No Sleep, No Appetite,  No Food,  No Mood !

This is some of the worst side effects you would face when you are going through your final year project, specially when there is only one or two weeks left for the submission. You literally do not feel like sleeping at all, you stay up all night long due to the stress, but for some people its the total opposite, they fell asleep even more often and sleep pretty well. lol 😛 Well after we humans are different from each other in nature. You get no appetite for food and you could stay without food even throughout a whole day.
Being moody is very common these days which comes obviously with the stress that you go through. This would be very annoying for your family members and specially your other friends, not to mention, obviously for your gf or bf. Well after all its their responsibility to understand the situation and deal with it.

I recall being up all night long coding on my project and coming to APIIT in the next day morning, being all moody and sleepy lol 😛 And I used to act very lazy and mean with everyone, looking all pale and sleepy.. oh oh and having my hair totally messed up, having a long beard looking like a cave man 😀 lol Everyone used to be like omg what has happened to you ? why are you acting like this and so on.. 😛 hikz xD Oh Yeah ! Good memories ! 😀
This actually drives you even more and sometimes it makes you even more harder knowing the fact that you should finish this off soon and get rid of this whole suffering.
So be prepared child !

being Extra Respectful and Scared for Lecturers and Admins.. lol

Being an undergrad for about 3 or 4 years you prolly have a clear idea whats the drill with interacting with Lecturers and the Academic Administration, knowing that they could screw you up from top to bottom if you mess with them. This is gets extremely cautions during the final year project time period. If you mess with a lecturer they could bring down your whole final year project results and like it or not, true or false, we all know this has already happened before for our seniors. Due to this reason you start paying extra respect for lecturers and being scared of them over the limit. 😛
And then the Admins, where when were at APIIT we had a very rude, unnecessary strict administration which we were really scared of thinking they would mess up our results or exams 😛 so we were acting like innocent mouses in front of them. lol 😀 Its actually an obvious reacting that comes from every single Final Year student knowing that you are going through the very final step and you have to be cool with everyone without making any issues which you know would bite you in the back 😛 !

The Insanity and Nonsense Blast !

So getting back to the stress, this one of the EPIC-EST outcomes of it in mostly every single student ! You may see some of your batch mates even your own self going completely insane due to the stress, where as start playing around nonsense even in the middle of all the hectic serious workload, randomly shouting out loud in the middle the class or the lab, running around, hurraaaying even for the tiniest thing, dancing in the middle of the lab and so on, oh yeah the list goes on… xD Specially I’m personally a lot experienced regarding this, where as I was one of those victims who had such side effects to the extreme level. Even today if you talk to any of my colleagues, they would tell you xD  😛
Oh yeah, so much of epic memories with that… 😉 and be warned child, your time is ahead of you ! 😛

So…

So this is some of the reality experience I had during my Final year Project when I was an undergraduate at University. Well of course this is totally based on my own personal experience at APIIT Sri Lanka, if you are a student from other University it would be different, but in common these facts are true for most of the undergrads. I’m just leaving these experiences in my blog for you guys out there, just to mark some of the unforgettable experience I had at my University days, hoping you would be able to gain something from them and add more of you own to it.
Well as now I am a graduate and working for some big a** corporate company I would never get the chance to go back to those amazing days, and someday you will also get to this point in your life, and make sure you wouldn’t regret the time you spent during the Final Year Project, the last few weeks at your University.
So get the maximum of it, help out your friends in possible ways without being selfish all the time, do not mess with the lecturers 😛 , take some risk, do something different for your final thesis, work yours a**es off, and play some random nonsense just to have fun and get rid of stress 😉 making some good memories ! 😀
Behold the Secret Recipe ! 😉

Good Luck for all you folks out there ! 😀 Have an EPIC time !

(Image Sources – Google, 2014)

Your Friends before the Final Year Project

I’m sharing these based on my own personal experience based on four years I spent APIIT studying my Software Engineering degree. Well for the most part no one actually talks about these in public, because prolly they think its not nice, or they not bothered, or may be they think everyone else will learn these life experiences by them selves in time. Right now I’m going through the aftermath of waiting for Final results of my degree, which means I’m going through an utter boredom 😛 sleeping all day long, eating, watching movies, crushing some code to get rid of boredom, or trying sneak out of the house to hang out with my gf, which is almost impossibru ! xD So I guess this time period offers me the perfecto atmosphere to waste some time on my blog ! 😀 yeeeeei ! lol

Will be Around You..

So talking about friends, before and during your FYP (Final year project) period, All your friends will be around you. Specially before and after lectures they will be hanging around with you inside the class room and outside. Most of the time we used to bug each other or talk about something hilarious one of us had done during may be our outings or batch trips and so on. And once in a while you may see a couple of friends in a corner with some serious discussion. Talking about  relationship issues, family issues and so on. And then comes a one who talk about techy stuff or gaming stuff all the time with some more geeky friends around. Usually the nerdy type ones, who could be a lil socially awkward.

Usually.. Where Moments Captured…

Usually after lectures, hanging around in the lab, canteen and having all the chit chats, would happen more often. These would be the moment most prolly where random pictures will be captured, where those random pictures will let you cherish the moments in later time of your life.

Asking for help…

Your Friends will be asking for help if you are so good at studies, specially when it comes to girls, from what I have experience there is a higher ratio of girls than guys who asks you for help with their studies if you are good at studies. Some of your friends wouldn’t ask you for help because they are so up in their heads, that they don’t wanna second them selves for you, asking you for help. The type of friends who are jealous of you may be spreading rumors of you or talk low about you when they hear how others are seeking your help in studies.

The Selfish…

There would be those friends of yours who always thinks only about themselves, without even giving you a simple help when you ask for one. Those who thinks that they are the best among everyone and they should not share whatever they know with others. Where as they are mostly motivated by the fact that being selfish and getting good grades than everyone else is the holy grail in undergrad life. lol 😛

Oh the Outings…

Outings will be much more often specially at the beginning of the semester, but in later times, it would fade away with the work load. There in the middle, you may find the little sub groups among friends, go for their own personal outings, while the rejected ones get hurt. The emotional friend which we all have will be crying out loud if you drop them any outing of your little group.

Home Runners…

We often find those friends who return home as soon as the lectures are over, skipping all the hangouts and outings saying various reasons and so on. Sometimes the ones who are in serious relationships, who desires to spend out with their girlfriends or boyfriends would also ditch you in most of the times.

Late Staying…

Knowing the fact that we are leaving in couple of months, there are some of us, our friends who stays late in the campus till the labs are being closed down, having random chit chats, running around here and there, checking out girls in junior batches. lol 😉

The Checking Out…

Something in common in most of the hangouts there will be those friends who checks our girls in the junior batches, rate them, and comment on them, while specially some of them checking out their secret crushes. 😛

A** Givers…

Oh forgot to tell about those ones who gives a**es to the lecturers, going behind everyone in the batch. Hahaha 😀 Have so much of funny memories of most of them in my own batch even. The wanna be nerds or the absolute nerds who pretend to be the good students in the batch in front of lecturers. Oh boy I often wondered whether those people had some mental illness or something. Do not worry these days the batch will be full of that sorta people as specially being at the end of the degree.

The Awesome Group Studies…

The group studies, on one of the best 😀 When the project submissions comes nearby or exams, you and your friends will be doing the legendary ‘Group Study’ thingy, where as the main objective is to study with the whole bunch together but end up wasting time and having some random fun most of the time. Oh so much of memories in group studies. You and your friends starts studying and the whole topic converts into some other jabberish and everyone ends up playing fool and having fun !

Finally…

Those are some of the memories and experiences I had with my Friends before our Final Year Project thesis. Never the less every single one of those memories and experiences I still remind my self as Good times 😀 after all now we all have just left the university and there would not be any turning backs for that wonderful time.

Cheers folks ! 😀