Ham Chew Yung

Behind the Scenes at Euroasia: My Internship Journey……

My name is Ham Chew Yung, I’m currently nearing completion of my Bachelors of Classical Music at UCSI University. I’ve lived a quiet life academically, confined to classes and a few events that so happen were held at the university. That is until I joined Euroasia, where the contrast is similar to a change of scenery between the modicum of cottages in the most remote of rural areas to the dizzying skyscrapers of a clustered metropolis.

It is therefore not an exaggeration to have said that I learned to talk to people in my 3-month stint. I learned to convey announcements to the public in a polite and serviceable tone, mainly by stifling intrusive thoughts and vocabulary, learned to maintain a pace of conversation with the diverse cast of Jury members. And most importantly, learned to communicate ideas and intentions to co-workers clearly with little to no room for misunderstanding.

Despite being a hermit, I had a curiosity to understand the inner works of event management when joining Euroasia, of how the machine of schedule is oiled and maintained. The cumulation of quick decisions and preparation amounts to the illusion of magic, where all staff and crew work as one to resolve and mitigate the multitude of considered possibilities. But as I have deconstructed, it is all just good preparation, knowing of the exact amount of effort spared to a particular task. These items may be considered mundane, but isn’t logistics the key reason of the Roman army’s efficiency?

Besides, there is a great advantage to the banality of tasks, I am an avid procrastinator, and that usually happens to bigger tasks where my projected idea of the supervisor’s expectations comes across as overwhelmingly intimidating. The approach to solving this as every viable source agrees, is to break the large item to smaller tasks, and to make the assignment sound smaller than my perception. But the challenge remains in breaking the chain of thought, which is why I’ve grown fond of the most mundane of administrative and groundwork responsibilities. It allows a reset of expectations; it gives the mind time to breathe and evaluate while the hands are occupied with an assembly of repetitive tasks.

I’ve established that my procrastination is a side effect of my proclivity to anxiety, I would constantly be weary of an unnecessary number of things to the point of exhaustion, then treat every task regardless of importance with apathy until the mistakes build up, closing the loop and starting a new cycle. The worst action that I perform in this cycle is to place the array of concerns upon my co-workers then for them to deal with the consequences of my own apathy. But the constantly changing environment that Euroasia presents is a great counter to this, once I got used to the fast pace, I’m able to place apathy on the unnecessary and anxiety to the tasks of great importance. Working here made me realise that these emotions aren’t wrong for existing, but that they’ve just been put to work at the wrong station.

My contributions to the company have leaned mostly towards the technical, I edit their videos, organise their websites, and look for paragraphs of information that can be better worded for clarity. I believe that I’ve found a home in Euroasia for my ability to tinker with items incessantly, sometimes to the dismay of colleagues with my failure to recognise a finish line even when I’ve crossed it. This responsibility to investigate a diverse array of affairs can only blossom in a workplace of a small number of employees, where my responsibility is more so a spectrum than it is a needle, it suits my wide but shallow range of skills.

I’m truly appreciative of this 3-month experience, they’ve contributed to quite a few epiphanies. I’m thankful of the willing friends that I come across in a studio of the highest floor of an apartment. I came to understand who they are by spending time, regardless of work and leisure with them. I’m thankful of the Adjudicators that I’ve met, who display their eccentric personalities always. I’m grateful to have been a guest player of the Sinfonia outreach (and for their acceptance of my terrible bow hold). And I’m appreciative of the trust Euroasia has provided, allowing me to oversee tasks of huge responsibility, this is a chapter of life that would’ve been enviable if I were to have interned elsewhere.