Monday, December 13, 2010

Something to ponder upon...

In my last post, at the end, I mentioned that there was another thing that happened during the year. Several in fact.

First, Pak Long passed away during the second week of Ramadhan. It was shock to all the family, but Paksu did mention to Mak that he may not make it to this raya. So raya was a bit mellow, but with the children around, it was cheerful enough.

On the lighter scale, Abg Salahuddin got married and Mu'az had a daughter. So did Abg Munir and Abg Ji had a son. Kak Ijah got married again, so now Adam has a new 'abah'. They look so cute together, and I am truly happy for them.

The final thing that happened, and this set me back a few notch, was when Bapak was admitted to the hospital. I had noticed that he had lost a lot of weight, but I only put it on the fact that he was exercising and left it at that. I found out when Mak called, the day that we were being briefed on the OIC members visiting IIUM, and the Communication dept was given the task to interview the delegates. I was chosen, along with Miera and the Practicum class to interview the guests. Of course I dropped out, and rushed to the hospital. Waji drove me, and Miera came along. It was devastating and I couldn't hold back my tears.

You know, we all have heard and seen death. We have seen people we know pass away. But the moment we had to endure it for ourselves, we realise how hard it is to face seeing the future without their presence in our lives. And as for Bapak, he is the father, the leader of the family, the ground for which we, as the family, hold on to and feel where we belong. To loose him .... To even think of loosing him... I know I have to accept it as the fact of life, but for now, I want to deny it at all cost. To say to myself that he will get better. That he will live on. But the fact remains, that he was diagnosed with liver failure, and anything to do with liver failure, it's all downhill from there. Pak Long was diagnose with the same failure.

But I guess for now, I thank Allah for giving us a heads up. For giving us time so that we can spend the remaining days together. For giving us the opportunity to rectify our ways. For showing us that there is more to US than meets the eye. So I take all the time blessed to us, and use it as wisely as possible, so that when the time comes, there will be no regrets. Please Allah, helps Us and guide Us in Our journey towards finding Your Blessing... Amin...

A closing to another year... so much to recap...

2010 is almost nearing the end. In fact it's already a couple of days into the new Hajj year... so much has happened this year. Friendship. Love. Heartache?.. Haha.. so much that I don't even know where to begin, so I guess from the top would be a good idea...

1. New Friends! Namely Amierah and Wajihah. We were all loners through our own, twisted list of events, so hooking up was no big a deal. All three Electronic Media specialization, we agreed to have the same classes for sem2, which was FCQS, Statistics and ICC... Loads of memories there.

2. Hockey
Played hockey again, as the goalkeeper (again) for Mahallah Asma'. The decided to challenge myself and signed up for the IIUM Mustang Hockey team. Training, which was almost every night, was strenuous and tiring. Had a couple of friendly matches with the Army ladies, went to KL Open and of course went to MASUM. I didn't get to play for MASUM, all due for the fact that I didn't go for the week long intense training before the tournament. Come to think of it, I trained most days, but didn't get to play in any of the tournaments, only the friendly matches. Well, after sem3, I quit. Not because I didn't get to play, but as I promised myself that it my pointers were low, I will quit, thus => Me Quit.

3.PEERS/Counseling
No, I didn't went for counseling, although some people might say I need them. Of course I was involve with the counseling dept in IIUM as a Peers member since sem1 last year. We were supposed to graduate, but since in sem2 there was no new intake, we had to go on for another semester, which I didn't mind really coz I always hang out there to de-stress myself or to study. The counseling dept is like my second study area. Anyway, in March, we had the nationwide Peers Seminar. As the host, Peers IIUM are given the honour to be emcees for each segment of the three days event. We were trained to speak, in MALAY I tell you, with all the protocols of a formal event. It was really an amazing experience for me and the rest of those who were involved. I was also assigned as the transport committee, thus I handled all the transport requirements from the hostels to the hall, even for the outing. This event was the reason I had to skip the week long intense training for hockey. Yep, it was a hell of 2 weeks and it wasn't over.

4. Low CGPA
So, that was what happened during the early part of the year, until the end of the short semester. The sad part is that my grades went down. I usually keep a CGPA of 3.0, but during these two semesters, my pointers went below to 2.9. That gave me the goosebumps, and a was also an element on my decision to quit the hockey team.

The holidays were pretty dull. I just spent most of it on the net watching Criminal Minds.. haha... Then came semester1, which was also my third year in IIUM.

5. Peers Dinner
Haha.. FINALLY! Our graduation. I know most of us were glad that it was finally over, so that they could get on with their campus lives. Me, I was the project manager for the dinner. I was glad that we got to host it all by ourselves. We managed to do it at Kunang-Kunang Restaurant, not far off from IIUM. It was great, I had help from Zainab to be our photographer, and there was surprise for Kak Dina, that we thought off at the end of our performance. We had a rose each to present to her, as a token of our appreciation for all her hard work in guiding us and taking care of us, just like a big sister. I do love having her around, which was why I was not reluctant at all to help out with the Peers 14th batch.

6. Graduation
No, I did not graduate. But several of my friends did, namely Zainab, Maiza, Mariam, Ayub and a few other I don't seem to remember right now. Anyway, there was a chocolate fair at KAED Gallery, and I bought some chocs to share with more new friends.

7. Theatre, and More New Friends
Waji and Miera invited me to join their theatre production in sem1. It was called NeoN Production, and ours was a dance theatre. Since girls can't dance or since in IIUM performances, we got to audition some boys to play the lead roles. Fadzriq, Ifran and Junaidi were chosen as the main character and his buddies, whilst there was Epul, Heykal and Laila as the supporting actors. Zubie and Hafiz were my Prop people, we had makeup and Aqilla and Anith on wardrobe. They are the coolest people to work with, fun of laughter and fun. Laila, who played 'Mak Hana' won the 'Best Supporting Actress Award' and our production won SECOND place overall!. Not bad for a first try. We celebrated by breaking fast together. Waji has yet to give Laila her trophy! Now, we are thinking of joining the Nusantara, the Malay theatre competition this coming semester.
Now, about new friends. It is officially the first time me, Miera and Waji were observing the fasting month together as friends. And the new friends who we seem to like to hang out with are Ifran Yazid and Junaidi Abidin.. I suppose you can say that we like their company. They're cool, helped us with our other assignment which was for video, along with some of the other NeoN members. We even went to Ifran's house for Raya, and celebrated our birthdays together by going too watch a play at KLPac last November.

8. Video and CMC Assignments
Ok, so me and Miera took Video Production class together. Sir Wan was the lecturer, obviously. It was cool coz we had to shoot a PSA for the MUFORS Road Reels competition. I don't think we won anything but the experience was priceless. I get to play around with the lightings and the cameras on set, Miera directed it. We had Aqiel as lead cameraman and me and Miera did the editing. The shooting part was a whole load of fun. As mentioned before, the NeoN crew came to help out as cast and extra crew members. We had such a laugh and Bahiroh snapped pictures all the way with her lovely camera. Editing was torturous and strenuously tiring. Spent the entire week at Miera's house for the editing part, and Waji came sometimes to bother us and took us off track.. haha which we very much appreciated.
For CMC, Waji, Miera and me were in the same group. We had to build a network empire using our product. Aaaanndd... our chosen 'product' was of course NeoN Production itself. We did think of creating a Facebook page, but with this assignment we went further to create a blog, a Twitter and a Youtube site too. It was cool, looking back at all those photos and videos while we posted them up on our site.. hehe... miss those times.

9. The Most Awesomeness Roommates
This is soooooooooo true. Nobody has the coolest roommates as mine, and I'm not sharing.. Haha.. They were there to listen to my rambling. They were there to provide me with comfort of sisterhood. They understood my crazy schedule and activities and were there to support me all the way. They helped me to manage myself, and I really mean this. They organised and cleaned up my room when it looked like it had been struck by a tornado (and they did this several times, which, I don't think they know it, but made me cry.. all the time).. They were always there, to care, to share, to remind and joke around. All in all, I thank Allah for blessing me with such wonderful roommates and may He bless them all with His Gracious and Mercy, all their lives. Amin...

10. Grade Finally UP

With all that hustle and havoc going on in my life, I managed to reach my target goal of getting back my CGPA to above 3.0. Not quite there to reach a 3.3, but a little bit helps a long way. Now all I have to do is to manage my study time and reach for a higher GPA this semester. Yeay!

Oh, one more thing happened towards the end of the year, during Ramadhan and after that, but I will write that in my next post.