Jul 27, 2012

Inspiration

Assalamualaikum

Tahun ini dua orang orang adik yang tinggi lampai akan menduduki peperiksaan PMR dan SPM. Ibu setiap kali skype or call mesti ceritakan kerisauan melihat mereka berdua ni hehe. Sebenarnya, 5 tahun yang lalu, the same thing happened, Nadiah and I both took PMR and SPM respectively - and I believe ibu serisau ini juga dulu. In fact, semua ibu bapa macamtu kan? Sekarang giliran Sumayyah dan Huda pulak.

Sebagai kakak sulung yang prihatin melihat keliatan adik-adik dalam belajar, seolah-olah menjadi tugas pulak untuk menjanjikan hadiah lumayan kepada mereka sebagai inspirasi. Hari tu berjanji tak ingat dunia, "Nanti akak kasi itu, kasi ini kalau dapat straight A's," Time tu fikir, sementara dekat US ni bolehlah berjanji macam-macam since branded item dan gadget dekat sini murah-murah. Tapi bila fikir balik, dah terlebih janji pulak, dah lah dua orang haisss

So, tadi bila mengira simpanan dalam bank and projection di masa hadapan, haruslah dimasukkan budget yang akan lebur kalau adik-adik dapat keputusan yang baik nanti. Bukan apa, bab menepati janji bila masa peperiksaan ni memang kena hati-hati, sebab ada family history disebaliknya. A story that always makes me laugh when I think about it :)

Semuanya gara-gara ayah. Waktu dia form 3 dan kena ambil LCE (Lower Certificate of Education, iaitu nama lama PMR), kakak ayah, Mak Lang waktu itu baru graduate dan dapat kerja di KL dengan gaji yang agak lumayan. Jadi Mak Lang pun berjanji dekat ayah, kalau ayah dapat 1 A, beliau akan kasi RM50 dekat ayah. Kata ayah, waktu tu result ayah takde lah hebat mana, so maybe Mak Lang tak rasa ayah akan dapat banyak A, tapi just nak inspired adikkan, haruslah exaggerate offer sikit.

Tapi, nak dijadikan cerita, ayah dapat 6 A's out of 7 subjects. Terus jadi top student dekat negeri Perak. (Zaman tu straight A's adalah sangat jarang ye kawan-kawan. Bukan macam sekarang, bersepah-sepah.) Natijahnya, Mak Lang sampai bayar ansuran bulanan dekat ayah sebab kena bayar RM300. Untuk pengetahuan umum, RM300 tahun 1973 besar nilainya sebab gaji pegawai kerajaan biasa pun dalam RM350 sebulan kot (tak sure part ni), kalau nak lebih jelas sila rujuk kos hidup per kapita Malaysia tahun 1970-an.

Jadi konklusinya, seorang kakak ada banyak tanggungjawab untuk adik-adik, walaupun janji mungkin memakan diri. Tapi demi kasih sayang, harus kugagahkan jua diri ini hehee

For my two angels, strive for the best and remember, there is nothing worth more to me than your happiness. I repeat, your happiness, not your excellent results. Allah is always with you guys, so don't ever lose hope.

Sekian, ramadhan kareem :)

Jul 8, 2012

Quick Summer Updates

Assalamualaikum

It is already July and alhamdulillah the electricity is backkkk :)
Although I randomly posted about the hurricane and power outage that we went through last week, I was surprised that some of my best friends read it and asked me about my condition
"Aku baca blog kau. Kau okay tak tika?" - best friend -
Seriously, I'm grateful that Allah gives me some beautiful and supportive friends
And indeed, they are the reasons that make me think that I should blog more frequently after this - just so that we can update each other more frequently
Aww I really love my girls!

So, what have I been doing from spring to summer?

First, Midwest Games International 2012 at University of Illinois. Since this is my second MWGi, I have already had some expectations toward the event and I think the event went really well. I met a lot of friends from INTEC and I also spent some really good times with Izzati and Aqilah. Besides that, I had fun cheering for University of Minnesota football team with my fellow buckeyes weheheee. We cheered for our two buckeye friends who played for Minne's team. Seriously, we hardly know anyone from Minne but we cheered like we're one of them haha. Nasib baik champion, tak sia-sia datang MWGi kali ni :D

Exactly two weeks after that was the Spring 2012 Commencement. We had 5 graduates this year (compare to 2 last year), and two of them are my batch, Aqilah and Hazmira. We came together, went through some really fun and rough moments during our first touchdown in Columbus, and now they're back in Malaysia! Do you know what does it mean? My time is coming really soon insyaAllah. One year to go!

Those in black are the graduates. Graduation in one of the biggest stadium in the world, Ohio State je ader bro hihi
Then, right after the commencement, I went for the most awesome trip ever in my life! I went to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, which is almost 2000 miles from Ohio. It took us about 2 1/2 days before we arrived Yellowstone and we had some really good times there. There, I felt like I was in a magical kingdom. Why? Because I saw so many things that I've never known about their existence and I found so many beautiful scenery, far more beautiful than any drawings or photos I've ever seen. Bak kata sahabat ini, hanya mata sahaja yang mampu mengingati kecantikan di Yellowstone, wallahualam..
Seperti lukisan. One of my favorite spots in Yellowstone..
Now, that I am back in Columbus and summer is here, I have no other choice but to stay indoor as much as I can due to daily heat advisory. I am taking 3 classes for 7 weeks, and currently I'm working part time at the OSU Library. So far so good. Yes, I study hard and play hard too lol.

Oh then, one worth-to-write-about event in my life happened: a short one hour hurricane and later caused power outage for almost three days for us in central Columbus (almost 3 million people were affected by the power outage across the country). Much worst, I had three midterms (out of three) in that particular week hahh! Thus, during those three days, I spent most of my time in campus because Ohio State has its own power plant and we have electricity all over the campus area. Syukur at least electricity is only 10 minutes walking distance. Kalau tak, di mana nak study semua. Alhamdulillah, all is good now and my midterms went pretty well :)

Now everything is back to normal except for the excessive heat. Hmm.. InsyaAllah this heat challenge may help to reflect our patience and increase our iman. Most importantly....... Ramadan is only few days away! I pray may all of us have the opportunity to meet this coming Ramadan and let this remaining Syaaban gives us time to prepare ourselves for Ramadan which hopefully will bring us more rahmah and positive changes, Amin.


PS: Hari ini adik kite Nadiah turned 20. Aww, adik beradik kite dah besar :')