I don’t Want My Kids to Suffer

I am not married and do not even have children yet. I also do not plan to get married yet. There so many things that I want to achieve in the next ten years before I move on to the next stage of my life, which is getting married. Getting married right now is on the most bottom of my wish list, so far.

But that is not the issue that I want to write this time around. The issue that I would like to highlight is that I do not want my wife and children to suffer in the future.

Often, we hear incidents in which the parents have to give away their children to other people or make their children quit the school just because they cannot afford to raise their children due to critical financial problem. It is very sad every time I stumble upon this kind of matter. I almost cry every time I read stories like this. I feel very agitated whenever I hear about children whom live in poverty. Maybe I am a little bit emotional and sentimental when it comes to this matter, but that is what I feel.

I think the right people to be blamed for this matter are the parents themselves. I am not trying to point finger on anybody here because I am sure that no parent in this world wants their family members to live in poverty, but why they just cannot plan ahead for their family before the parents themselves actually get married?

I mean, parents need to make sure that they are financially stable first before they get married. They need to plan for the future, for the family, for children and any unexpected expenses. If you just cannot make the two ends meet, do not get married then. Otherwise, it is your family members who will suffer in the end. That is what I think. Maybe some people do not agree with me but it is okay. I just want to share what I feel about this matter.

It’s My 20th Birthday

19^th January 2011 marked another episode of life for me. Yet, it was quite nostalgic for me because I had lost the extension ‘teen’ on my age. I am now 20 years old after all.

Well, this 20^th birthday was very memorable for me because the whole batch of my intake sang a birthday song in three different languages during our English language society meeting. It was something that I had not experienced before. Just imagine, they asked you to go to the stage and suddenly a group of about 70 people sang a birthday song, in three different languages.

Sincerely talking, I almost cried as I was very touched and overwhelmed by them. I would like to say thank you very much to the students of PPISMP TESL June 2010 Intake for the birthday song.

Even for me, it had been quite a few years actually since I last celebrated my birthday such as buying cake for my birthday or make a birthday party for myself. It was not because I did not commemorate the day that I was born to this world, but I thought it was enough for me to know that on this particular date, I was born to this world.

Therefore, I am really thankful and thank my parents for it, because without them, it was impossible for me to be on this world and taste the ups and downs of life. Thanks mama and papa for that. From the bottom of my heart, I really love both of you.

Not only that, I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my dearest friend, Siti Zalikha Mohd Ridzuan, for giving me the birthday present all the way from Kuching. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

This is the present, a set of belt and wallet. Thanks Ikha.

Last but not least, thank you very much also to those who sent me happy birthday wishes whether through SMS or Facebook posts. I really appreciate all those.

Once again, thank you so much everyone for cheering up my 20^th birthday.

Happiest Days of Our Life

‘You never know the happiest days of your life when you are living them. To know they are the happiest, you have to make a comparison with other, less happy times and you can only do that by stepping back from them.’

I was really intrigued by the statement above when I stumbled upon it while I was reading a book entitled ‘Extraordinary Solutions for Everyday Problems’ by Joseph O’ Connor. It is a very interesting book to read. Although the contents are a little bit technical, but the main ideas are easy to be dissected if we look at the bigger picture of what are being said in the book.

This is the book. Actually, I have not finished reading this book.

Okay, let us get back to the statement above. When I thought back about what lies behind those sentences, I found the truth in it. It is true that most of us only appreciate happy times that we had been in when we are no longer experiencing them, although we did not consider them as happy times before while we were experiencing them. Only then when we experience difficult situations, we start to reminisce, appreciate and look back at past experiences that we had been in before. Then, the phrases such as ‘if I were able to go back the past and experience those sweet moments once again’ or ‘I never thought that those times were much better than what I am having now’ will start to linger in our mind.

To me, it is necessary for us to remember and reminisce the past because we can learn and gain knowledge from it as experience is one of the best teachers. Try to learn something out of it. Most importantly, appreciate those past moments as you might not be able to experience them again the way they were. 

One of my happiest days in matriculation.

It’s Now 2011

As this is my first entry in the new year of 2011, I would like to welcome everybody to 2011 and let us give a valedictory bye to 2010. It is now officially 2011, everyone! The sound of pyrotechnics that I have just heard from my house just few minutes ago officially marked the beginning of a new chapter in our life. Well, for this new year, let us all kick- start a better change for ourselves and unleash our hidden potential to achieve everything that we have set. Once again, happy new year every one and may you guys have a blissful and fruitful life ahead.