2014: A Personal Reflection

Salaam and hello everyone. Today is the 31st of December 2014, which is the last day of the year.

It is said that the year 2014 had been a sad year for Malaysians. It started out all right, in my opinion. I was happy and contented in the beginning, and I had anticipated for more great things to come.

 But as the year progressed through, a series of unfortunate events had began to happen, firstly (and foremost) started with the mysterious disappearance of flight MH370. I remember thinking about it every night. I couldn't sleep. This is just unbelievable. Like what our Defence Minister had repeatedly said, this situation is 'unprecedented'. I prayed hard that they will find the plane. But then again, even if the truth behind its disappearance won't be revealed in this world, ever, I could at least be assured that everything will be revealed in the akhirah,insya Allah.

A few months later when us Malaysians (and the world) were about to slowly accept whatever outcome and conclusion from this event, another Malaysian plane and more innocent souls were lost in the MH17 tragedy. It was during the month of Ramadhan, and I didn't remember when was the last time I cried that hard, or felt that sad. This sadness was doubled with the plights of our brothers and sisters in Palestine who had suffered so much for so many years, most recently during this year's Ramadhan.  I felt so helpless. Is there anything that I could do? Watching Mufti Ismail Menk's video "The Tragedy of MH17: Our Response as Muslims"! had managed to soothe my aching heart.

It seems like this year is a bad year for us all regardless of nationalities. Many accidents and tragedies had happened. The crash of Air Algiers, plus another Taiwan-bound flight (if I'm not mistaken), the heartbreaking Ferry Tragedy in South Korea involving the lost of lives of innocent school children, and just recently, the alleged crash of Flight QZ8501 of which the bodies of the passengers were discovered at the sea. The whole world is mourning.

As for the Sports section, our team had given less than satisfactory performances in the Commonwealth and Asia Games, and that two of our athletes had been tested positive in  drug doping test.

The monsoonal changes, in addition to the massive deforestation and global warming had led to one of the most bad cases of flood in Malaysia. Hundreds of thousands of people had lost their homes and properties. Some, most devastatingly, had lost their loved ones. May Allah give them strength to overcome this. Ameen.

These are some of the major events that had tugged my heartstrings.As for personal stuffs,  well there had been one bad experience. It had been so bad that I think I won't ever recover from it, completely.

But not all there is about 2014 had been that bad. Nicol David, for example, had captured her 8th World Title and we finally have our own first Nobel laureate! 

 Life in this temporary world isn't meant to be perfect, but it is not that bad either, you realized, especially when you are grateful with what you have, as compared to the others who are less fortunate.

So, I would like to reminisce the good things that happened to me in the year 2014.

In no specific order: 

My First Winter Experience in China. A memorable class trip. I visited many historical places, climbed up the Great Wall of China, got into verbal fights with the rude sellers of Silk Street, almost got conned by the Pearl sellers of Olympic Stadium and played ski for the first time!

Family trip to Sabah and Labuan. Ate lots of good foods, snorkelled in two different islands, got stung by a jellyfish, encountered a dangerous experience of almost getting washed away by the big lapping waves, enjoyed long road trips from Kota Kinabalu to Kundasang and other parts of KK, took a boat to WP Labuan and hey, I had finally covered all 14 states of Malaysia! :)

Fun at Legoland Malaysia. I enjoyed the water park and theme park. As a 'thrill rides' enthusiast, those so-called thrilling rides are not thrilling enough for me hahaha. I prefer the rides in Universal Studio Singapore (Battlestar Galactica).But all in all, it had been fun! :)

Jalan-Jalan Penang where I indulged in good foods and visited interesting places.

Singapore. Wedding. Orchard Road. And we went to Studio Jalan Ampas! If you're a fan of P.Ramlee's films and classic black and white films in general, you'll know the significance of this place.

Spent 6 weeks in Pekan and Pekan Hospital for the Hospital Attachment subject. Got into a dispute with a lecturer from KOM. :P. And she complained to my kulliyyah saying a Pharmacy student had been rude towards her hohoho. Heyyy I was just defending my lecturer(you were rude towards her in the first place) and our rights as the pharmacy students there! I can't stand injustice. I really couldn't. Hope I can survive working at the hospital!

Plus, I 'befriended' a mentally 'special' patient called Sabri. :) All of us adored him, actually. He was like a younger brother to us.

Aaanyyywaayyy, the only place of interest we've been to over there was Muzium Diraja Pekan hahaha...But I had fun living under the same roof with my friends of which I could now call my family. (Ten of us sharing a house with a single functioning bathroom/toilet!)  Hardships had brought us closer. :) I miss them already! And the routines and memories we had there! :')

Ice skating again! After so many years! (At the newly opened IOI City Mall, Putrajaya) This time I was skating like a pro as I didn't fall even once! :P

Pergi kursus kahwin. All of us Pekanized gang went there because two people in our gang were getting married (they're married now, Alhamdulillah) and they needed to attend this compulsory course. So, kira teman diorang la. This going to marriage course thing is not that significant but heyy, it's something new! At the end of this course, we were required to sit for a so-called exam hahaha. And some of the questions are very funny!

Graduation/Convocation.
Alhamdulillah, after 4 years of stress and agony, I finally graduated with a Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons.) with Upper Second Class Honours yaayy!!! And the best thing was that I graduated with my brother Syafiq! (His course is only for 3 years).

I had my braces taken off after being sentenced to 3 and a half years of teeth imprisonment!

Germany won FIFA World Cup 2014 like finally!!!!

I got my own car hahaha. Alhamdulillah. Thanks mom, thanks dad!

Replaced this classic phone below with a new one. 'Smarter' one, geddit? It's a graduation and birthday gift from my parents. I love my new phone! I am so blessed, Alhamdulillah.

Got myself a Tab. To be precise, a Galaxy Note 8.0. Typing this very post on this tab now. My 6 years old (and counting!)  Laptop had been warded since late October.  Discharged but haven't collect it yet.

Read a total of 23 books this year. But I didn't complete my Goodreads Challenge of reading 100 books a year. Actually I had read more than 23 books, but not new books, get it? I have this habit and tendency to revisit my favourite books.

76 books behind schedule? Hahahaha

In 2013 however, I had read 34 out of 40 books. So for the duration of 2 years, I had read a total of 57 books yaay!

For 2015, I'm just going to set my goal to 12 books per year. A pretty realistic goal, right? :) Meaning, I must finish at least one book a month. 

I had just recently discovered my love towards art. I've always thought that I'm more of a musical person rather than an 'artistic' one. Thanks to the talented Mandy Wang, I had suddenly got interested in artsy stuffs and I've decided to take this newly-found passion seriously! :D Still a long way to go though. It had barely been a month.

Some of them turned out weird. They are not failures. They make up a path towards perfection. :) 

Crocheting. I was bored. Enough said. I managed to scrape through crocheting a phone case that looks like a chrysalis though. Hahaha. I wanted to try knitting too. I went crazy buying knitting supplies at Daiso. One day, one day.

Improved culinary skills from zero to at least, something. Just you wait, I'm gonna become a domestic goddess/food fairy one fine day muahahaha...

Picking up keyboarding after years of not practising. 80% of Canon in D mastery.

A very short video I posted on Instagram.

I learned German on Duolingo. Level 7. In progress. Again, I abandoned the lesson halfway. ZzzZzzzz....But it's quite easy, really. 

 Ich lese ein Buch. Der Junge trinkst das Wasser. 

Bars tak full sebab lama tak practise.

2015 Resolution: Complete the German language course and pass the exam! 

So basically,  that is all. There are more memorable things I had experienced, I'm sure. Even the smallest of rezeki/bounties and nikmat are very valuable and precious. I could not afford to lose even a bit of it. Thank you Allah, for everything.

After looking at all the good things that had happened to me in 2014, I feel extremely grateful for the life I'm living now. Alhamdulillah. Our parents had been working so hard to ensure we are living a comfortable life and we are very thankful to them for all these. :')

2014 had generally been a bad year for us all. But like I said, it's not that bad either. By counting the blessings that I have received(too many of them!), I know that there is a reason of me being placed in such a fortunate position in this world. I have a role to play. I must share the blessings and gifts Allah s.w.t had given me with the less fortunate ones. Insya Allah. Please pray that Allah would give me strength to help others. Please make this path easy for me. Ameen. 

I have a feeling that the year 2015 will be great year, insya Allah! My wish and hope for this coming year is to create more memories, gain more valuable experiences from my daily life or places I've been to, to polish up my existing skills/interests. To take up a new skill. To be a much better person. To be more organized.

I miss my laptop! It's been such a painful ordeal to type long sentences in this tab.

Oh wow, it's a pretty long post. The year 2014 summed up in one blog post.

Have a year full of Barakah everyone! :)