Two quotes to share today.

One noted from my dad taken from a Toastmasters email:

"The goal you set must be challenging. At the same time, it should be realistic and attainable, not impossible to reach. It should be challenging enough to make you stretch, but not so far that you break."~ Rick Hansen ~

Another from my mom; because she sends all of us quotes everyday anyway.

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man adapts the world to himself. All progress depends upon the unreasonable man."
- George Bernard Shaw

Lesson: Know when you need to be reasonable and when it is better to be unreasonable.

love and hugs

Ummi

Therefore, set unreasonably challenging tasks which will not break you yet allows the world to progress... one way or another. Nah, don't take that advice from me. The quotes can't be interwoven.

Hello Patho Week 4

Pathology Week 3 (last week) was quite relaxing. I should have known why. Because obviously after an easy week would come the final hurdle.

Last week: No final assessment. Holiday on friday. Only 3 lecturers and 2 practicals. It was heavenly. Except that's all it will be.

Because here comes Patho Week 4: Final Assessment. Pathology Finals on friday. 2 lectures and 2 practicals. Mandarin test. TM Meeting. Sports. CHET Presentation. BLS Fundraising. SCTLs. I really wonder how some of my seniors do it...

Oh yes, gotta digress a bit. Alhamdulillah I made it to the Basic Life Support Team:) Very surprised because it's something I can only dream about. Why? I guess for the BLS exam, I didn't think I'd be able to make it through (especially the theory exam; they were slightly unexpected; no wait- they were totally unexpected). So InsyaAllah will be heading to Johor for Le Tour as part of the BLS team in mid-December.

Oh, I met Zi today. She's a very sweet person; I can feel an aura around her (lol)- and I wonder why I've not noticed her before.... Even though we've been in the same class for the past 4 months, it's the first time I've ever met her (how embarassing). Anyway, she passed both the Sunathon AND BLS exams and is offered to go under both teams but priority is given to sunathon so she's in BLS no more. Honestly, I find it so amazing that she managed to pass BOTH exams and she's still striving for the medical checkup exam. Unlike me, who dropped both sunathon and medical checkup because I felt that there were just too many other things on my plate. I suppose that's my decision and insyaAllah next time there will be other opportunities... You amaze me, Rozila:)

Anyway, back to Patho week 4; since "After every hardship comes ease", there comes our 1 week midterm (at least I think it's midterm) holiday after that:) And then Behavioral Science it will be.

I joked: I inspired someone in their moment of great need:P

and he said: you always do and always will.

19 with a BANG!

Yes, my 19th year of living in this earth really literally began with a BANG! Well, not immediately though. And here's what happened:

1130pm, 25th Nov: I was already so tired. My eyelids were very heavy; after compiling the Terms to Know for the next class and finishing off my reflective diary. I seriously couldn't stand it anymore and had to retire to bed.

1150pm, 25th Nov: Dibo gets up and dresses up and Cah comes into the room and opens the window because the room feels so humid. I'm too tired to think.

0001am, 26th Nov: I was falling asleep. The fans are suddenly turned off. Someone says "Alia~". Through a half conscious mind, I saw Faz holding a chocolate cake with two candles... And SUDDENLY, lights switched on; there was an explosion! Well, not really, more like 'pops' of balloons and confetti flying all over my bed; aaaaand my housemates jumping with colourful balloons singing "Happy Birthday!:D"

0005 am, 26th Nov: We all gather in the living room and devour the chocolate banana cake from secret recipe! (which I found were stowed away for safe keeping at our neighbour's house- you guys are good neighbours~) I cut the cake, we took lotsa pictures and played around with the vibrant-coloured balloons (i think the balloons must have been the highlight of that night!).

0030 am More pictures taken! Things got a bit crazy. What with the unearthly hour and the increased endorphine availability. We jumped, shouted, laughed and all was relatively at peace... until Faz squirted me with Najah's newly bought water gun! So I couldn't resist! Got a cup and filled it to the brim with water~ You can imagine what happened next... Let's just say we had a long water fight after that:P I think we must have been a bit too loud because the next day, our upstairs neighbours asked us if we heard any hysterical screaming the night before (yikes!).

0100 am Things finally calmed down a little. I tried to go back to sleep. But to no avail. I was too hyped! The awesomeness and ultimate sweetness truly touched me. I couldn't sit still anymore lol. I couldn't BELIEVE that my housemates could (ACTUALLY:P) bring up with something as awesome as this!

Fifi's amazing photographing; Faz and Cah's water fight; Njh & Dibo staying awake (eventhough I know you guys were really tired) truly absolutely touched me. Sara, it would have been more if not just as awesome if you were there too:D Thank you for not throwing eggs and flour at me; I love you guys more for that:) hehe.

0300am Finally I fall asleep~

It was an amazing night. Totally unexpected. An amazing start to 19. You guys are all AWESOME!

Morning; more surprises await:) Birthday wishes from lotsa people! A really sweet card from Team M14 (no words can say how much it means to me. thank you!); lunch with my team; lunch with aki and pressies and parcels (from abroad!); poems and text messages; something from Kosa on my table at home (Kosa I love it! It's what i needed!); a card and surprise in my cupboard from siraj; and influx of birthday wishes on facebook! Absolutely awesome.

Yes, 19 started with a BANG! And hopefully a bang it shall be throughout!:D

Thank you all!~

far

One of the best things about being 'far' away from home is that you get pampered more often. (I placed inverted commas on far because those who knows me would scoff at my statement. I'd say Ampang is relatively far from Cyberjaya).

For one, I get to be picked up by either my mom or dad at the end of the week. During the 45-minute drive, I get to let out all my frustrations, dissatisfactions and emotions. Not only do they make me see sense, but they listen- like really listen. I'd have to say that the drive back or to ampang would be where I have the most quality time with them. And before we know it - "oh! we're here already!"

The best thing of course would be that you appreciate things from home which you don't really appreciate when you're at home. Sometimes when my dad drops by to his cyberjaya office, he'd always take me out to lunch or early dinner or bring some things along:)

This morning though, I was waiting for my Graphics Tablet which I asked my parents to pass to Aki (seeing as to how I didn't go back to Ampang this weekend). And instead of just my beloved Wacom Graphire 4, there were also a packet of keropok, camera that I left at home, aaaand: Discovery Channel's LATEST magazine:D

So, I had a pleasant time munching on the keropok while flipping though the magazine just now. Thank you Ummi and Ayah:)

So yes, living 'far' away from home has its pros and cons. But if you get to go home every weekend (like me), be picked up by your parents and get occasional treats, it's definitely pros over cons:)

*smitten*

i miss you.

purpose

By the end of the first block in CUCMS (which is around 1 month after entering 1st year), I was kinda getting restless with the lack of activities I was involved in. I wanted to do things, organize events, discuss problems, find resolutions and meet with people...

Little did I know that I would be involved in a lot.

I think especially since last week I started getting myself into too many things and found that it was detrimental to my emotional state. I also thought that it might be affecting my pathology block. So I had to drop a few things- of course reluctantly.

Surprisingly, when I got the results for the first two pathology assessments, they were relatively remarkably high. Not high in terms of overall in comparison to everyone else. But I felt it was quite high despite the fact that patho block was when a lot more responsibilities piled up on me.

I think the fact that there were more things on my list encouraged me to have a sense of urgency (Ustaz Nijam's constant reminder). So I didn't laze around (which sometimes influenced me to not do my assignments also). Instead, I was always on my feet and having to think ahead to make sure that everything would be organized and in order and so that my time would not be wasted. Sometimes we think that having more things to take care of means having less time to study; but to me I think it's just the opposite. The more things I have, the more motivated I am.

Sometimes in class I feel like I'm too saturated to listen and tell myself that I'll just read up after class. But then I'd have to attend this meeting and that and more things to do so in the end, I remind myself there's no other time to study than right there and then in class. Sometimes I get too lazy to do mindmaps before the class; but I tell myself that during the finals, I'm gonna get so stressed out because there are just soo many topics to focus on; so the mindmaps would allow me to see the big picture.

I have role models to keep me going as well. Sometimes when I look at my seniors and see how involved they are and how they can balance their priorities, it amazes me. And I think: If they can do that, why can't I? Of course, my most looked-up-to figure would be my one and only Papa:) If I were to list down the things that he has to take care of, it would take up another post.

In the end, it's about what your purpose in life would be. After just completing a Khalifah Training Session, this is what I've been reminded about. I mean, we know about our purpose in life (or at least some of us do) but we forget a lot. And the activities and events that I do; as long as they're in line with my purpose of life, I should keep at them:)

Just realized my post is a little disorganized and my train of thoughts aren't exactly smooth. Guess it's what happens when there's so much in mind and you want to try to pen them all down.

Resolution

Outcomes of acute inflammation may be:

1. Resolution - back to normal; tissue regain structure and function
2. Suppuration- pus formation
3. Organizational Healing- replacement by granulation tissue
4. Progress to Chronic Inflammation
   
   

Alia's outcome of emotional breakdown:

1. Resolution - back to normal

:)

IKEA

Saturday morning my parents and I went for a talk on cancer at UTAR. After that my mom had a reunion with her ex secondary school mates. So after we dropped her off, it was just me and my dad left. He did earlier suggest that we go to Borders or MPH at the Curve. But when we reached the shopping complex, the words IKEA jumped out at me. And after my dad said that this is the biggest IKEA in Southeast Asia, we ended up heading there instead.

I have to be honest. As shocking as this may sound, I've not been to IKEA for more than a decade. So you can imagine my "jakun-ness". We headed to the restaurant first and I was quit amazed with the food trolley. Anyway, we had a mouth-watering

time making a choice. I'd recommend taking the salad; simple said, it is marvelous. And that's saying something coming from me; seeing that I am not very fond of starch-y nutrients.

After lunch we walked around the top floor. It makes me dream of having my own house and having all the interior designs of IKEA. I love especially the kids section. I mean, the layout and design had bright and vibrant colours. There was this one cupboard (which I can't recall the name now). The design grabbed my attention; but I don't think I'd be having something like that in my house. It was covered with words, quotes, drawings. It reminded me of Najah actually. At the same time, it stimulated my "arts and crafts" side to do something big like that.. I have yet to locate a time to do it though...

When we headed down, there were all the small items etc. I went quite wild (or rather wide-eyed) when we saw the towels (or at least I think they're towels) section. It was so... rainbow-ish! Colourful. Vibrant. For some reason, it induced endorphins seeing an array of colours neatly stacked in the form of...towels. As funny as that may sound...

We didn't actually purchase anything except a big clock for the surau and a few sprays (do not ask why). It was really nice just walking through the whole of IKEA though. Very rarely do I ever walk around a store of which I have no particular item to get. But IKEA had a lot of extremely amazing designs.

Overall, a wonderful father-daughter bonding time. Thank you Ayah:)

Achieved!

My Goal has been Achieved!:D

What is it you may ask?

Personally saving from my allowance to raise my targeted $50 (RM 168.33) for the cost of medication for a cleft lip and palate surgery for the Smile Train.

The cost of a full surgery would be $250 (RM 841.63); which I thought would be a bit too high for me to personally save for. Half a surgery cost ~RM 420. The lowest I could target was the medication at $50. At least I was heading somewhere.

When I found out about it around mid last year, I started saving bit by bit. But it wasn't a really focused effort; I just kept however much I didn't use for the week (usually less than RM10 though). I reached RM 80+ but after that it was placed aside and it somehow left my mind... I felt like rm 168.33 would still be very far. At one point, I felt like giving up the aim and just save for the sake of saving.

Earlier on though, when Alina found out about my plans, she contributed:D So when I wanted to just use the money for myself, I remembered how Alina had given me a sum of money and that I should continue my...quest. Thank you dear, you are the reason I kept on going til now.

So yes, I rolled up my sleeves and went to work. The past 5 weeks, I've been really focused on living frugally; cooking daily, starving at times, and ignoring my so-called worldly desires (eg saying no to Cincau or buns for a snack).

Also, thank you soo much Zahid for contributing during my 'homerun' (the final amount of money) You're helping me help change the world one smile at a time:)

Anyway, I actually saved more than what I had targeted! So I am extremely extremely happy and proud of myself:D

Next phase of my grand plan is still in its planning stage (kenape lame sgt ni?:P)...

There's a quote that goes: To get anywhere, we have to start somewhere.

How true.