Saturday, December 9, 2006

... not GOOD ENOUGH!



Imagine things like this in your life. First, you got a few A's in the final exam. Maybe you think that it is not so bad. Let’s twist this story a little bit by imagining you, in spite of those A's; you also got a D, in history!!!!!

Or try this- you hang out with your friends. You know that your parents are not going to like it as your friends here, enjoy loitering in the malls, smoking, and generally do stupid things. Your mom’s friend saw you one day. To make things spicy, she is not just telling your mom, she tells everyone- so much like CNN really.

Nightmare huh? Let’s not stop there. Think of how your parents might react. They might scold you or stop giving you allowance, or even worst, you’re grounded for life.

In this situation, should you blame others- Teachers; Friends; Your parents; God; or the CNN Auntie? Hey, what about yourself?

I don’t think that blaming others or yourself is really the right thing to do. You can’t blame your parents. Of course they are mad of you when they have spent a lot of money on your education- school fees, private tuition, books, school needs. They are not cheap you know. How do you repay them? Bad grade is it? No way. Repay them with those annoying words from the CNN auntie? I don’t think so.

You can’t blame your friends too. They have no right to force you to join them. Why hanging out with the useless friends in the first place. If they should not be blamed, then is it the teachers? The answer is absolutely not. If you are the one who never finishes the homework, who always disturbs the class or never show up at school, I can’t see the rational of blaming the teachers.

I’m posting this not to under estimate you, my fellow friends. I just want you to realize that the world does not care to help you unless you want to help yourself first. If you think that you have done your best, please REMEMBER this- it is still not GOOD ENOUGH!

Monday, December 4, 2006

Fear Factor, in school?

Believe it or not, Fear Factor in school is fun, and exciting, and hilarious, and effective, and joyful, and….. Alright, alright, I’ll stop.

Sorry if I bothered you. Ok, let me tell you how and what exactly is Fear Factor in school. My English for Science and Technology (EST) teacher assigned us into 5 groups. Each group have to do some kind of show-and-tell with one of these creatures– cockroaches, worms, millipede, frog and spiders. And after that, the ‘lucky’ person will get the chance to hold the organisms.

We voted, and my group got frog. We got the information we needed from Wikipedia, and that was it, mainly because we did the research a few minutes before the EST class. Yeah, I know. Last minute job is not perfect, but all of us were busy with our own tasks, and at least we got the info on time.

First, we showed the frog in front of the class. The frog was brought by Wana. She is the only one who went home last weekend. The rest of us chose to spend the short 3-days break at the hostel. Anyway, there are a lot of interesting facts about frog that I never know before. Facts such as many frogs contain mild toxin, in other word, they are poisonous.

After that, we chose Faris who is obviously afraid of frogs. He showed his bravery and accepted our challenge to hold the frog for a while. I felt pity for the frog though because he held it quite hard, it seemed like he’s going to squeeze the frog to death.

Anyway, this activity is extremely the best of all EST class because I got the chance to face my fear. Worms! I volunteered to hold them. I felt their cold and soft body, and it was the first time that I think worms are cute.

There were a lot of hilarious scenes, including the time when our class president accidentally crushed a cockroach. Luckily the group brought 2 cockroaches. And it was funny when Zaini threw a worm onto Farhanah’s desk. Oh, I can’t describe how angry Farhanah has gotten due to that incident.

The group with millipede got my respect when they worked hard to find one. My friend couldn’t sleep until she found one. I like their spirit. However, the millipede they got is quite small. I’ve got the chance to see and touch a bigger one last year at FRIM. It was so big that I couldn’t believe that it was just a millipede.

However, the group who should show-and-tell spiders failed to do so. They said they couldn’t find any spider. Yeah, right. I don’t think so, because I’ve bumped into a lot of spiders, of any size and species. I was quite disappointed because spider is like my favourite among the 5 organisms.

Anyway, I like this kind of thing. Don’t you think that it would be boring if we learned all this from just the books?

Saturday, December 2, 2006

Truth is bitter, NOT!


Have you ever felt something weird enough, that your brain is getting too much nerve and from the bottom of your heart, it feels so wrong? Wow, it’s a long question. Seriously, have you?

Well, I have. And here is a story about ME! (Funny, I sounded like Kuzco). About 2 years ago, my teacher said something (as usual) in the assembly. And that time he was talking about the importance of making early preparation for an exam. He said something about you will never know if you are going to be sick on the day before the exam, so it is better to start revising now.

I never intended to make fun of his advice but I basically did that. I said I never have a problem to ace my exam even if I did my revision the day before an exam. My bad, I know. Everything went wrong from then on. I always get fever during exam weeks; it is so bad that I couldn’t pay much attention on the books, and worst, I couldn't answer properly because all I want is to rest.

You can’t imagine how bad it feels during the end of the year exam, then PMR, and you know what, this year, I got fever 5 times (during all 5 exam)! I don’t know whether it has something to do with my rudeness or maybe just because I’m weak. All I can think about is that God wants to show me that being rude is NO GOOD.

I started to feel guilty when I realized the fact that maybe it would hurt the teacher’s feeling if he had heard me at that time. I told my mom about this and she suggested me to tell him the truth and say that I’m sorry. It’s kind of hard since I’ve transferred to MJSC Taiping, so I’ll have to go to his house. Of course it will be easier to just give him a call, but I don’t think that it is a good idea.

I never got the chance until yesterday. I was there, right in front of his house. He was just home after the Friday’s prayer. I greeted him and told everything, and I apologized. He smiled and didn’t show any sign of anger. I wasn’t paying much attention because I was busy restraining myself from crying but I think he said something like he would forgive everyone before going to bed everyday because we would never know when we’ll die. Maybe you don’t see the connection, but I do.

He said not to worry since he has forgiven me a long time ago. It is a relief and you can’t imagine how great it felt. People say that truth is bitter. I don’t think so because it is SWEET!

To all of you out there, I advice you to spill out the truth; it really lowers your burden. And please be careful and think more than twice before you say something. Who knows you might get into trouble, just like I did.