I wanted to write so badly recently because I have lotsa things to share with the entire world. But, when I started the first sentence, I just couldn’t finished it. I also was busy with work, stressed (*ehem*), and missing home. I wanted to get out from the city so I can think better. I wanted to see the green trees and blue sky, listen to the calm musics of a peaceful mother nature, and eat mom’s home cooked food. Yes, Alhamdulillah, now, I’m on my way back home. I’m pretty excited, so, I took out my celcom broadband, and started typing. Btw, I was supposed to be at home now, but there was bad traffic jam on my way home. As usually, there was a small tiny accident and everyone just stopped and being ‘concerned’ about the accident. Thus, we were stuck in traffic almost for 2 hours! Malaysians, you have to stop doing that!!!! (including me)
But, the traffics jam was a good thing that happened to me today, i think. You know why, I have time to stop and ponder about my life. I saw a truck (or lorry.. as the British called it), with a sign of a pretty big import-export company in Singapore-Malaysia-Thailand. I was thinking, hmm.. maybe I will be working there, who knows. Then I started thinking about how things were not as I expected or predicted. Yes, I did imagine myself as a professional young lady working in a big company. But, I didn’t expect that I will work with MAS. I also didn’t expected that I would study in one of the top boarding schools in Malaysia – MRSM Taiping. One good thing that happened to me in my life is University of Virginia, USA. I didn’t even expected that I would go to the States, speaking in English, and studying Engineering in the University of Virginia! Life is full of mystery and unexpected events. 
Alhamdulillah.
Coming from a middle class Malay family, I didn’t dream big, at first. None of my parents went to college. Only one of my relatives went to college, and she is a high school teacher. I looked up at her, and she was my idol when I was small. When did I started to dream big, u might ask. It started with my elementary school teacher, Puan Hasnah. I was in standard six and preparing for the national exam, UPSR. I chose me and other 9 to 10 kids to join her special class, just for gifted children. I never thought that I had such brain. But, when someone, your teacher, handpicked you, you felt honored. She kept telling us, if one of us got scholarship to study abroad, she will be so happy, and she wanted to send us to the airport is she’s still alive. There.. that moment, I started to dream big.. I didn’t just want to go to college, but I wanted to go to the best college in the WORLD.. and University of Virginia is one of the top universities in the world. Alhamdulillah. So, during recess times, when all my schoolmates were eating and playing, I would sit under a tree and revising what I learned in class. I would buy a 30 cents or sometimes 50 cents milk so I didn’t get hungry. Sometimes, I spent my recess time in a library reading kindergartener level english books. I wanted to improve my english because in UPSR, I had to write a short english essay. At night, I did practiced tests, and after I was done, I went next door, and asked the english teacher to check it for me. She was the wife of a police officer who lived next to us. All I remembered about her was she is a very nice and beautiful chinese lady and always smiling. Wish that she know that I’m now able to speak and write in English.
Alhamdulillah, when the result came out, I got straight A’s in the exam. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. I started to realize, hard work really pays. Bak kata pepatah Melayu, bersusah-susah dahulu, bersenang-senang kemudian. I want to share this story with all the kids out there.. [pause]
Work hard.. Study hard.. and tawakal ala Allah. Only YOU can change your life. Remember what Allah said in the Qur’an - “Verily never will God change the condition of a people until they change it themselves (with their own souls)” [Qur'an 13:11]
