Magical Sabah

The current state of this space is a little concerning. As far as writing is no longer my forte, or it never was haha but writing in this space is satisfying. It has always been giving me the ultra satisfaction.

Anyway, I completed my semester 2 about a month and a half ago. Semester 2 was definitely a roller coaster ride but then it gave me so many reasons to be grateful for and purposes to keep me going with my master journey.

1. I gained more uni friends than the last semester. Semester 1 felt like a long lonely journey (No uni friends to turn to...or there were, but it was hard to talk about your struggles with them).

2. Tried many foreign foods (Chinese food, Indonesian food, etc.) cause most of my uni friends are from different countries.

There's Ayisha from China, Haekal from Indonesia, and Nafisa from Bangladesh. We started off from being teammates in Research Methodology class and the rest is history. Now we're makan mates, conference mates, classmates, and so on and so forth.

Other than that, there was an unlucky incident of me missing out on the chance to apply for my uni's scholarship award. And the rest is also history.

Back to this post. A few weeks ago, me, my mom and dad went to Sabah. The main agenda was to attend a cousin's wedding but it was just us, killing two birds with one stone. We covered Kundasang, Kota Kinabalu, Beaufort, Ranau, and Tambunan. Most of the days were spent in Kundasang.

Mount Kinabalu view from my room's window. Of course, that is not its highest peak but the view was supeeerrr mashaAllah. I woke up every one of my days in Kundasang to this view, to the various colors of the sky. There were times when the sky was all purple, some days it was just golden syrup. Most of the time, it was white cotton candy.

Third-wheeling ummi and abah for this trip. They are already planning for their next trips.........without me tsk.

Restoran Selera Kebun was 💯

I was a bit skeptical about having Sabahan food as my main meal initially because 1) Most of my Sabahan friends don't eat spicy food, and 2) My first food experience in Kundasang was not very pleasing that I even forgot how it tasted like.

Anyway, we had Nasi Linopot (also known as beras bukit in Sabah), buttermilk chicken, daging salai masak lemak cili api, and daging masak bawang putih (i think, can't remember the name for this one). And to our very own surprise, each of them turned out to be incredibly delicious.

Being the city girl I am, the experience was thrilling except that on day 5, I started missing KL bustles. I missed how convenient it was to be able to commute using MRT, and how good our highways are.

The sentiment was different, especially on how developed KL is, and how far we are in terms of facilities from KK.

Buuuutttt Kundasang was amazingggggg. It brought me back to how it feels like to be waking up in Bukitinggi, Sumatera Barat.

Pokoknya, bumi Allah itu luas. Apa kamu mau meneroka atau terus tidur diulit mimpi, itu jalan yang harus kamu tentukan.

Till then, XOXO

 We accept, we learn, and we adapt. That's the act of maturity.

To bend is not broken, and to fall is not failing. They are all a process of learning.

Dejavu

I'm always so surprised by how much dejavu I can get into my life.

Especially when I'm doing my work.

Or stressed.

Like recently, I was actually doing the same work for the past 3 days, and that work stuff kept on coming into my dreams. One of them was a sub-topic from the literature review that I was working on. It was a sub-topic that I was dreading for the last couple of days.

And today, when I got back to the same sub-topic after finishing the rest, it occurred to me that the content that I found is actually pretty much similar to the one from my dream.

Dejavu.

Sometimes, we worry too much about stuff. That we forgot, we could actually solve it at the end of the day.

And the worry that we had.

Become nothing.

A past that we'll forget about.

Or...

It brings out the best in us.

Facing Our Biggest Fears

 

“Kakak, I’m going to work.” Kak Cik, my younger sister said.

It’s the third day of Ramadhan and her off days are finally over.

“Okay, do you want me to send you to the train station?” I ask.

“It’s okay, I’ll be driving Ummi’s car.”

And then she’s off for work.

 

I remember how about 3 years ago; she was so fearful about driving a car on her own. She even had to be forced to drive all the way to IIUM by Abangah to build her courage in driving. Nothing can beat that particular fear at that point of time. Kak Cik and car; are a bad combination.

 

And today when she said that to me. It made me realize that my sister is not that small anymore. She has grown up to become a better version of herself. Of being able to drive on her own. Of being able to face what used to be one of her biggest fears. Kak cik can finally drive. On her own. Without anyone in the car. Next to her side.

 

And honestly, it made me ponder my life. What were once used to be my biggest fears in life, that I have now managed to overcome?

 

I used to be so afraid of leaving my 9-5 job, afraid of losing job security and lifestyle comfortability but now, I am living the life that I was praying for. A study to pursue, freelance jobs that give me more time of my own, to be able to have more time with my family, and most importantly, the feeling of contentment. We are blessed. And we tend to forget.

 

We are blessed that we managed to face one of our biggest fears.

We are blessed that we knew when to step out of our comfort zones.

We are blessed that we were able to start when things get rough.

 

Beggars can’t be choosy. Beggars gotta work their asses off. For life to complete.

Beggars gotta face their own fears.

And we are the beggars.

Of our own world.

Marking one of our biggest achievements here.

Months of discussions.

Buckets of sweats.

Endless arguments.

And what we called as many sleepless nights.

We are finally proud to call ourselves the first Asian NGO to become EMT-Type 1 Global Classified Team under WHO initiative. Hard work pays off.

With some of the team members and the examiners.

Super proud of the team :')