2014 is almost over.
It was a really good year. I'm constantly grateful for everything that happened in my life. All the good things and the bad things. It has been another uneventful year for me. No dramas at all. Just my studies, work, family and friends. Keeping things very simple and easy.
Studies
Part of me is still in a state of disbelieve that I'm actually doing the degree of my choosing in NAFA and am actually left with 6 more months to graduation. To top it off, I'm paying for it using my own money. Never in a million years would I have imagined that I would be paying for my own diploma and degree. I'm so grateful that my dad forced me to pay for my studies by myself. It encourages me to study really hard and make sure that I do really well for it.
At the same time, because of my past working experiences, I am able to do all my assignments from an employee's point of view rather than just from a student's point of view. It helps that I am able to understand my lecturers' point of views easily as well.
Lastly, I am so happy and thankful that I get to study the course that I really wanted and wished for. In Shaa' Allah, I will be able to graduate with First-Class Honours in BA(Hons) Creative Industry Management and receive the Best Graduate Award for my cohort.
Work
Started off 2014 being the teleprompter for Pentas' Malam Aku, Dia & Lagu, a dedication concert for one of Singapore's most acclaimed lyricist in the 1960's, 70's & 80's, Yusnor Ef or commonly known as Cikgu among his peers. It was an honour working with him, veteran artists and at Esplanade Concert Hall.
After that I helped out with NAFA's Open House 2014 with some of my batch-mates and our juniors. It wasn't as epic as 2013 where all my batch-mates were constantly taking initiative and being proactive towards the whole event. I had fun and now I'm looking forward to doing my final NAFA's Open House next year.
1 week after the last day of school, I got to work as a Production Assistant for Wali Band's concert at Scape Park. It was quite messed up but at least I had loads of fun running around and interacting with the artists even though it was just a one day event.
3rd week of May, got another event job as an Assistant Stage Manager for Music Matters Live with HP 2014 at Clarke Quay. 60 over artists performing at 10 different venues within Clarke Quay spread out within 4 days. It was crazy tiring but the amount of good music that I get to hear, enjoy, dance to and the people that I get to work with are totally worth it. I even have a new artist that I really like - Jeremy Neale and I get to meet both Taufik Batisah and Afgan Syahreza and I had to introduce myself since I was the ASM but I was too shy to take picture with them.
After that, I got a 2 month contract job working for NAFA's Office of Student Care. It was by luck that they were hiring people and I just happened to be there. It was so good to be working for an office and have an office hour job after almost 3 years. The job itself was simple and straightforward, I don't even have to think about it that much. I even get to be part of the planning process for the next year's academic year. And during NAFA Freshmen Week, I was considered as part of the staffs rather than a student. All my juniors just looked at me differently thinking that I am permanently working for OSC rather than continuing my studies. It was so weird having most of your juniors asking for your decisions when none of the other staffs were around.
Once again, I get to work for F1 as part of the Secretariat Team. I love working with these people. They know how to have fun and work their asses off both at the same time. This year's F1 was split into 2 with the General Artists being thrown to Concorde Hotel while the A-listers and the B-listers were thrown at Stamford Hotel. I was based at Stamford Hotel away from Jaime and Sheri which is so weird and uncomfortable. Working from Stamford Hotel for F1 this year was too quiet that I had time to catch up on my assignments and even read my comics. I really want to work for them again next year but provided they do not split us up at all and with the same people.
Lastly, I got a part-time job as a cashier at Kinokuniya Takashimaya Outlet. Working retail is really a tiring job, having to stand for 4 hours straight then I get to sit down and rest for an hour and standing for another 4 hours before knocking off. The perks of working there, I constantly get introduced to new authors every now and then. My books wish list is constantly growing, there's just too many books that I want to buy, to read and to understand.
In Shaa' Allah, I will be able to find a suitable job for myself after graduation.
Family & Friends
It's getting a little bit more obvious that both my parents are a little excited that I am going to be graduating with a Degree. Every now and then, they would asked me questions about school and if I have enough money to pay for my school fees and allowances.
Fara graduated from TP a few weeks before I graduated from NAFA. Now she's working as a CSO for SIA. Haiqal ORD around September and is taking a gap year before he plans to continue back his studies. Apparently he's backpacking all over Southeast Asia. He went to Bandung, Bali and Lombok then next January, he's going somewhere with Amirul and he's planning to save up to go to Kathmandu with Nazron next May. Amirul just finished his O levels and I really hope that he will get into Meridian JC. Yana is going to complete her private diploma some time next year, other than that, both she and Nawar are happy and I'm happy for both of them.
Personally to me, Khairul experienced one hell of an emotional roller coaster ride this year. He lost his father and his mother's condition was going up and down. Honestly speaking, I have seen him mature so much and he is one of the strongest emotional person that I know of. I really truly hope that he will get the happiness that he deserved. In Shaa' Allah.
Netty, one of the happiest go lucky person that I have ever met. I almost truly thought that she has met the one until that guy turned out to be so blah. It was rather embarrassing that someone so intelligent can turned out to be such a blah. Now, she's facing certain work issues which I really truly hope that it will be resolve soon. I honestly hope that she will still have the strength to chase after her dream job and have the balls to just go for it.
Nazron. I might just accidentally kill him one day but at the same time, I love him too much that I won't know what to do without him. He really needs to take everything in stride and just stop being irritated or angry or annoyed at everything. He has too much pent-up issues in him that the first thing every time I meet him will be for him to vent out his frustrations and he just wants me to listen. As much as I understand his venting, it's a bit disconcerting that he can find issues with a lot of things. On a side note, I know it's weird but I will always hope that he will patch things up with Yasmeen. She's like the perfect girl for him.
I'm truly happy for Azieera. She's happily married and have one of the cutest baby in the world. I'm so in love with Zuhran. He is so fair and his hair is so black, he's like a baby boy version of Snow White. I really hope that she would get pregnant with a baby girl next.
I miss my NAFA clique so badly. I miss Nadia, Nicole, Olivia, Haikal and Lim Hui loads. I honestly did not expect them to leave much of an impact in my life. All of us are busy with our own stuffs but at least we text each other every now and then. For that, I'm thankful even though I desperately want to have a gathering with all of them.
Life
My life has been going on just fine this year. Constantly having faith in HIM, being positive and understanding that everything happens for a reason. It makes living life much more easier whenever you just have faith that HE knows what HE is planning for you even when you don't understand what is going on. I'm grateful everyday whenever I open my eyes to see that I have another day to live and another day to show my gratitude towards HIM. I don't think I'm that religious but it helps me to constantly remind myself to work towards improving myself as a human being and my life.
And also lately, I endlessly feel the need to broaden my horizon by reading the news everyday from different sources. I desperately feel the need to understand the ongoings of the world. The more I read, the more I become sad by how screw up most of the governments in the world are. It makes me realize that money is the root of all evil. Money is power and that they are too many power-hungry people in these world who are fucked up. There's too little people with genuine good hearts that wants to help. I make notes on my laptop to remind myself to pray for less fortunate people around the world. I really truly hope that one day the Muslims around the world would unite and help each other out. It scares me a lot to see the current state of the world.
As the day passes by, I beginning to understand the importance of certain things in life. I'm beginning to understand the need to be happy with myself first before anything else. I'm beginning to see the unimportance of all these branded products. I'm truly understand how shallow society are and how obsess they are with buying things that they don't need using money that they don't have to impress people that they don't like. I no longer care about a lot of things anymore. The few things that I care about are my own happiness, my family's happiness, my friends' happiness, my faith in HIM, my studies and my obsession with books. Also, I realized that it's quite easy to make me feel happy. I appreciate most of the small things in life. The little time that I get to spend with my friends, I honestly am grateful for it.
Lastly, I really need to stop getting obsessing with babies. I'm surrounded by toddlers and babies. There's Darnia, Darwish, Sasha, Syakeel, Umar, Uzayr, Zuhran and Susi. And working at Kinokuniya, every day there will always be parents buying books for their babies, toddlers and children. My motherly instincts comes out whenever I'm around any babies. Having dinner with the usuals last night and seeing Zuhran, really brings back memories as to how I helped my parents to raise Amirul. The more I am around babies, the more I really want to adopt a baby for myself and truly take care of him or her. It's weird but I really want a child of my own, to take care of, to protect, to provide and to raise as a reasonable human being.
In Shaa' Allah, 2015 will be an even better year for the world, the Muslims around the world, my family, relatives, friends and me. Amin.
