永怀育中

爸退休了

我放下了手头上的事务，回家参加爸的退休仪式。花车，诗歌朗诵，歌咏，舞蹈，还有我的“徒妹”-两只小猪上台表演扯铃（还有华乐团在旁伴奏），好不风光。爸几度感动落泪。

吃了饭，回到家，拆礼物，有同事送的，有学生送的，三机构，县教局等。这应该是爸一生中收到最多礼物的一天。

下午，客厅只有我和爸。爸拿起一件件的礼物，打开了又收起，脸上不断散发出无限的喜悦。后来，还不停的告诉我学校有什么可以改进的地方。

突然发现，最爱育群中学的人，不是那些在别人面前炫耀自己为育中做了多少贡献，牺牲，而是兢兢业业三十五年的老爸。爸把大半生的时间都贡献给育中，任劳任怨，默默耕耘，鞠躬尽瘁。

我的眼眶，也湿了。

至少，我在育群中学就读时，没有让爸丢脸。

忘了说：“爸，你很帅！”

first dive

It was last week. Things were busy as usual except for one. Jing Yi took part in a swimming competition. YES. Swimming, not running.

Three weeks back a friend called me, she asked me to join the swimming team in relay, women's medley team. They were lacking one swimmer and the only thing they knew was that I went to the swimming pool at least once a week this semester.

AND SO, they assumed that 'JING YI CAN SWIM'. This is quite ridiculous as I learned swimming when I was in F6 and it was only during the holidays when I can go to my cousin's condominium pool to do so. I knew only breaststroke and backstroke and they wanted me to do freestyle! How can I make it happen in two weeks' time?

AND SO, they assumed that with some practice in the pool, 'JING YI CAN SWIM LIKE THE WAY SHE RUNS'. I began to hit the pool in the evenings, try to learn some instant freestyle. After several days of mouthful of pool water, I did it. But it was rather slow, slower than my breaststroke.

AND SO, just one day before the competition, I met my captain with the rest of the teammates and they watched me swim. Somehow I think they were disappointed with me but it was too late to change. So, they decided to let me do the backstroke. Despite being the weak link, I imagined myself as Michael Phelps and Ian Thorp once I dive into the pool.

Oh well, at least we got bronze medal out of 4 teams competing. Thanks for the FIRST DIVE, I learned freestyle in three days.

10

This year’s SUKMUM(sukan mahasiswa UM) marked an important milestone in my life as a runner. 10 years and it’s been a long journey. Despite being an individual runner, I realized that there is no one man show in life. You can become the best only when you have a strong team behind you, supporting you and walk you through those hardships. The team makes up of:

1. Your coach, the ones who never tell you about how great they were and just want you to be greater than them.

2. Your parents, the ones who will go to your every race if possible, call you the night before the competition to give you some moral support and encourage you to leave home for one week for national tournament but deep down in their hearts they want you to stay at home.

3. Your siblings and relatives, the ones who always congratulate you after they heard about your victory and if they present by the race track, they will shout their lungs out.

4. Your friends, the ones who is not classified as enemy that will keep cheering for you and telling you that other competitors are right behind you even though you are 50m ahead of them.

5. Your competitor, the ones who let you know that you are not good enough; winner takes it all which makes you a stronger, tougher runner on the next meet up.

6. Last but not the least, your teammates, the ones who suffer the hardcore training and taste the sweetness of success together with you. They give you shoulders when you are down, push yourself to limits beyond your expectation.

The team I have is simply too amazing. Although there are hard times that I want to give up on myself, they have inspired me to perform better. 10 years and looking back, I have change, a lot. The friendship, life lesson makes a better me.

This is the 2 gold medals I won in SUKMUM this year ended today and I would like to highlight a special appreciation to Cikgu Norzah who got injured in an accident recently. The one who makes me believe that I'm better than what I think I was, gives me wing to fly up high and most importantly, teaches me to be a positive and humble person in life.

nervous is good

Haih...the same old nervousness again. I'll be racing for 10km on Saturday and I can feel that the nerves are building up.

Experience, what is it actually? Why do I still feel so nervous everytime before a race? I have a lot of race experience and why am I nervous? These are the questions frequently asked to myself.

Soon, as those experience grown into wisdom, I learnt that is good to feel nervous. That means I still want to win. Being an experienced runner doesn't mean you don't feel nervous about racing, it's how you turn those stresses and pressure into nervousness that can boost you to victory. Those winning instinct started to come back again and I would like to taste the fruit of success. At least top 3 this time. Hmm...it's a small race after all. Grrr...

On second thought, top 10 is good enough for me. I prefer a slow and consistent start.

IQ zero days

I felt like a stupid these few days, even my lecturers and coursemates said so.

How to say? pH=-log[H+] and when you have HCl of 2.0M, you will get pH in negative value. Hmm...isn't that pH is scaled from 1 to 14. This was out of scale. It took me days to figure out the answer, that was after I seek answer from Lin Hui and Google.

Second thing, I accidentally, unconciously wrote my friend's name when signing the lecture attendance. How idiot! =S

Next thing, I realised I lost all my integration skill that I got all wrong in my quiz! Absolutely stupid. The fat fat lecturer said it was a silly mistake. Then I asked my friend,"am I stupid?" and she said,"Yes, you are!" =(

Finally, mom bought me a pair of sandals and she said they can last for years. I proved her wrong when I brushed my foot against the road while looking for parking this morning. And I ended up walking like a penguin whole day.

Enough of those stupidness I got myself into. I think I need to figure some ways to stop it. One way is to stop learning as some people say,'the more you learn, more stupid you get'. The other way is to keep learning because some other people say,'experience is the best teacher'. What? Too stupid to decide on that...

The path I refuse to take

I always remember that she once told me,"Budak yang ikhlas ialah budak yang akan berjaya." I don't have many mentors in my life and she is one of the very few who guides me through the years. I follow her guidance but somehow I find it hard to apply it in my uni life.

People take your effort for granted and you should be thankful when they don't take your effort as their effort. I have seen enough and I have ___how to say? Evolved? Evolve to become more adaptable to this cruel environment. Yes, the world is not round and there is nothing you can do to make the world goes round. At least I have learnt to be a little bit more selfish and 'cunning as a fox' so that I don't get taken for granted by others easily.

Someone says that don't judge a book by its cover but trust me, some people can be judged from the first impression and I get it right sometimes. Next thing, becareful of the way of speaking and doing things because eyes are watching. One small mistake and the whole world will know.

I may sound scary and very much a plotter but that is how I behave only when I feel threatened. You know, the survivor instinct. I'm still the old me who is quiet yet noisy, smile too little with strangers and an obedient follower.

to smile or not to smile =S

This semester's time table is completely wierdo. I have one hour class and 3 hours lab on Monday and no class at all on Friday but Tuesday to Thursday is a torn of mind. I don't even want to talk about it.

Tuesday, I will have back to back classes from 11am to 7pm ( no lunch at all); Wednesday 9am to 5pm (with one hour of lunch break), thinking that the day might be over, Toastmaster meeting follows right after the class and if I exclude the exco meeting, it would been a merry day if the meeting finishes by 8pm; Wednesday might have been hard but wait till you see Thurday. It's an early morning class at 8am, followed by a non-stop marathon of lecture from 11am to 5pm. It's not the end yet, the two hours killer subject by the infamous Baharuddin continues at 8pm.

Hopefully I don't get skinny (skip lunch) or fatty (bulk dinner) in the end of the semester.

And Friday and the rest of my weekend are heaven-days for me to sleep as much as I want to prepare myself for another torturous week to come. I can hardly describe the time table. Yes, I want holiday on Friday but I don't like to have marathon-like lecture on the other days. @_@