Preparation for the Presentation

So, we are having a presentation on Monday. It is gonna be the last assignment for this English class. Yay! Next week is also the last week of this short semester. We then have our exams followed by our semester break until September the 3rd. I'm really excited right now since I only have 1 exam for Bahasa Malayu on Tuesday of the following week and my flight is on the same day at 7pm. I know it is kind of rush, but I can't wait to see my beloved ones... It means I'm home in 12 days :D

Anyway, back to the topic, my presentation is about being thankful (developed from the first entry of this blog). I'll post the completed speech after the presentation, so stay tuned.
Whenever I prepare for a presentation of any kind, it always sounds better in my head, it makes sense when I read it, but when I present, it just goes wild. :)) I guess I need to be extra serious this time and practice a couple of times to get the best of me... All the best to everyone!

Here you go! This is the draft for my speech...

Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen. It’s such a pleasure being here and talking to you today. I was just wondering if you had ever imagined that one day, you could wake up and all could have gone, the people you loved and the things you had. And if that terrible thing ever happened, would there be anything that you wanted to tell them, or to do for them? Would it be too late? We typically wait until the end of a person’s life to give a eulogy, to say nice things about someone. But why wait? Why not start now—when the words can have its most impact? The topic I would like to bring up to day is being thankful. I will divide my talk into three parts:  first I will start with the effect of being ungrateful, and continue on with why we should be grateful and finish up with how to be grateful.

Being thankful is to show our gratitude and appreciation. However, in the fast pace of life, people seem to be busy looking for what they don’t have or get more of what they already have. People tend to overlook what they do on their hands. This unappreciative attitude seems to cause no problem at all, but it actually has a big effect on people around us and our outlook toward the world. Take family as an example, we cannot have an supportive and close knit family if we take one another for granted, ie don’t appreciate one another. Parents spend too much time for work, so their kids wouldn’t receive adequate support and care from them. While the children are too busy growing up, they often forget that their parents also growing old. We can’t sustain relationships with others if there is a lack of appreciation.

Furthermore, not realizing how lucky we are also creates a negative attitude towards life. Instead of enjoying their blessings, people keep complaining about mundane stuff while there are many others are going through worse hardships. There are plenty of simply things in our life which millions of people out there have always been wishing for. For example, we are able to go to school! Lots of us including me often procrastinate on studying. Well, many people do not have the opportunity to go to school at all. Others complain about the food while tons of people are starving. As in North Korea the kids over there go to bed hungry every night. Being unthankful make us become pessimistic with a negative outlook towards the world or greedy, keep asking for more.

I move on to by talking about why we should be thankful. Like most children, I was taught to say: "thank you" frequently and giving thanks become a life habit. But I was taught not simply to say thanks, but to feel it. I believe that thankful people are happy people. Since they have the ability to always find some reason to be "much obliged" no matter what the situation is. There is a story about an old woman dying and her friends didn’t understand why she has her hand folded in prayer. They wondered what she could give thanks for at a time like this. As if reading their mind, she opened her eyes and gazed at the loving faces around her bed. Then, shutting her eyes again, she said quietly, “Much obliged, Lord, for such fine friends.” This wise woman taught her friends a secret that many people have never learned: she taught them how to be happy.

Being thankful also give us an ability to sympathize with people in need, since we know how blessed are, we will be more willing to help others. Those acts speak of more than thankfulness. It says something about teachers teaching and parents parenting and friends showing friendship, and how much it means to others. They might not always say thanks. But they'll remember the hand that reaches out.

            So how to be thankful? Don't take things for granted. Love your family and friends. “Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire.  If you did, what would there be to look forward to? Be thankful when you don't know something, for it gives you the opportunity to learn. Be thankful for your mistakes. They will teach you valuable lessons. Gratitude can turn a negative into a positive. Find a way to be thankful for your troubles, and they can become your blessings.”

Appreciate all the things and people you have because you never know, one day, you might wake up and ALL could have GONE! Treasure the simplest things and savour every moment in life! Being thankful not only show our appreciation to others but also create a positive perspective of life for us. So yeah, we might not have all that I want, but we do have all I need and really, it's good enough. At least, we are living, breathing and our hunger is satisfied. Meister Eckhart-a German philosopher stressed the power of being thankful:  “If the only prayer you ever say in your life is thank you, it will be enough”

10 Words of the Week (part 4): Culture

1. Carve (v): to cut or to shape hard material
2. Excavation (n): an area of digging, especially to find objects from past culture
3. Inscribe (v): to mark a surface with words or letters
4. Elaborate (adj): having a lot of detail and decoraion
5. Regin (n): the period of time that a king or a queen is in power
6. Revive (v): to bring back to life
7. Culminate (v): to result in, end with
8. Gesture (n): a movement to express a feeling or idea
9. Prominent (adj): important, major
10. Reminiscent (adj): similar to, reminding of something 

It always sounds better in my head...

Today in class, we were doing the trial for public speaking. The topic was  "getting to know you". It is considered an easy topic to many people, it's all about yourself. However, I don't know if it's just me I find it is really hard to talk about yourself in front of people. It always sounds better in my head than it does, when I say it out loud. It's always easier to talk about others... behind their back :)) (just kidding, it's not cool at all). Despite all that, I had to give a speech when my turn came:

"It is really hard to talk about your self in front of people. If it was 2 or 3 years ago, I wouldn't ba able to do this. I was shy and self-conscious. So today, I am going to tell you about how I overcame those fears.

First of all living an 18-hour flight from home has given me an opportunity to be more confident and independent. Some of you might already know, you have to do everything on your own, adjust yourself to a new place with different culture, language, and in my case, home sick and the come winter. In that circumstance, I was forced to go out of my way to stand on my own.

I figured out that I couldn’t make friend if I was too afraid to talk to them or I couldn’t get to know the place when I hesitated to go outside. It was hard at first really, but it got easier the next time and has become no problem to me at all as time goes by.

 Being far away from home give me strength and ability to treasure what I have. Because when you are own there on your own, you know how important family and friends are. I appreciate those you have met, people who have touched my life. I have learnt from them. I couldn’t be who I am right now without any of them.

It is not that hard to be confident. Just believe in yourself and be who you are, because you are amazing, just the way you are! :D"

10 Words of the Week (part 3): Transportation

1. Locomotive(n): engine of a train
2. Rugged (adj): strong, able to stand rough treatment
3. Stringent (adj): strict, firm
4. Utilize (n): the act of ruining something
5. vent (n): a setting in which to present something
6. flair(n): elegant style
7. hamper(v): to make something difficult, get in the way
8. incentive(n): reason to do something, reward
9. plodding(adj): slow
10. sprawl(n): an area of spreading growth

First Poem Ever: LDR would work plz!

This was the first time that I write a poem, first time ever. I had never write a poem before in neither my mother tongue nor in English. However, I have read several poems before, a lot in my language and a few in English. I felt excited and lost at the same time since this was my very first time. In my mind, a poem would starts with “Roses are red, Violets are blue…”

However, the games in the beginning of class in which we had to describe an imaginary object or activities with our hands. It helped a lot to boost up our creativity.

Naba (a really good friend of mine) and I paired up to create this poem about long distance relationship (LDR). I am in one BTW. It’s really hard actually. Well, I mean, all relationship has it own problem. However, being far away from the one you love is just too much. Distance sucks, but it’s also a nice challenge. If you two overcome that, you are really good to go. I hope none of you are in a LDR because it is no doubt uneasy, but if you are then be brave, cope with it and I wish u guys the best of luck :D

10 Words of the Week (part 2): Leisure Time

1. Indiscernibly(adv): in a way that impossible to see or notice.
2. Indistinct(adj): unclear
3. Maneuver(n): a movement
4. Grandeur(n): greatness
5. Remnant(n): a small leftover piece
6. Deliberately(adv): intentionally, on purpose
7. Intellectual(adj): related to thinking
8. Merely(adv): only
9. Rejuvenate(v): to refresh, restore
10. Reluctant(adj): not wanting to do something, unwilling

Is Dying the Only Way to Be Free?!

Have you ever heard that dying is the only way to be free? The statement makes no sense to most of us since in order to be free you have to be alive first. Surprisingly, it holds true for Bakhtay, a six-year-old Afghan child in a Hana Makmalbhaf film titled "Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame".

The movie has the same beginning and ending: the destruction of the giant Buddha statues in Bamyan, which happened in 2001. Between those two scenes showing the symbol of war, it shows a trip to of Bakhtay finding a way "to go to school and learn funny stories". By looking at the boy next- door reading, Bakhtay is determined to be able to read and learn funny stories. She doesn’t want to stay in the cave anymore, so she disobeys her mom and heads out in search of schooling. Her journey is a way to escape from a circle of violence and poverty that people in Afghanistan has been trapped in. In this movie, Bakhatay is the symbol of that change. The notebook that she tries so hard to get is also a symbol of the process of bringing change to life. However, this process, just like Bakhtay’s journey to school, is definitely not easy. On her way, she has to face many obstacles. She has to run back and forth between home and the market to trade food for money to buy a notebook. Nonetheless, the book is taken away from her and ripped off many times. While innocent Bakhtay is too clueless to help herself, she slowly realizes that she has to lose something just to achieve what she wants as the notebook lose pages during her journey to school. A man tears a page from her notebook and folds it into a boat to lead Bakhtay to the school. However, Bakhtay is not the only victim in the movie.

The boy gang imitating the Taliban is also the victims of violence and ridiculously strict rules that the Taliban has established. They present the Taliban and their negative influence on the kids. They play violent fighting games and arrest girls with beautiful eyes and pretty face. These boys are also trapped into the same cycle. There is no doubt that they are going to repeat the same terrible things that the Taliban did when they grow up. In addition, the imaginaries used in this film are striking. The falling kite catching fire is a great symbol of violence and it consequences. Nevertheless, the boys see it as a threat; and when the kite falls, it catches fire. The kite in this movie is not a toy anymore; just like the kids, they are not able to have a normal life like others. They have been brainwashed with violence and hate. The policeman trying to control the traffic while there is no transportation in a ghost town. The war has left the country with poverty.

On her self-discovery journey, Bakhtay tries many times to repel her fate. She refuses to play the fighting games. She says in tears: “I don’t like the war game. I just want to go to school and learn funny stories.” when they boy tries to stone her to death. On her way back home, Bakhtay, are chased by the “Taliban boys”. While her friend pretend to die so that they will leave him alone, Bakhtay still insists by running way until she has no way to escape. Then she starts to realizing and accepting the fate: “Dying is the only way to be free”. On her self-discovery trip, Bakhtay realizes the circle of violence and poverty created by the Taliban terrorists. Her attempt to escape from that circle fails when she lies down and pretends to die so she can find peace. The image of Bakhtay lying down followed by the scene of the statues destruction, which is also the opening of the movie, shows us the circle that Bakhtay and people in Afghanistan helplessly are trapped in.  

10 Words of the Week (part 1): the Natural World

1. Erosion (n): Loss of soil from acion of water or wind
2. Myraid (adj): many, numerous
3. Terrestrial (adj): living on land (#aquatic)
4. Diurnal (adj): active during the day
5. Nocturnal (adj): active at night
6. Obscure (v): to make difficult to see
7. Fringe (n): the edge of something
8. Resilient (adj): tough, able to endure difficult condition
9. Sparse (adj): small in mumbers or amount
10. Thrive (v): to grow well

Be Grateful _()_

  Nowadays, in the fast pace of modern life, people are too busy looking for what they don't have, but they tend to overlook things on their hands and people around them. In my point of view, it is important to realize how lucky we are; or in other words, to be thankful!

  I'm going to write down what I'm thankful for! Please also tell me what yours are in the comment section below, alright? ;) It is a good practice to remind you of things you do have in life :)

 I'm thankful for my close-knit family that is always there for me, especially my caring parents, my loving brother, and all my supportive cousins. Last but not least, I'm thankful for my friends, from wonderful acquaintances to tried and true buddies, whom I can count on. :D

  There are plenty of simply things in our life which millions of people out there have always been wishing for. For example, we are able to go to school! A lot of us including me, like to procrastinate or feel study is like torture. Well, many people do not have the opportunity to go to school at all. Others complain about the food while tons of people are starving. Take North Korea as an example, the kids their go to bed hungry every night.

So yeah, I don't have all that I want, but I do have all I need and really, it's good enough. At least, I am living, breathing and my hunger is satisfied. My point here is please don't take things for granted. Love your family and friends, appreciate the things you do have now because you never know, one day, you might wake up and ALL could have GONE!

Treasure the simplest things and savour every moment in life! :) We are blessed to have them all...