Do you Believe in Karma?

There are a few things you learn when you live in residence. Tolerance is one of them...Patience is another...Learning to bite your tongue is probably another BIG one. After all, you never really know who your neighbours might just turn out to be.


For the first half of last year, I wanted to scream every night, because I lived next to a typical jock. He drank non-stop, he partied non-stop, and he spoke almost exclusively in 3-words ("what's up dude?" "how's it going?" etc) and after every party, he would apologise. I got so fed-up after the 2nd month of being kept up till 3-4am, I snapped at him and walked away. Not funny at all, because there was a broken window one night, a broken nose another night, and I don't-know-what else.

I finally moved out, and lived next door to a very quiet girl, Gail, and her equally quiet brother next door, whom till now we're friends.


And then came this year, where Gail and I got separated by a girl in between the two of us (we're sandwiching her). The girl-next-door was a nice thing, but holy smokes, her music was the bane of my residence-living. She loves to blast it, and it was so loud, that no matter how much I banged on her door, she won't hear me. I've tried, trust me. She has not heard me. I always say I will confront her nicely, but when you're hammering a door, how calm can you be? The result? I get so pissed off, I slam the door and leave my room in frustration.

Now I have very early morning schedules, and I usually take great pains to be quiet, but when people are not considerate with me, I just don't bother to be extra extra extra quiet too! After all, the number of times I have been jolted out of my sleep by that dratted music, and the number of times I have lost out on my afternoon naps when I could have had one...


Well, anyway, the girl-next-door had an injury the other night that required her to get some rest. I was feeling very sympathetic and empathetic, and the whole nine yards. And then apparently, I heard she complaint that residence was too noisy.

Hmmm...

Irony isn't it?

Read More

Purple Day: Buy Beer and Support Epilepsy Awareness...

Purple Day: March 26

The 17th of March was St. Patrick's Day in Canada, and like the previous year, I wore green without intentionally doing so (and I'm usually with something in purple). As a Baha'i, I don't drink alcohol, so St. Patty's Day didn't have any big significance to me (everybody goes wild with the alcohol), so I was not even aware that the day had arrived.

So I was a little confused about why someone was counting the number of green outfits in the Mother Goose program that day...


But I digress...


I was enjoying the sunshine (yes, we finally have sunshine!) when I caught sight of a poster on campus that announced that the proceeds of beer-sales, for a certain period would go towards Epilepsy Day, which falls on March 26. Just as people all seem to wear green on St. Patty's, the poster encouraged everyone to buy a beer and contribute towards the Epilepsy-Awareness Campaign, and wear Purple in support.


How ironic, and how ingenious! It's ironic because people with Epilepsy are the very ones who should stay away from alcohol, and the very substance that could harm them, will now go towards helping them...

But hey, if there's anytime to buy beer, it's now!!! Just drink responsibly...

And wear purple! Looks like as far as I'm concerned, every day is Epilepsy Day (cos I love purple)...;)

Read More

Rest in Peace, Kak Ruby...

Kak Ruby and Me, whom I met just before I left Malaysia, in June 2008...



I had some extra time on my hands and decided to blog-hop after what seems like a few months (it has been at least a month), and I saw the news on Pi Bani's blog that she had passed on at 9 pm on March 15th, 2010. She had passed on from an illness (apparently, cancer) that she had kept from most people.

What a shocker...And just goes to show we can never assume anything because everyone has their own battle.


:'(

Kak Ruby was one of the people I was hoping to chat up with when I come home for the holidays this May, and now she's gone...


Rest in peace, Kak Ruby...I'll miss you and our emails...=(

Read More

Hanging on the Wall by the Fingertips and Toetips...

Hanging by the fingertips and toetips, but having the time of life!



If there is one picture that can sum of what university is all about at the moment, it has to be this one!



I went rock-climbing yesterday...Yeap, me...Rock-climbing...




We did two types. One with someone hoisting you up, and one without. In the above picture, I wore a harness around my waist, but that darn harness was not actually hooked to anything. But at the bottom were of course lots of mattresses (I've not completely lost my marbles, ok, especially since I'm super injury-prone).



The other one, someone helped hoist you up, which meant you could climb much farther up.





But it pretty much is what I'm feeling right now in university. I'm hanging with all I'm worth, I'm grabbing onto all the support I can get, but the main aim was to climb as darn high as you possibly can. But you also know that if you slipped, it was ok, because there was a little something to fall back on. But damn, you still want to climb higher!


And the best feeling of all, is when you reach the top! But as with all highs, there comes a time when it's time to come back down. Darn, that dual-process theory of emotion was right after all...;)





The one where someone hoists you up...




There's an amazing amount of support available, that really, the only thing that's gonna do you in in university, is yourself. Because the system was designed to help people...


Using the rock-climbing as an analogy: If you can't free-climb because your fingers are not strong enough to pull yourself up because you have a medical condition, we'll hoist you up with a harness so we help you support your weight (that's not the reason though, of course). That's like someone with say, ADHD who needs a quiet and/or distraction free environment to write exams.

Read More