Nabila

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Currently listening to: Youth - Shawn Mendes


The UPU result was announced on May 21st and alhamdulillah, I got the first option I applied for, which was Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) Science Foundation. I was happy, but I was confused too. I was supposed to go to Labuan Matriculation College the next day, and I prepared everything already, I paid for everything, it was tiring and I just didn't want to start over again. However, after I think about it again and again, I decided to just go to UMS. It's close to home, introduce me to uni life, the good things about going there outweigh the bad ones.

Hence, I'm going to school again on June 20th. Excited? Of course I am. I've been doing nothing at home aside from what I said in my last post. It gets boring and I feel so unproductive no matter what I do. I miss the busy life as a student though it's tiring. I'm excited about meeting new people, living at dorm, studying at a university, being near to a mall (because there's no mall at my hometown), living in a city, and just studying again. The thought of studying again puts a new spirit in me.



These days though, I'm more scared and nervous than excited. First of all, because I'm gonna be studying math again. I was truly traumatized by the add math question on SPM last year, no exaggerating. When I was answering the questions, I felt like I was so stupid and I never learned anything about add math when I already spent almost 2 years learning add math. Although I never make a mental note to study math again, I was traumatized enough that it still haunts me today.

The other reason I'm scared is, I'm afraid if I start to hate science when I'm studying it. To be honest, when I was applying for UPU, I was torn between TESL and science foundation. I love English language, everything about it. I love learning it, I love writing and reading. When I started 2017, I was only thinking about applying for TESL after SPM. And then there's science. I've been learning science for 2 years, it was so hard when I wasn't really interested on science to begin with. However, I managed to get a good result for my science subjects and an okay result for my add math. My ambition also changes from time to time and the job I want always revolves around science. My parents also convinced me that even if I don't learn English, I can still write. Maybe that convinced me to further my study in science.



But hey, people say that being nervous isn't bad, it just means something important is happening. So maybe me being nervous isn't that bad, right?


Love,
Pypaa. xo

It has been so long since I posted anything here. Sure, I miss blogging a lot but when you're on a serious writing block, no "What To Write When You're Having Writing Block" can ever help you. I finished secondary school last year (read: post-SPM) and before SPM, I actually have a lot of things I wanted to do after SPM. I even wrote it in my journal for god sake, and I only managed to do 1/3 of the things on my list. And now when my holiday is coming to an end, all of a sudden I finally have the spirit to write and do a lot of things. Me is mengada.

So, what have I done during my 5 months holiday that is coming to an end?


01. Finish some TV shows and k-dramas

Although I think that I haven't finish as many shows as I wanted, I think it's enough, considering some of the shows are in series and there were k-dramas that had more than 20 episodes. Some of the shows I finished that are my favorites are:

1. I'm Not A Robot (32 episodes k-drama) This is one of the fluffiest and most heartwarming dramas I've ever watched💗 The actors and actresses really did a good job!
2. Rebel: Thief Who Stole The People (30 episodes k-drama) YOU HAVE TO WATCH THIS IF YOU LOVE KOREAN HISTORICAL DRAMAS!
3. Stranger Things (2 seasons) People say it's scary so I wanted to watch it. It didn't really scare me but the show was so good. I'm a big fan of the show🙆
4. Marvel's Agent Carter (2 seasons) Agent Carter is such a badass and totally a Marvel woman icon🙌💥
5. A Love So Beautiful (23 episodes c-drama) Because Jiang Chen's face is similar to my crush's face 🙊
6. A Korean's Odyssey (20 episodes k-drama) Made me laugh and cry in the same time. Tear my heart to pieces then put it all back together.
7. Friends (10 seasons) My most favorite out of all the TV shows I've watched💜💛💚💙 This is a very hyped TV show so I wanted to see what was the hype all about and I was hooked to the show since the first episode because it made me hysterically laugh.


Still watching: Riverdale, The 100, Strong Woman Do Bong Soon, Marvel's Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D

Honorable mentions: The Great Seducer, School 2013, School 2017, Pretty Little Liars, Suspicious Partner


02. Get a driving license

I mentioned in one of my last posts before this that I was getting a driving license. Alhamdulillah, I managed to pass the JPJ test and now I'm a legal driver. I got my driving lesson less than a month and I really thought I won't pass but I passed!  I'm still scared to drive on a busy road, so now I'm just trying to get used to driving on a big but quiet road. Recently I drove to my father's workplace in a rural area. Half of the road on the way there are still unpaved and it was so challenging for me. Luckily, I managed to drive back home alone although I cried a bit in the beginning because it was the first time I drive alone.


03. Finish some books

This is one of the things that I really hoped I can tick off from my list. However, I couldn't because I only read 21 books since I started holiday, lesser than my goal: 30. It's close, though. Maybe I can read more books before I start school again. My favorites out of all the books I read during holiday:


1. Note to Self - Connor Franta (non fiction, ★★★★★)
2. The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas (contemporary, YA, racism issue, ★★★★★)
3. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire & Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix (fantasy, children literature, ★★★★★)
4. Satu - Hamka Kereta Mayat, Arlina Banana, Paola Kira Ewusi, Riduan A. Dullah (short stories, contemporary, ★★★★)
5. Far From the Tree - Robin Benway (contemporary, YA, family issue, ★★★★★)


04. Declutter and reorganize my closet

This is in my top priority list before starting school. I always reorganize my closet, but I only declutter my clothes once a year because it is too much work. I need to classify my clothes to which ruined clothes that can still be fixed, which clothes are still good but I don't want anymore, which clothes can just be thrown into the trash. Too. Much. Work.


05. Voluntary babysitting

Half of the gang; the all boys group.

I've been staying at my grandmother's house since last month. I've only been back home for two days. When I was staying at my grandmother's house, my uncle always sent his youngest child for us to babysit. I also have other little cousins that can be such a headache (but they are cute and adorable and nice to play with so that's okay) to take care of sometimes when their parents are busy. And also worth a mention here, my little brothers.


Sigh. I'm going to bid my holiday farewell soon and I'm going to miss it a lot. I'm going to miss the routine although my holiday routine is actually pretty boring. My holiday wasn't how I expected it to be but it allowed me to take a break from being tired after struggling for my study. Now that my holiday is coming to an end, I'm kinda nervous about what's next. What's going to happen during my uni life and I'm also nervous about studying again because seriously, my brain is 'rusty' already. I hope it'll be just fine.

That's all from me today, goodbye 😊

Love,
Pypaa. xo

Assalamualaikum and hello people. As you all know the holiest month of the year has finally come again. Alhamdulillah, praise to Allah, we are all given the chance to meet this month again. Time flies so fast, isn't it? Last year, I was fasting as a student and all my activities were still controlled by the school. Some of you might not know that I was a religious school student. So, every year during Ramadan, the school will organize a lot of activities so that the month won't be wasted. This is the first year I'm going to spend Ramadan with my own schedule and I'm quite excited to be honest.

In this post, there are some tips that I used from the years before and some that I haven't try but want to. So, these tips are specifically written to my fellow muslims.


1. Suhoor (Sahur): Prepare some food and water beside your bed in case you wake up late.

Missing a suhoor is a very common mistake people always do during Ramadan. When you miss a suhoor, you might not have enough energy to do a lot of things during the day, making you less productive. Some people might suffer with gastritis and end up breaking his/her fast because it's harmful to the body if s/he keeps fasting.

Hence, what you can do to not miss a suhoor is, prepare a bottle of water and some snacks beside your bed so that when your alarm rings the first time, you can easily reach for the foods and even eat while you're still lying on your bed jenis kemalasan apakah ini.

tbh, I got this tip from seeing Bom on Roommate😂

Or you can eat before you sleep, but you have to keep in mind that it'll not be the same as the suhoor right before Fajr. You might get hungry again when you wake up. Plus, delaying the suhoor is a sunnah.

Here are some simple but yummy (and also energizing) foods that you can prepare for suhoor.


2. For the girls: Use the calendar to track how many days of fasting you need to qada.

I used this tip for a few years already because I'm such a forgetful person. Every year, before Ramadan I'll get a little paranoid about whether I already qada all my fasting days or not. So to the other girls that have the same problem, I got you covered! I personally recommend using a period tracker app and don't forget to register and sync your account so you won't lose your information even when you change/format your phone.

Here is the app I use to track my period. It's cute and easy to use. In the second picture, the pink part shows how many days you're on your period so tracking how many days you should qada your fasting is easy peasy lemon squeezy😉

P/S: You can always use the usual calendar app or your own real calendar. It's up to you.



3. Some tips for the too busy people:

• The simplest tip: Do everything with the niat to make it ibadah. Whether you are cooking, walking, working, sleeping, if you do it with the niat for Allah, it will be counted as an ibadah, insya-Allah. As long as the thing you do isn't sinful lah.

05. Set a limit of money usage to buy foods for iftar when you go to bazaar.

People waste a lot of food during Ramadan because whenever they go to bazaar, they buy a lot of foods but during the iftar, they can't even finish half of the food they bought. Such a waste. Controlling your nafsu might be harder because you're hungry and you see a lot of foods, of course you'll want to eat and swallow all of them. Hence, in order to avoid wastage, set some amount of money that you'll use to buy foods for iftar. No addition. Just those amount of money. This way, you won't have to waste foods and money.


I hope that you guys will be able to use some of this tips and all of us can make the most out of this year's Ramadan🙌

Do you have other Ramadan tips you want to share? Feel free to comment down below💗

teen pregnancy, adoption, divorce, foster care system, alcoholism

It took us fifteen years to find each other, but we still did! And sometimes, family hurts each other. But after that's done you bandage each other up, and you move on. Together. You've got us now, like it or not, and we've got you.

This book is hands down, one of my favourite YA contemporaries. It's just everything for me right now. It's simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking and very emotional. It's about siblings finding their way to each other and trying to break the walls between them built by 15 years being separated. It's about finding comfort in each other and trusting them enough to tell them their deepest secrets. This book made me cry big tears.

Each of the characters has their own struggles and I personally don't relate to any of those struggles but the characters were written so beautifully and they felt so real, growing closer and closer to my heart as I read, making me really felt for them. In searching the truth about their mother and why they were given away, they found their way to each other and somehow, that was everything that it took for the world to make sense again. I loved how supportive they were of each other through all the lows and how they celebrated the highs. The adoption aspect was also very well done. We see the perspective of three children who were put up for adoption; two of them were adopted and one was not. Each of them trying to find their mother for different reasons but not because they were treated bad or they were miserable.

The older she got, the more human her parents seemed, and that was one of the scariest things in the world. She missed being little, when they were the all-knowing gods of her world, but at the same time, seeing them as human-made it easier to see herself that way, too.

I haven't read any other book from this author before but now I think I should. Important real issues were tackled in the most beautiful way in this book and I'm sure that needs a lot of work and patience. The story was very well-executed, writing style-wise, plot-wise and characters-wise.

You'll like this if you love: A story about love, family, siblings, story with important messages.