Junction

Sometimes when we are in a junction, Allah will show us other options. Then it's a matter of making our choice. Always ask Allah to guide us in every step of our life for Allah knows best.

Bond of different kinds

I have been a week now in Paris. With my youngest son, Aiman. Wherever I go, he'll go too. He's a very independent son. He can prepare his own drink, get his own food, learn a few skills to survive like learning to surf the internet for games to entertain himself. But he's emotionally attached to me. Very much so.

On one metro train trip in Paris, even though my husband asked him to sit beside him, he refused and prefer to stand up beside me. Walking on the street, he feel safe if I'm holding his hands. But if my husband is the one that's holding his hand, his eyes are always wandering around making sure that I'm in the vicinity. I only realized this during this Paris trip. The bond between a child and his/her mother is sometime have to be seen to be understood.

I'm glad for this trip. I get to be with my husband. He's assigned here in Paris for a two months stint. The initial agreement was for me not to follow him to save money for the kids' college cost. That agreement last until the first day my husband arrived at Paris. In our first telephone conversation, I make a joke of going to Paris since my husband got a much bigger and spacious apartment hotel. Too lonely to stay alone. To my surprise he urged me to make all the preparations necessary to go there whenever possible. That end my misery and bout of cry period for being left alone in Malaysia. I guess the bond between a husband and his wife is sometime have to be seen to be understood too.

I know my kids back in Malaysia missed me. Especially my girl. She's coming home from her boarding school today. Meaning she get to get in touch with me through the internet - Skype, yahoo messenger or FaceBook. Maybe girls or female in general, are more expressive of their feelings. I wonder if my boys are missing me as much as my girl. Are you boys?

And I miss my mom and dad too. And my mother in laws. And my sisters and brothers. I hope they are doing well.

It's not the physical distance that matters the most. It's how close we are with each other in our heart. And I would like to think that Allah and his messenger, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the closest in my heart. For I love everyone that I love because of Allah and his messenger.

May Allah bless us all.

vicinity - the area near or surrounding a particular place

stint - a person's fixed or allotted period of work

bout - a short period of intense activity of a specified kind

My viva session

My viva session went smoothly. After I presented my thesis, questions keep coming in. Alhamdulillah, praise be to Allah, I can answer all questions smoothly. I noticed that all the questions are just questions on technicalities. No major problems with my thesis. The whole session took less than one hour. I will be granted a master degree provided I made all the amendments suggested by the panel.

After I performed my zohor prayer, I prostrate to say thanks to Allah. That is when I realized that I have been quiet ungrateful at times. Being unsatisfied with a lot of things, I forgot that Allah has given me a lot of things that other people don't have. So why should I be unsatisfied with my working environment for example. Ya Allah, please forgive me for being such ungrateful servant at times.

Alhamdulillah, praise be to Allah. May Allah bless us all.

My products

I was on my way to the staff room. It was still recess time for form 3 students but the two boys were already outside the staff room waiting for me. "Teacher, next period is our maths class. Please come in early. We want to learn". Then hurriedly they went to their still empty class. The two boys have never passed their maths test before. But this year I'm expecting them to do well in maths for the first time in their life. They are smart boys. They just need coaching, guidance and the most important ingredient of all - the believe that they can do it and do it well.

I have declared in the class that after the coming march test (the first test this year), I will choose 8 top students (based on March test score) to be the mentors in the class. These privileged students will have special extra class with me and they will learn every topics prior before the topics being taught in class. So in class they will help me by going round from group to group teaching them. So there will be many 'teachers' in my class. Many students want to be in that elite group. And the two boys are top in the list.

As I groom my students to change their self concept from "I'm not smart" to "Hey, I can be smart too", I'm still amazed at the transformation that's happening in front of my eyes. One of the boys has a smart twin brother. I make him believe that he can beat his twin brother too. He just has to work harder and I'm here to help him to achieve his mission.

We teachers don't make 'much' in terms of money but we built the nation by building the people. We don't build the sky scrapers but we build the people that build them. I fell in love with this career right from the beginning even though being a teacher has never been my childhood dream. Every day I can see my 'products'. They are everywhere doing all kinds of things.

May Allah bless all teachers. May Allah bless us all.