Letter to my dearest college mates

You are getting this because you and you alone have touched my life in one way or another. I really am going to miss each and every one of you (some more than others!)!!! Today we graduated (we finally did it!) and go our separate ways but you'll always remain close in my heart!

Thank you for all the memories that was shared,

for being the BEST ROOMMATES I could have ever asked for (Pah and Lynn!!!),

for taking good care of me when I wasn't feeling so well (Aliah-for taking me down to shower (dorms had no water that night) and showing genuine concern when I had a high fever even though we didn't know each other very well at that time and Lynn-for 'feeding' me and making sure that I ate after we got our AS results and I had a temporary shutdown...I'll never forget:),

for teaching me there IS such thing as unconditional kindness and selflessness (Fuad and Pah),

for showing tremendous GENEROSITY (Pah-for the Secret Recipe cake, sate kajang, burger ijan, long sleeve shirts for JPAM and countless others!)

for being such a great inspiration and friend (Adam-I have truly learned a LOT from you!!! More than you'll ever know:),

for teaching me how to be humble (Adam and Pah),

for teaching me there is more than meets the eye (Izzat)

for being a great chat companion and for exchanging ideas and thoughts (Ammar-EC brought us together:),

for all the laughter that was shared, for being my rays of sunshine in an otherwise gloomy day, and for showing me I could live life a little bit more 'loosely' (Iqbal, Obi, Mail, Imran, Khalis, Hakim, Syahmi),

for being GOOD friends (Wan Z, Megat, Isky, Arif, Jabbar),

for being my BESTEST friend and for always lending me an ear when I need to rant off all the problems in the world (Syakir),

for giving me a shoulder to cry on and for soothing me when I was feeling upset and sometimes a little bit depressed:( (Alia),

for patiently teaching and sharing your knowledge when I was like a lost little lamb (Syakir, Pah, Adam),

but most off all, thank you for being YOU!!!

Each and every one of you have truly touched my life in more ways than you could have possibly imagined. Seeing that I MIGHT never see you again (*cry!) I will truly miss all of you.

Wishing you the best of luck in ALL your future undertakings!!! I have great faith that everyone is going to lead a happy, successful life in the future!

Do keep in touch and JUST IN CASE you don't see me around facebook, do E-MAIL ME anytime at scsarina@hotmail.com. OR add me on ym at scsarina@yahoo.com. Keep me updated about...well EVERYTHING!:) Wedding invites maybe? Hahahha...

Lots of LOVE, hugs, and kisses,

Siearra C. Sarina:)

My favourite quote

-Buzz Lightyear

Ever since mankind walked the Earth many hundred of thousands of years ago, he has made tremendous progress through the ages of human history. From the Stone Age to the Bronze and Metal Ages. From the Dark Ages to the Age of Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution. From the Age of Space Conquest to the Age of Super Computers. From the age of limited knowledge to the age of infinite knowledge.

Once man had said it is impossible to fly, but they flew anyway. Once man said it is impossible to conquer space, but they conquered it anyway. Now, one wonders - do we have any limits? One thing I know for sure - the sky is certainly not the limits! To infinity and beyond!

A bittersweet moment

I don't think I've ever known what 'a bittersweet moment' meant till today. On one hand, "Australia here I come!" (the SWEET part). On the other hand I just barely made it with borderline points, just enough as required by my sponsors (hence the BITTER part). Just a little over a quarter people from my course have 'fallen'. Knowing (from my AS experience) how that must feel (but perhaps 100x worst) my thoughts goes to them.
Whatever it is, as of today my LIFE has truly changed. There's nowhere to go but forward from here on!

Not just yet

My mistake. Turns out I woke much, much, MUCH earlier than I thought I would (6.30 a.m.! Who would've thought?!) so my LIFE has NOT changed YET.

Reprinting: Come 9 a.m. today, my LIFE will have changed forever.

Now, off to catch a few more z's before the awaited hour.

Tomorrow

When I wake up tomorrow, my LIFE will have changed forever.

The mysterious realm

Had a long talk with dad last night. Dad was passing on some age long wisdom (that's a lot of wisdom!) seeing I'll be off to uni soon. Got lots of useful advice and lots of things to ponder on. One particular snippet that got me thinking:

Dad: So, are you waiting in anticipation to gain new knowledge?

After a moment hesitation...

Me: A little bit. (What I didn't say: I am excited at the thought of finally getting to step my feet in my future university but it scares me to the very core just thinking about it!)

At times like these (and not for the first time too!) I'm convinced me and dad has some ESP thing going on because right after I had that thought...

Dad: Are you scared?

Me: YES!

Dad: What are you scared of?

Me: A lot of things. I'm scared of not knowing what to expect, of facing the unknown. I'm scared of the thought of getting lost in the crowd. I'm scared of the thought that my professors won't mind me when I become a lost sheep. I'm scared of the thought of being lost and having no idea how to 'unlost' myself. I'm scared of the thought of not knowing what to do, not being able to think on my toes, and not being able to immediately answer a question when so many others can do exactly that. I'm scared of the thought of not having even an inkling of an idea how to do my assignments and not having anyone to ask. I'm scared of being an absolute idiot and getting left behind. I'm scared of not acing my quizzes, tests, and exams. I'm scared of the new magic number, 4.0 (the previous magic number was 15). I'm scared of being scared! But right now, I'm absolutely TERRIFIED of the 25th of January! In just 2 short days my results will be released and that will be the point of make or break.

After that, me and dad continued our talk and I got lots of insightful insights into the mysterious realm of life in uni from not just anyone but from someone who's accounting first hand experience, from the very same person that passed on two very useful sayings (and I'll never forget...something that I remember anywhere and everywhere I go), "With familiarity comes proficiency" and "It's not whether you can or cannot do but you have to do even though you cannot". It's wise quotes like those and people like my dad, that keeps me going.

I love you, dad!

[Dad with Heirisson Island's (Western Australia) friendly kangaroos]

Beauty and the Geek season 3 finale

Having just came back from a 3 days holiday meant I've missed half of season 3 Beauty and the Geek (at least got to watch episode 2, 3, and 4!). Thought I would miss the season finale as well but as luck would have it LATE last night (2 am) I so happen switched on the telly and guess what was on? You guessed it! The season 3 finale! Got kinda hyped cause I knew it would be interesting and it didn't disappoint. Loved it!

Having missed 4 out of the 7 episodes (that's a lot considering it's such a short season OR maybe it just seem short because they showed it EVERYDAY during the weekdays so it only lasted for one week and a half where else other shows usually only show ONCE a week so they'll run for about one and a half month!) I didn't know how much the contestants actually changed throughout the season (that's the whole point of the show...to see how much the beauties and the geeks can transform so they wouldn't be like the typical stereotypes) but being the season finale they had the ever so helpful (for people like me) flashbacks of the journey that the last 2 teams went through. It was between team Nate and Cecille and team Scooter and Megan.

Nate and Cecille

Scooter and Megan

Every episode starts with a 'challenge round' that had contestants competing against each other to get the advantage of immunity from elimination but during the finale instead of having the challenge (how can anyone have immunity at this point anyway) the 2 teams got to spend 2 days with their fellow teammate doing each others hobby. I especially loved what Megan and Scooter did. It was very outdoorsy, which I didn't quite expect from a playboy model (Megan)...(apologies for stereotyping!)Megan took Scooter to play tennis and Scooter took Megan out for a hike and had a picnic planned out at the end of their hike (how sweet!).

Nate and Cecille activities were cool. Who would've thought a bikini model (Cecille)...(yet again, apologies for stereotyping or perhaps it's just my plain silliness of thinking bikini models do not much other then, well...model bikinis!)could dance hip hop like its hot (silly, silly me!) and Nate could sing with such crazy passion?! (Nate's the lead singer for his band, the Star Wars Band-they sing everything Star Wars).

In the end, all the previously eliminated contestants came back to cast their votes to determine which team will walk out $250,000 richer.

The final two teams

They were to judge based on which team transformed the most and each team were given the chance to talk to everyone basically to say, "Vote for me!". Everyone (the fellow contestants) was going on about how Nate had the biggest heart (I don't doubt that one bit) and how they wanted him to win but one major thing that was preventing exactly that was everyone's dislike of his teammate, who manipulated and initiated the cliques earlier on (which I also didn't like and I'm not even on the show!) and was very determine (it seems!) NOT to change (that would be just so silly to her apparently but at least she was honest about it). So, in the end, Nate with his big heart and all, seeing that Cecille indeed did NOT change one bit since she first started out and all she seems to be after is the money and not so much on the experience that they gained, went to talk to everyone and told them NOT to vote for his team because it wouldn't seem fair even though he had a lot of people rooting for him. Is that noble or what?! Who goes around asking people to vote AGAINST them?! Nate said the most important thing was the experience and memories he collected along the way and $250,000 isn't as important so he was ok with that. And there you have it; season 3 Beauty and the Geek winners: Scooter (who's absolutely ADORABLE!) and Megan! <*applause!>

Megan and Scooter reacting after Sheree (eliminated in episode 2) gave them their 7th vote (to win, the team needed at least 7 out of 12 votes to give them the majority) making them the winners of season 3 of Beauty and the Geek!