I care too much.

Therefore, I am deeply hurt.

DATE A GIRL WHO READS

Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes, who has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she has found the book she wants. You see that weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a secondhand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow and worn.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas, for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry and in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who read understand that all things must come to end, but that you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes.

- Rosemarie Urquico, Date a Girl Who Reads
in response to Charles Warnke’s You Should Date an Illiterate Girl)

--> I heart this piece. heart it alot! <3

I kinda miss my life as a student. I miss the morning class. I miss the thick overseas text book. I miss sleeping at 3am struggling to finish my assignment. I miss cramping my brain with last minute revision. I miss sitting at the exam hall while staring at the fan hoping for an idea to pop-up. I miss studying.

One day.Again. Definitely.InsyaALLAH.

"I doubt if I shall ever have time to read the book again — there are too many new ones coming out all the time which I want to read. Yet an old book has something for me which no new book can ever have — for at every reading the memories and atmosphere of other readings come back and I am reading old years as well as an old book."

- L.M. Montgomery, from The Selected Journals, Vol. 3: 1921-1929

Ambitious Saturday

Assalamualaikum.

I am in working mood., even though its weekend now I still find myself busy preparing my lesson materials for next week. Lets get real, I don't think I start teaching next week, it will be more on ice breaking session with the students. However, this year, I wish to be more diligent in terms of my work (InsyaALLAH. Mudah-mudah aku beristiqomah). So, I wish to prepare and finish my work beforehand :) I'll be teaching Reading and Writing Development 1 to first semester students and Introduction to Literature to second semester students. Read&Write Dev1 is a subject that I taught last semester, so there are only few things to be done since I can recycle my teaching materials from last semester. However, Intro to Lit is a new subject for me, and this is my fav subject to teach since I really like/adore literature. I literally begged my boss to let me teach this subject. hehe.., Eh, takde la sampai macam tu. I just asked her nicely to let me teach literature. Alhamdullillah, she trusted me. :)

I have lots of resolution for this year,
not just to be more diligent in work but also in my prayer.
to read holy Quran as much as I read books.
to shed few kg from my chubby self.
to eat healthy foods and drink more milk.
to further my study.
to always be good to my family (sebelum ni bukan tak baik tapi nak jadi lebih baik lagi).
to always make my mum smiles and proud of me.
to be a good educator.
to save money and finally stop buying things that I don't need (and ended up membazir sebab barang-barang yang dibeli tak pakai pun)

and maybe, hopefully to move back to my hometown and work there. (My mum really wants me to move back to my hometown and work there. to settle down there, since my family is there. My mum said shes always pray so that I manage to work somewhere in Sabah. Doa ibu itu mustajab. InsyaALLAH.

Kita merancang, ALLAH yang menentukan. In my part, I can always pray and work hard for whatever I wishes for., tetapi DIA lah yang Maha Mengetahui segala sesuatu.

itu dan ini dalam hidup ini

Macam-macam jadi di akhir tahun lepas dan di awal tahun ini. sangat mencabar ok. tapi aku okay-okay sahaja. malas nak ambik pusing (walaupun sebenarnya da nanges-nanges setengah baldi ;p). orang-orang yang negetif dan yang mahu terus berada di takuk lama, silalah. Aku tak kesah pun. Aku nak kehadapan dan terus maju. kalau rasa tak mahu untuk ikut, tak mengapa. > cheh cheh cheh, bunyi merajuk tapi tetap bersemangat < hahaha

Ok semua, mari bangun dan terus mara kehadapan ya :)


" Hendak atau tidak, hati itu perlu diisi. Jika kita tidak bergerak mengisinya dengan perkara yang sepatutnya, maka keburukan pula akan mengisinya. Ibarat batu. Jika ia tidak bergolek, maka lumut akan menyelimutinya walaupun dia tidak bergerak." -Hilal Asyraf-

Happy new year 2012

MasyaALLAH cepatnya masa berlalu. Terasa baru semalam menyambut tahun baru 2011. Walhal, semalam tahun 2011 melabuhkan tirainya dan hari ini hari pertama ditahun baru 2012. Tahun 2011 banyak membawa pengalaman berharga. Suka dan duka. Tawa dan Tangis. Senyum dan gundah. Semua ada. Banyak penyesalan yang sudah tentu tidak dapat diulang dan diubah lagi. Namun, semua yang baik mahupun yang buruk itulah yang banyak mengajar tentang erti kehidupan. Syukur dipanjatkan pada Ilahi kerana masih diberi nikmat umur untuk merasai kehadiran tahun 2012. Semoga tahun 2012 ini akan membawa seribu satu kebaikan, senantiasa berada di bawah redha dan hidayah dari ALLAH yang maha esa dan dapat menjadi seorang muslimah yang lebih matang dari segala segi. Ameen.

Sesungguhnya, nikmat yang Allah berikan sepanjang tahun 2011 sangat la banyak dan tidak terhingga. Syukur Alhamdullillah. Walaupun diri ini serba kekurangan dari segala segi namun rahmat dari-Nya sentiasa berkunjung tiba. Sesungguhnya Dia lah yang Maha Pengasih lagi Maha Penyayang. Semoga 2012 membawa lebih banyak rahmat dan hidayah dari-Nya.


"You knock, He opens. You attend, He welcomes. You ask, He gives. You sin, He tests, You repent, He forgives. You sin again. He forgives again. You cry, He listens. Everything you do, is about you; and everything He does, is about you. So which of Allah’s favours will you deny?” [Quran Surah Al-Rahman 55:13]