Understanding and A Change of Heart!

Okay, it's 1am now and I just finished doing a project which when I began, I HATED!
Trust me, ask the people I have been bothering for hours and complaining of what a pain this project was. I totally HATED it with all my heart!
I chose the topic, Depth of Field, as a Consideration of Photography for my Photography Class. I chose DOF because this technique was one I always wanted to learn! Hence I chose it so I could use it. When I began my research, NOTHING made sense. Hence the Frustration and hence the non-stop complaining.
I didn't get it. I loved photography, yet this assignment was such a pain to do! Why? I didn't realize it before, but now, after completing, I realized that it was because of a lack of understanding. Now that I've gained more knowledge on this topic - I LOVE IT! Those who I annoyed with the following phrases throughout the day will laugh and shake their heads upon reading this post!

"I HATE PHOTOGRAPHY CLASS!"
"WHY DID I TAKE THIS!"
"I COULD BE DOING MATH!"
"STUPID PROJECT!"
"I DON'T WANNA DO IT!"
"ARGH!! :@"
and so forth.. hehe

Anyways, now that I've completed this project, I feel so good! I actually feel great that I accomplished this task and not to brag or anything, I'm really proud of the work I ended up producing! Now, to only do a good presentation and get a good mark! Then I shall be super duper happy!
Oh but unfortunately, I also realized now, that this technique of photography, Depth of Field, one I always wanted to use - I can't, as my current Camera does not have the ability (the proper lens)..oh well, I still LOVE it! So in summary, I liked doing er-- I liked COMPLETING this project very much, because in end, it was totally worth it!! Just goes to show you what a little bit (or a lot, in this case) of understanding can do!!

Thank You to those of you who had to put up with me throughout this!

That One Moment

Isn't it amazing, how one tiny moment in our lives can somehow impact the rest of our life to come?

I'm talking about perhaps that one quick minute or two where you exchanged a phone number or e-mail address which lead to a series of conversations (which were great fun!). The one time you decided to have lunch with "those-girls" and ended up becoming close friends with them. The time you decided to say "yes" and agree to work with that person next to you and they ended up being the best lab partner you ever had. The time where your teacher assigned you to sit next to the two new girls in the class and you later became best friends with them in that class. The time that you just let your heart out to someone and knew just how much they cared about you. Those moments, those few minutes in our lives became some of the best minutes of our lives and some, which perhaps made us who we are today.

Then, there are those blessed moments, like the first time you prayed the Kalimah, or recited the Quran or prayed your first full Namaz. And now, MashAllah whether you remember that moment or not, it was a life-changing moment. Those few several minutes which made you the Muslim you may be today.

Good Moments, blessed moments, but also those other moments. Not the moments that made you feel good, or gave you a new friend or made you excited about somethings. I mean the moments which made you cry. Heart broken. Devasted. And the list can go on with many such adjectives. Everyone, I'm positive, has has many such moments.

That one moment, where you heard the last gasp of your great-grandfather followed by the loud cries of all the aunties surrounding the hospital. Even though you were too little to understand death, you knew it was bad, so you cried too. Then, the time you were praying your heart out for your Grand-father, to let him be okay because you knew he was sick. But then, your uncle walks past giving you a motion with his hands which meant that Daada (grand father) was not with us anymore. Another moment, when you were happily coming home from school and suddenly your mother informs you that your Dadda (grandmother) passed away earlier today. Shock Stricken. Tears at ends. State of Depression.

Life is crazy. It really is. It's great at times, when you get all happy about something and life is just too good! Then, there are those moments which leave perhaps a hole in your heart forever, or maybe just a sinking feeling. Nonetheless, those moments are too a vital part of life. As without such moments, one could not distinguish those other ones.

Each and every moment of life is very precious. Sometimes you don't realize it until several hours, days, months or even years. Sometimes never. But every moment you ever lived, are living and will live will impact you one way or another. Each moment is also special. I know I ended with quite a few depressing ones, but think about the bright side! That one really good moment which made you feel loved? Or that one time you "accidentally" overheard your parents discussing what a good person you were? The time where you realized just how much that someone really cared about you? The time where you felt that someone really trusted you? That one moment which just made your day? See, there are tons of great moments we've all had!

Each moment, that one moment, has somehow made us who we are today. Whether it's the way we talk, the way we walk, the way we speak, the way we think, the we behave or, the way we see the world.

I just realized, there are also some moments which we NEVER want to think about (i.e. the time you the most stupidest thing in class, or fell in front of everyone etc..)! haha :P And there are other many moments too, but this post is long enough!

Life is...well, it's a lot of things. And it's filled with moments. Moments we want to cherish forever, moments we never want to forget, moments we regret, moments we wish never occurred, moments which we just loved, moments we wish never ended. Moments, moments, moments! Life is full of 'em! And personally, I tend to think more about those "happy" moments more often than the "sad" ones, because life is just too short to be lived in misery. We're blessed to be alive, so might as well enjoy and make the most of the moments that we got, right? :)

P.S. Forgot to mention. The significance of that Image attached to this post. The Clock, which reads two seconds past midnight. This was a special moment as well, My sister, I believe took that picture, while telling me, "Now, you're officially sixteen". Couldn't have chosen a better picture for this post eh? :)

Never Quit

"Good Days Give you Happiness; Bad Days give you Experience." Forwarded E-mails are usually annoying, but this one, this one is actually worth the reading:

One day I decided to quit...



One day I decided to quit...
I quit my job, my relationship, my spirituality... I wanted to quit my life.
I went to the woods to have one last talk with God.
'God', I said. 'Can you give me one good reason not to quit?'
His answer surprised me...
'Look around', He said. 'Do you see the fern and the bamboo?'
'Yes', I replied.
When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them.
I gave them light. I gave them water.
The fern quickly grew from the earth.
Its brilliant green covered the floor.
Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed.
But I did not quit on the bamboo.
In the second year the Fern grew more vibrant and plentiful.
And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed.
But I did not quit on the bamboo. He said.
'In the third year, there was still nothing from the bamboo seed. But I would not quit. In the fourth year, again, there was nothing from the bamboo seed. 'I would not quit.' He said. 'Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth.

Compared to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant... But just 6 months later the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall.

It had spent the five years growing roots.

Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive. I would not give any of my creations a challenge it could not handle.'

He said to me. 'Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots.'

'I would not quit on the bamboo. I will never quit on you. ' Don't compare yourself to others ..' He said. ' The bamboo had a different purpose than the fern ... Yet, they both make the forest beautiful.'

Your time will come, ' God said to me. ' You will rise high! ' How high should I rise?' I asked.

How high will the bamboo rise?' He asked in return.

'As high as it can? ' I questioned.

' Yes. ' He said, 'Give me glory by rising as high as you can. '

I left the forest and bring back this story.

I hope these words can help you see that God will never give up on you.

He will never give up on you.

Never regret a day in your life.

Good days give you happiness

Bad days give you experiences;

Both are essential to life.

A happy and meaningful life requires our continuous input and creativity. It does not happen by chance. It happens because of our choices and actions. And each day we are given new opportunities to choose and act and, in doing so, we create our own unique journey.' Keep going...

Happiness keeps you Sweet,
Trials keep you Strong, Sorrows keep you Human,
Failures keep you humble,
Success keeps You Glowing,
but Only God keeps You Going!

Sunsets

I absolutely adore Sunsets!

First Week of Grade 11

Survived.

Shocking, yes, but we have made it! A whole entire (well, sort of) week of classes!! Woohoo!
It wasn't that bad actually. Infact not bad at all! I was honestly really scared about starting grade eleven at first, but soon I realized I wasn't alone and that every other student was nervous as well. I guess it's 'cause this is one of the two years which will affect the rest of our entire lives! *glups* Well now, that's a real comforting thought! Oh well, Insha'Allah everyone will do well! Okay so yes, the first week of class - here's a little overview :

First Period : Photography - My favourite hobby! But right now, it's not so great as we're doing sketches and stuff. HELLO! I did not take this class to DRAW. I took it to take PICTURES. Yes please! Hopefully next week we shall start taking some scenery pictures and start doing some real photography. Should be a fun and easy class!

Period Two : English - Has to be the subject which causes me the most grief! But I'm totally excited for this class because I really like my teacher (I had her in grade 9 aswell). Her admiration of English really wants me to learn it well and be good at it. I'm also excited because she said we will be blogging in class aswell! Wooohooo!! Also, the topic we're focusing on, power, is really quite interesting, so I'm really looking forward to English Classes, despite all the hours of hard writing work!

Period Three : LUNCH - Well, it's not like we eat or anything now, 'cause of Ramadan, but this is the period where me and my friends just chill and hangout. A really good breather!

Period Four : French - Oui, le Francais! Je l'aime! I honestly really like french and this year, my teacher is really awesome too! He talks in french a lot so that really helps to improve our oral communication in french too, he's also very easy going which keeps us all relaxed. I'm already loving this class and I hope at the end of it I'll be speaking le Francais quite often!!

Period Five : Biology - What a way to end the day! Biology class with 2-3 of my most closest friends! I think we're THIS close to getting our seats changed because we talk so much! haha! But this is really is fun! We haven't really begun the actual bio stuff but still, it seems like we're going to learn some great stuff! And of course, having my friends with me is an extra bonus!

So that was my week one! Not so bad at all! Pretty good actually!! So let's just hope for the best and see what comes our way! :)

That's 10 months minus one week of school to go!

Oh Happy, Happy Day !!

Ever get a time where you're just SOO HAPPY!? All you can do is smile and or laugh because you are just feeling sooo good!! Maybe it's something you did, or something that happened, whatever it is, YOU know it, and it is making you SMILE ever so much!! :D (Mash'Allah)

I don't know if this feeling will last all day, so the title of this post should've been "Oh happy, happy moment". But whatever! Because I am just realllllly happy right now!! :D haha :P

And no, it's not because today was the first day of school! :)

It's a nice feeling!! VERY nice and joyous feeling, and I'm sure a lot of you will know what I mean! :)

(...actually the smiley-face on the side does not suit how I'm feeling right now because my smile is MUCH WIDER and HAPPIER! :D )

First Day Of School

Yup, today was the day! Well, actually my classes officially begin tomorrow, but I'm not going to write about MY first day back at school. Nope, I'm going to talk about what my experience was like dropping off my two little sisters to school on their first day of Grade 1 and 4.

So, bright and early, we (my sisters, mum and I) leave at 8:26am to make sure we find both the little ones classes before classes begin. Everything's good, we were early we knew the classes and the teachers but NOT where we had to meet them. So we look around, and we see quite a few people gathered around a small piece of paper stuck to one of the doors. How convenient is that?! It had some type of lines and names all squished together, fantastic! Anyways, then eventually the teachers start to come (around 8:45am now) and my mum assured me they would be carrying some sort of signs. Yes, they were.. regular sized papers with their name and class number printed and the paper was stuck to their clipboard (so that you had to be right in their faces to see what was written on it!). So obviously everyone was crowded everywhere!! Though one teacher was actually smart enough to photocopy that paper and stick it to both sides of a meter stick; so props to her!!
Anyways, next it was the line-up. This was funny. All the parents were rushing to get their kids to be first in line and stand next to the teacher. I heard one person say to his son, "Beta, teacher to hi bolna aur how are you poochna, jao" (translation: Son, say hi to your teacher and ask her how she is, go!). Haha...Come ON (lol)! Almost every parent came up to teacher to introduce their child! Like seriously people! You're child will be spending the next 10months with this person, I'm sure they'll get a good introduction!! But sure, they're excited or whatever..so yeah.
Anyways, the line-ups were pretty messed up and their signs were too small. But it was great to see my sisters entering grade 1 and 4. (They were excited, clearly, and that was a joy to see!)
I remember my first days on those two years. Grade one..yeah, I felt like I was going on some gigantic mission and I thought I was really brave that I didn't cry when my parents left (haha!)! Now I'm in grade eleven .. so the first day isn't such a big deal, but honestly, going back after this summer...it felt a little bit different! After all, this is the second last year of high school!

Ramadan Mubarak !

Happy Ramadan to everyone!

This is THE most favourite time of the year for me!

This is the month where "the doors of heaven are opened and the devils are chained in hell". A truly holy and blessed month. We are all sinners so let's make the most of this month. Let's do those good deeds that we've been delaying for the past year. Let's ask for forgiveness and pray like we've never prayed before..directly from our hearts. Life is too short and we don't realize how blessed we are to be alive. Every minute we live, we are bound to commit a sin. We're not that great people, BUT still, ALLAH (SWT) has given us this oppourtunity to come to the right path. To undo what we did wrong and ask for forgiveness. ALLAH is truly merciful. I know it may be difficult to give up those old, bad habbits, but THIS is the PERFECT time! ALLAH is ready to help you in everyway possible but we have to be fully COMMITED! Insha'Allah, if we set our mind to the right thing, we will achieve our goal. This is the time of the year where every Muslim is trying their very best to wash their sins and do good things and ask for forgivness. So let's follow the right path, let's devote ourselves to ALLAH, then maybe, Insha'Allah we will be able to continue these wonderous ways hence forth and be less of the sinners that we were the year before!
Let's start to (just naming a few) pray more often, give to the poor, not backbite, not be so into TV and music not only for this holy month of Ramadan but for the rest of our lives as well. Insha'Allah. May Allah(swt) forgive us all and guide us to the right ways. Ameen.

Remember, you can never know when life will be taken away from you. And when we're gone, it's everything we did here (on earth) that will determine our fate in the afterlife.

Here is a really great video that has to do with Shaytan and how many sins we commit obeying him. It is a MUST watch! (Do try and watch the other episodes aswell, they are really great to get a realization!)

P.S. I would also like to take this moment and ask for forgivness from anyone who I've ever hurt (in anyway) whether intentionally or unintentionally. My sincere apologies.
Also to anyone who feels that they have hurt me in anyway, don't worry, I forgive you too! :)

Last Day of Summer 2008

It's unfortunately here, the official end of summer 2008.

I don't know what to say! Time FLIES! One moment I've just finished my exams and jumped in excitement as summer had begun, and now, the next moment the summer has already come to an end.

So how did this summer pass for me? Well, let me just sum up my two-month events in a small list.

• I attended a course at the University of Toronto, that was fantastic!
• I made new friends and terribly missed the old!
  
• My ever-so-lovely cousins came from Pennsylvania, that was a blast!
• One of my sisters turned 6, the other entered her teenage years.
• Me and my Friends suffered a terrible loss, but that helped us bring us closer to our religion and face more realities.
  
• My other cousins came from Indiana, always a joy!
• Met up friends, those were good times!
• Went to a few outings, those are always superbtabulous!
  

And that's really it, nothing so very exciting, but still, there were a few very, very good and fun moments which I really enjoyed! Time has passed, and now tomorrow beings a whole new year of school. Grade 11. Second last year of high school. *glups* No point in dreading it, it will come, and it did, and now it's here!! So here go, another school year to tackle, let's see what life brings this way!

To everyone else, hope you all had a terrific summer! All the best with the new school year!