Blessed.

Salam,

Going to Notts alone is really tough, compared to going to the US for my undergraduate studies. While I was in INTEC, everything was prepared for you. Well not really, but there were people to tell you to do this, do that, take this, bring it there, go here etc. There was even a driver who took me to take my TOEFL in KL. Thank you OSSP team for making it so easy then.

This time, there's no more OSSP. No more the friendly Kak Zira OSSP, no more the helpful Encik Din. I have to do everything by myself. I have to KNOW everything myself. I must admit, it does get a little overwhelmed sometimes, to a point that I just go to bed wishing come morning, everything is settled. No, it  never happened.

But Alhamdulillah, Allah sent me these kind people to help me out with my preparation. These people are whom I just met. Some I just met online, but MasyALLAH, the good deeds they did for me, it's like we've been friends for years.

#1

Last week I had to attend a 5-day course in USM, Penang. Last time I came to USM for my interview, my mom and I stayed in a hotel, as it was very last minute and it was just a one night stay after all. But to stay in a hotel for 5 days, errrr maybe not. So I asked an acquaintance of mine, who I met during the interview at USM, if she'd be going. During our first meeting, we had a brief 10 minutes chat and exchanged phone numbers and that was it. So she said she'd be going, and she offered me to stay with her. How relieved I was to hear that. Though she stays in the hostel, with another girl, she still made a room for me; she even bought a new pillow for me. True act of kindness, that was. During the whole 5 days stay, she never made me go hungry :P Bila kat tempat orang, normally I would 'behave', if you know what I mean. But something about them (my friend and her bf) made me so comfortable about 'revealing my true self' *again, if you know what I mean*. Within 30 minutes of our meeting, they already know how I loooove food. Haha. Read between the lines.

#2

There is this 'abang' I came to know during my BTN course last June. I think each and everyone of us at the camp knows him, because of his friendliness. He went around the hall asking contact details from everyone. His initial intention was to look for someone who's going to UK with family, because he wanted to know the process for visa application. Now that his visa is approved, he is my reference. I must say he is very very helpful. I think he does a better job than any other guidelines I found on the net. All those knitty gritty details about the forms, and the whole process, he knows it all. He always have answers to my questions. He's willing to dig out his forms, e-mail me stuff just for the sake of helping me. He really doesn't have to do all that. For all he knows, he could just tell me to read the guidelines and say, 'Don't worry it's easy you'll be fine'. But no, he looked high and low for stuff for my easy reference. 

#3

I have never met her. We were introduced by an officer through e-mail, because apparently we both e-mailed the officer to look for potential roommate/housemate in Notts. From changing e-mails, we went to changing texts, then added each other on YM, and later of Facebook. At one time, I wasn't actively looking for accommodation because I was still waiting for confirmation from my sponsor I dare not prepared a lot. Finally when I got the confirmation, I messaged on her Facebook asking if she got a place already, and she said yes. A sister in Notts helped her arrange for accommodation. She then introduced me to this sister and voila! I got my accommodation arranged in 2 days. 

Last Saturday, Notts SEA Office organized a pre-departure briefing for incoming students. I was contemplating whether to go or not because I was lazy to take the 2+ hours KTM train and was even lazier to drive to KL on a Saturday. The night before, she YM-ed me asking if I'd be going to the briefing. I said probably not because I was in Seremban and I really didn't wanna drive. To my surprised, she said she was also in Seremban, at her parents' home. I've never known that fact of her, all I know is she is staying somewhere in KL because she works with BNM. Without hesitation, she immediately asked me whether I wanted to carpool with her and that she'd picking me up in front of Jusco Seremban. Memang rezeki Ramadhan. Semua benda dipermudahkan. Alhamdulillah.


I think I didn't do justice to these people. I could not articulate my thoughts very well. I'm 99.99% confident that these people won't find this blog of mine, but I must say, THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR ALL YOUR HELP! You people made me feel so blessed. You have no idea how you have made my life easy with all the help. I really appreciate it.

Having all these kind people around me made me realize that, I should do the same to people around me.

To offer help without people asking.
To offer help without expecting anything.
To offer help because you have the ability and capacity to do it and you say to yourself, why not?

Sempena Ramadhan ini, let's reflect upon ourselves, have we been kind to people around us?

An act of kindness goes a long way.

Let's jom?