First and foremost, my best achievement this semester, was getting involved in an interfaith dialogue as an assistant secretary. I’m grateful to have been chosen as the mainboard and that people had expectations and looked up to me for guidance, considering I’m only in my second year and non-local that is. Interfaith dialogue : “Roles of women in society according to religious scriptures,” 17th of May 2005, Tuesday night. It was a memorable night. After weeks of hard work and dealing with so many high-ranked people, going from one place to another, that night I sat on the front row, with guests- of- honour, wearing a coat. I had the most amazing feeling that night and wished my parents had been there to see me, they would have been proud. A few seniors had praised on the success of the dialogue and I’m feeling over the moon. Credits go to my organizing committees as well, without them, this dialogue would not be a success, they were the ones who did the practical things. And although I’m only the assistant secretary, I think I handled them all well, especially during meetings, not letting them felt lost and helping whenever I could. I’m doing what I can do without having to wait for anyone, time is precious and we were running out of time, considering we got the approval letter very late (it’s the upper people’s fault), and jobscopes can’t be done without the approval letter. But overall, I’m happy that everything went well and smooth running to the very last hour of the dialogue. I’m proud of my committee.

And last weekend, a senior asked me to be a facilitator for a motivational camp, right here in IIUM, and I happily accepted the job, even though I just known about it the day before the programme!! I mean, it’s only a facilitator job and I had the experience before, I can handle it. At the same time, rather proud that the senior brother asked me to join. So it went for three days and two nights, I spent the weekend with smart teenagers and smarter undergrads. I’m truly in awe with the locals (I’m the only non-local there), they really know what they were doing, committed to achieving the objectives of the camp and loving towards the younger brothers and sisters coming from secondary schools in Perak. And especially the senior brothers, they are smart, firm but friendly and most importantly pious, in a way that they can lead the younger ones, giving tazkirahs and advices. Real Muslim leaders. I really salute them for their great personalities. Pardon me for saying that I can’t see these intelligence and piousness in Singapore brothers, whether they are IIUM students or elsewhere….maybe I’m saying too soon and I really hope that things will change, as we grow older and acquire more knowledge in Islam and other academics. Working in this motivational programme changed my perspectives towards the locals. There do have students with aims and views of the world and successful in their careers without forgeting their Muslim roots. I find myself learning from them. Yes they do have their shortcomings, but even that, I learn from their mistakes. I thank Allah for letting me join this programme. Ratu was proud of my two achievements in only one week…

And last week, I had a Bahasa Melayu Nusantara presentation, which my group organized a ‘Baktisiswa” programme. I acted as the chairperson for the opening ceremony. And truthfully I only prepared my text that morning, in my sociology class. But Alhamdulillah I performed well. Real well I guess because my teacher was all praise for me except for the few English words that I accidentally slipped in my speech. And she was satisfied with the rest of my group and the programme as a whole with interesting activities throughout the Baktisiswa. That made my day.

I’m actually proud of this Tuesday 17th May because of three things : BM presentation, Soca Strat assignment, which I’m relieved I got to finish it in only one night – the night before and of course, the grand event : interfaith dialogue. ALHAMDULILLAH