Jottings

Happy Birthday, Me!

Dear 12-year-old Syafique,

I have decided to re-visit you as I turned 24 years old yesterday. I also believe you wanted to meet me? The 24-year-old version of yourself? You see, as you turned 12, you were very excited that it was the Year of the Tiger and you often wonder what life would be like when you turn 24 when it’s the Year of the Tiger again.

Voila, here I am!!

I hope you are settling just fine in Guangzhou, China… your home of the moment. I also hope you like your new school and hope that you have lots of new friends. What am I kidding, I know exactly how you feel. But of course I am not here to recap your life in the year 1998.

As you are only 12 years old, I do not expect you to figure out the meaning of life or knowing your destiny and what you want to do in your life. Hello? You’re just kiddo. Take it easy. Chill. Let the 17-year-old Syafique handle all that grown-up stuff.

Anyways, if I could go back to the past, here are some stuff that I would be telling you:

• Be happy. Have fun. Stay cheerful
• Speak up in class so that your participation grade can be much higher
• It is okay to be a kiddo, even though you feel pressure to be a “teenager”
• Concentrate during Mr Flynn’s English class, otherwise you have to bring home a Progress Report and ask your mum to sign! Oh wait, you eventually threw the Progress Report in the rubbish bin outside the classroom and your mum never saw it! Bad!!
• Do extra training so you can beat your brother during the Middle/High School Sprint Race, otherwise your brother will constantly brag about his win
• Don’t force your mum to change your school. Big mistake
• Practice the recorder so that Ms Linnell don’t have to yell, “Who is not playing the correct note???”
• Don’t try to hide your crooked teeth. Your teeth will remain until you finally decide to have brances (which is only a few years ago!)
• Don’t avoid your mengaji class. That’s not cool.
• Please take advantage of your status as Miss Chen’s favorite student in her Mandarin class. (Oh, at the end of the school year, she is going to give you an award so don’t be shy to stand in front of the whole school!)
• There’s no use forcing your brother to stop teasing you. He is going to tease you for the rest of your life! Deal with it.

There are obviously many other things I want to tell you but I think the most important advice is that: Things are going to be fine. Life is going to be a messy roller coaster ride as you reach thirteen, fourteen, fifteen… more challenges are ahead, but you are going to be fine. Don’t be afraid. Your early struggles with peer pressure and low self-esteem are just lessons in disguise, to equip you to become a stronger person in the future.

Trust me. I am 24 now and I enjoy my life as it is. It is far from perfect but I feel blessed. There are many more things that I want to achieve but I feel grateful for all the achievements thus far.

So, 12-year-old Syafique… buckle up and enjoy the ride. Let’s have this conversation again with the 36-year-old Syafique and assess the progress, shall we?

Take care.

XOXO

Syafique Shuib, 24.

1. OldTown White Coffee
2. Madam Kwan’s
3. Little Penang Cafe
4. KLCC Food Court, Level 4
5. Dome
6. Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa
7. Wan Jo, Kampung Baru
8. The makciks nasi lemak down the road
9. Nasi Lemak Tanglin
10. SS2
11. Nasi Lemak Boss, Ampang Jaya
12. Garden @ The Curve
13. Penang Village, Hartamas Shopping Centre
14. AirAsia (Yes, they have good nasi lemak, too!)
15. Splendid, Jusco AU2
16. Uncle Lim’s
17. Bestari, Plaza Damas
18. Aji Don, Hartamas Shopping Centre
19. AU4, Keramat
20. The Canteen, Jalan Yap Kwan Seng
21. Fruity, Tesco Shah Alam (Now Closed)
22. Giant Food Court
23. NZ, Wangsa Maju
24. Seksyen 13, Shah Alam

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1. “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” – Robert Brault
2. “It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.” – Erma Bombeck
3. “I tell people I’m too stupid to know what’s impossible. I have ridiculously large dreams, and half the time they come true.” – Debi Thomas
4. “A word to the wise ain’t necessary – it’s the stupid ones that need the advice.” – Bill Cosby
5. “The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.” – Maya Angelou
6. “When you forgive, you in no way change the past – but you sure do change the future.” – Bernard Meltzer
7. “If you take responsibility for yourself, you will develop a hunger to accomplish your dreams” – Les Brown
8. “Don’t confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other.” – Erma Bombeck
9. “Friendship… is not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.” – Muhammad Ali
10. “Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.” – Judy Garland
11. “A hug is a handshake from the heart.” – Author Unknown
12. “If you don’t think every day is a good day, just try missing one.” – Cavett Robert
13. “No one is perfect… that’s why pencils have erasers.” – Author Unknown
14. “When the world says, ‘Give up,’ Hope whispers, ‘Try it one more time.’” – Author Unknown
15. “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.”- John Powell
16. “Friendship isn’t a big thing – it’s a million little things.” – Author Unknown
17. “For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” – Author Unknown
18. “The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.” – Henry David Thoreau
19. “A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down.” – Arnold Glasow
20. “Never apologize for showing feeling.  When you do so, you apologize for the truth.” – Benjamin Disraeli
21. “True friendship comes when silence between two people is comfortable.” – Dave Tyson Gentry
22. “Get mad, then get over it.” – Colin Powell
23. “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” – e.e. cummings
24. “An apology is a good way to have the last word.” – Author Unknown

1. Cover Story of Kosmo!‘s Infiniti pull-out
2. Featured Blogger in The Star‘s R.AGE section
3. Purchased my first BlackBerry in late October…
4. …but only to lose it in January at KLCC food court
5. Purchased my second BlackBerry in March…
6. …but could only use the services after 10 days of purchase (and not 24 hours as promised)
7. …Thus, the mini-’War’ with DiGi via Twitter (That was fun!)
8. …And Malay Mail published my letter complaining DiGi’s customer service
9. Appointed Copy Editor at Expatriate Lifestyle magazine in September
10. ….but was offered to work at Y1M a month later!
11. My brother returned from New York for a (not so) short holiday
12. We went to Bali. Second day: EARTHQUAKE!!
13. Being friends with Feeza again (after less than a year of silence *dush*)
14. Met Jojo after a long MIA (Was it more than a year?)
15. …Well, the great news is that we finally made a pact whereby we would try to meet each other AT LEAST once a month
16. Car was towed by MBSA in late March
17. Joining Fitness First. (Someone please force me to go to the gym)
18. syafiqueshuib.com‘s columnist Jessica’s wedding
19. PM Dato’ Seri Najib’s Tea event with bloggers (I was on duty, ok?)
20. THE Martha Stewart ’follows’ me on Twitter!
21. Made some new great friends via Social Media, especially Twitter (Hello, Tweeples!)
22. Selected to mentor a new blogger from Africa as part of Global Voices project (www.globalvoicesonline.org). My mentee’s name is Diana
23. Lotus Racing Pit Garage tour during KL Grand Prix
24. Published in a German online political magazine (http://politik-digital.de/malaysia-internet-blogs)