Beyond the Classroom Walls

It is 3 pm and the monsoon seems not to take its place in Chukai today. It is hot and you need an extra fan. I sent my exam result to my sponsor two days ago and he replied the email yesterday. I do know that the officials check your results and performance etc. but it never occurred to me that they really check the numbers. I mean, each of the mark is looked at. One of them replied and gave me comments which elated me for a while. A little bit poyo eh?

Alhamdulillah, my result was okay and not super-excellent. I scored high on my baby subjects which proved to me again that when you like a subject, you score high in the exam. Although palaeontology and geoscience made my day, I was happier to see my geology result although it was 30 marks lower than palaeontology. 

I would say the mark is 'on the tong' which means the mark is just 10 marks nice above pass. I expected that I would get around 50-plus since my internal marks were extremely bad but I did not! Thank you, Allah! I did so bad in the Structural Geology Practical and I made stupid mistakes in Resource Geology Practical Tests. Do not get me started on the weekly quizzes. To make things worse, I answered Fault Types for a 'Fault Rock Question' in the final exam. I learnt my lesson- read the questions not just carefully but to read them at least 3 times before answering! Alhamdulillah, I scored well although from other people's eyes the mark it is low. I don't care. You do not know what have I gone through.

 اللَّهُمَّ لا سَهْلَ إلَّا مَا جَعَلْتَهُ سَهْلاً وَ إنْتَ تَحْعَلُ الْحزْنَ إذَا شِئْتَ سَهْلاً

Allahumma la sahla illa ma ja'altu sahla, wa 'anta taj-alul hazna idha shi'ta sahla

"O Allah!  There is nothing easy except what You make easy, and You make the difficult easy if it be Your Will"

 My sponsor said that there is room for improvement. Actually, there are thousands of rooms for me to improve! Although he said he was delighted to see a 9 and an 8 on my result, I know I should improve on my sixes. 

The seniors said this over and over again- the second year is the toughest of all. The thoughts of enduring second year which is 'tough' makes you question your ability to endure it. Well, you will never grow up without challenges, isn't it?

I personally failed once in my academic journey. My friends knew that and probably around a year ago, I remembered reading a post titled Zits. A friend of mine wrote it to tell how we cannot control our lives like we want to and she compared it to a game, Zits when I was broke down. I thought it was like Sims but never bothered to check it out. Thank you, Ainul. At that time, I remembered that some of my friends won't even calling me since they were scared that their calls might hurt me. Huh? But, it was your family and very close friends that made you went through the days. However, everything goes back to your relationship with Allah SWT. 

I firmly believe everyone should experience failure, at least once. I know it really makes good things happening to me. You struggled to make yourself stand up again. This is not the end. The journey is still long. 'Excellence is not an act, but a habit' Aristotle once quoted. These little achievements are the little medicines that heal your heart. For anyone else, it is nothing. For me, it is something hard to explain and I thank Allah SWT for that.

You may fail many times in the course of your life but how you get up is the most important. Ya Allah, thank you for the C in Physics A-Level.-The Chukai Insider