The smells of NATURE

 Since I was a kid, my parents had given me the chance to go for a camping trip with school. I've started to join this activity when i was nine years old. That was my first experience. For me, hiking is a fun way for you to blend with nature. Since then, every year, I will definitely join most of the outdoor activity held by the school. After graduate from school, it's hard to find someone who has the passion same as you. So yeah, I stopped for a while. and last year, my brother join this one club, Gunung Online.com. He asked me to follow him to go for hiking. For the first time after two years resting,I went to Pahang with his group. 

The place was magnificent. 

The beauty of the waterfall is really amusing.

 I also brought my friend Lisa Karolina from Sweden since she told me she rarely go hiking back in her country. 

 The whole group.

  This is at Sg.Pisang, Gombak. 

You only have to go trekking only about 45minutes to reach the waterfall.

They called it Sg.Pisang because there's only one banana tree at this area. 

The scenery is superbly awesome.

 On top of that, besides hiking, I usually join this one more activity called canyoning that requires abseils, ropework, technical climbing and down-climbing, technical jump and also technical swims. As for people who don't know what canyoning is, I just tell them it's like abseiling through the waterfall. Canyons can be very difficult when to have to step onto those slippery stones full of moss. 

But, I really enjoy it very much. For me, canyoning is not that tiring compared to rock climbing since you don't have to climb up all the way and use the full body weight to support you. 

I think people should commercialized this extreme sports since it is not that famous in Malaysia. We have a lot of beautiful waterfall that haven't been discovered. Even though, it's quite dangerous and a bit scary; I think the feelings when you reached the bottom of the waterfall is all that matters. 

Football !!

I started to support football, Manchester United in particular, when I was eight years old. Ever since then football has played a big part in my life. I started off as a defender, a right back to be more precise and I have since played in many other positions however the position I think I play my best football is as a defensive midfielder. I played football throughout my school life and when I was in secondary school I played for the school team. However being young and immature I threw away that chance by not performing well and not turning up for football training as I thought I was indispensible from the team. After some time I was kick out of the school team.

When I was in form four a few class mates and I decided to create our own football team. The team name was Ghazi, meaning soldier and I was vice captain of the team. The team started off with just my class mates at that time and then we slowly expanded and boys from other classes joined our team. We joined football and futsal competitions with this team and won quite a few medals. During that time I suffered many injuries that I still carry now. Some of the injuries were quite bad and became permanent. Sadly after we completed our form 5 examinations we all went our different ways and the team was no more.

After school finished I hardly played football but played more futsal and created my own team named Hot Ballz. With this team I played in a few leagues and won a few more medals. However, after the FIFA World Cup last year my friends and I decided to start playing football again and ever since then we make it a point to play at least once a week.

This sport has thought me many things but two of the most important things that it has thought me is, number one, team work is invaluable and number two, always keep calm and never lose your head. Without team work in football you are bound to lose and if you can’t keep calm you’re not going to be able to play. The thing that I would love to do most now would be to go to Manchester and have a kick about with some of the Manchester United players.

Music As an AntiDote; Music as a Lesson; Music as Something More.

Music as an antidote, why? Simply because all of us have a certain amount of poison that is tucked deep within us and most of us are not able to voice out what that poison is. Let’s face it; a good number of us aren’t wordsmiths and we weren’t given a manual at birth explaining how to get rid of those poisons. In these cases, that is where music comes in using its melody serenading us with its sounds, or some people would say, the sound of life…

"Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent. -Victor Hugo

Can you think back to the last time you used music as a tool to vent out the feelings that you’re feeling which can’t be explained? It could range from being happy, excited, sad, angry, or depressed. How frequent do you use music as a tool?

I have used and am still using music as a tool to vent out the feelings that I went through and the feelings that I am currently going through. It helps when the type of music you listen too expresses the feelings that you are currently going through. For example, when you’re angry, you listen to music with genres like ‘Rock/metal’, when your love struck, you listen to the CD titled ‘Loves Greatest Hits’. I can’t speak for everyone, but I can surely speak for myself, this is exactly how I feel. Furthermore, whenever I am depressed or feeling sad, music never seems to fail to cheer me up and sometimes even inspire me to do more in life.

“Where words fail, music speaks.”- Hans Christian Andersen quotes

Not only that, music plays a role in the way we express ourselves in public. It shows others the type of society we are in, our culture and most of all our individuality. With so many genres to pick from, we tend to pick the genres that show our characteristics and personality, and also the genres that understand us the most. For example, in the early 1970s, the skinhead culture was closely associated with music genres such as soul, ska, and early reggae. They used music to express their thoughts and feelings through the clothes they wear and they lifestyle that they led. With that being said, the genres that I have chosen are Rock and Metal. I may not wear rocker pants and have mascara on (like the band KISS), but those genres allows me to express my individuality and it understands the thoughts and feelings that I am going through.

“Every man's work, whether it be literature or music or pictures or anything else, is always a portrait of himself, and the more he tries to conceal himself the more clearly will his character appear in spite of him.” -Samuel Butler quotes

Considering that music has played such a big part of my life, I wouldn’t know where I stood without music. When I study, I listen to music; when I sleep, I listen to music; when I am in the car, I listen to music.

When a pair of earphones is plugged into my ears, and the music starts playing, it feels as though I am in my own world, somewhere I belong. Music influences me to push my limits when I am at my limit, picks me up and dust me off when I am down or have given up, gets angry/happy whenever I am angry/happy.

So in the end, music has taught me a number of things. The lyrical aspects of music has given me countless of advises on how to handle life’s unexpected events that comes knocking at your door. Most lyrics are written based on life experiences that other people have been through. So this gives me a small window to put myself in their shoes and understand what went wrong and hopefully it doesn’t happen to me.

Meanwhile, it also teaches me that the melody of any song can change from a low to a high point anytime throughout the song which illustrates life a lot. For example, at one point in life, you can experience the happiest point in life, and the next point in life, you may just hit your head at the curb and go through the worst hell of your life. With this in mind, music thought me that appreciation of what you have in life is very important because you never know when the last time you’re going to have it in your grasp.

Finally it teaches me to never give up on what you love. For example, only a handful of musicians made it into the hall of fame and that’s because they never gave up; they never backed down from their passion. I entered psychology because I am intrigued by the way people think and why people do what they do, therefore no matter how hard or narrow the road might be, I should never give up or back down from what I love.

"Without music, life would be a mistake." -Friedrich Nietzsche

P.S, Music may be among my passions but it doesn't define me, music is just a tool that allows me to get close and understand the people around me. J

These are just some pictures of noteworthy bands/singers which I would like to share with you all

Magic and Life

In truth, the only restrictions on our capacity to astonish ourselves and each other are imposed by our own minds.

David Blaine.

What is Magic? A question that holds many different answers. To me, the power of magic is not in trick we think we see, but it’s the act itself...the image the magician creates, the way it makes us feel, that certain sense of childlike wonder. When the magician provokes us into wonder when he demonstrates the impossible, we ask ourselves...Why? The answer is...it’s all magic. The main concept of magic is basically “making the impossible possible”. This saying is clearly portrayed by many different individuals throughout the years. Such famous magicians like Houdini, David Copperfield and David Blaine all are such unique individuals who have mastered the art and caused countless people to question reality.

Magic comes in many different forms, whether or not it is in the form of playing cards or in the form of illusions. However, no matter different forms that come with magic, it all leads to one thing which is Amazement. Many people may question how such magic tricks and stunts are done, but what most people do not understand is the psychology behind the magic. As a young magician, I was first introduced to the art at a young age whereby magic was considered to be a way to impress people. Only through time I begin to fully understand the true meaning of magic, which is trying to achieve something that is not natural or humanly possible. Such tricks like making a coin disappear or identifying a card in a shuffled deck are some of the many tricks that I’ve learned to do. Till this day, by performing such tricks I’m still able to receive a sense of amusement from my audience. As time went on, I soon discovered a way to place the psychology of magic into my day to day life. For instance, if I can make a coin disappear, I should be able to achieve well in university studies. It soon became clear to me, that nothing is impossible in life. This new concept basically changed my whole view on life and gave a boost in my confidence to work hard to achieve something. This fairly similar to magic in the sense that, in order to learn a new sleight one will work hard and practice every day. Same goes to life, if you want something you would probably work hard to achieve it. This is what I feel about magic.

The Little Ones

All my life (well, somewhat part of it), I always knew that I wanted to be a psychologist. As I grew up, I narrowed my options and decided to pursue my Masters in Child Psychology but one day a substitute teacher came into class and told us about other career options and I was really drawn towards the idea of being a speech therapist.

A speech therapist helps people to recover from an injury to parts of the body where voice is being projected. It involves the throat, voice box etc. Being a speech therapist, I would mostly be attending to clients who lost total or partial ability to speak through accidents, people with stuttering problems and also children who have undergone cleft lip surgery.

A child psychologist deals with children with autism, ADD, ADHD, dyslexia and so on. To me, there is no better patients to work with than children because they are the ones who have done the least wrong and always see the good in people. Children are pure in thought and actions despite their conditions and that is why they deserve to be helped to live their lives in the best possible way.

Going back to Child Psychology, one of the reasons I chose Child Psychology was because I was worried that if I chose Clinical Psychology, patients may attack me and stab me to death! I know my imagination may have gone a little wild but I stick to my reasons hence I decided that going into Child Psychology may be a safer option.

Being greeted with a smile feels good but being greeted with a smile from a kid feels a gazillion times better. I cannot really explain how it actually makes me feel better but it does. Other than that, the hugs from them are the next best thing! Knowing that I am loved, remembered and wanted enriches my life and makes me love them even more.

Everything sounds really rosy and perfect at the moment but the reality is that there will always be a few of the mischievous ones. Girls are always the easier ones and boys are the challenging ones. To get them to listen to what you have or even getting them to sit still for 15 minutes is tiring enough. Sometimes the way they speak renders me speechless, I simply do not know what to answer. Nevertheless, when they are nice to you or when they decide to lend a helping hand, they can really be a role model to the younger boys.

After all these years of observing and being involved with children, I learnt that a given responsibility will make one more responsible (this applies to kids too!). This is my passion and I love what I am and will be doing for the forseeable future.

This is the bunch of kiddies that never fail to make my Sunday.

Have I mentioned how awesome hugs from kids are?

They are too adorable to not be LOVED.

Children make you want to start life over. ~Muhammad Ali

Well said!

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