My IB journey

I still remember the day

I received phone call from 

Yayasan Tenaga Nasional (YTN);

telling me about the offer.

Electrical Power Engineering

International Baccalaureate, KMB (2 years)

Canada (4 years)

I was so happy;

the first scholarship offer I received!

YTN was the first scholarship I applied for too!

I was at UTP that time, the first day there.

Went back to Malacca, before I even completed my registration, lol :P

The IB journey was insane.

It takes an IB survivor to understand that,

and tbh I never imagined my life would've been that hectic.

Because IB was not in my plan after all.

My initial plan was taking either ADFP or A-Level,

got offered for A-Level program too,

but I accepted YTN offer because 

I want a secure job kinda thing.

Because I will only agree to take engineering as my degree

if and only if I received scholarship 

that could guarantee me work.

So, alhamdulillah :)

The two years of IB;

I spent 30% of my time crying,

70% of my time struggling.

I was never struggling that hard

in my study before,

maybe because I knew how hard the program was.

Everything needed to be sent before deadlines,

so many deadlines

and I would try to make it one week before

because anything could happen in IB.

ie,

my laptop got cracked after I finished my EE;

thank god I had backups but I still needed to re-do

my experiments

 (Doing EE in Physics was not easy!)

I had to continuously improvise my Math Exploration,

I thank Allah for a wonderful math teacher

who was never tired in guiding through out the Math Exploration thingy.

Oh, speaking of Math HL,

it wasn't easy at all.

I put most of my effort doing math,

through out the days in KMB,

because I knew it wasn't easy.

Pn Surinam's such a dedicated teacher;

having her coming to the college during weekends,

even at nights (staying back at the staff room);

it made me want to push myself more.

If a teacher could sacrifice her time for you,

why can't you sacrifice for yourself?

However,

I didn't achieve my target for math,

in fact slightly lower than my usual score,

it made me a bit disappointed.

But like teacher always told me,

we could've done no more.

I've done my very best,

I've put my best effort to it;

and if the reward is not today,

may Allah bless the efforts so it can be 

my stepping stone to Jannah, insyaAllah.

Physics was tough for me.

I like it very much,

but it wasn't the same.

SPM and IB are completely different.

And Alhamdulilah

 physics turned out to be what I expected it to be :)

Chemistry..

Well, I was not a chemistry kinda girl;

never scored good grades when in high school,

but SPM turned out to be better.

But learning in KMB was so much different,

maybe after getting hard slap by my high school experience;

I was keen to learn chemistry 

and I did mention

about me having lack fundamental chemistry knowledge

to my teacher, Puan Punia; 

she seems to be very understanding.

She guided me all the way through,

 Chemistry was no longer

a burden to me.

So, Alhamdulillah, I did it.

Economics was a new thing for me;

I used to hate economics when it came to debating

because the only thing I knew was

"supply and demand"

but I was definitely and entire wrong 

because there're so many things in economics;

which made it very interesting!

Teacher Zaedah was very supportive and

every time she asked us to do

econs presentation on certain topics;

that's where I understood most :)

In IB, 

we still have to take Malay

and Malay was no longer about tatabahasa,

but literature. Like pure komsas in SPM.

The difference was there's no IB Malay reference book

sold at any store!

You have to understand all the poems and novels by your own,

finding all the gaya bahasa (metaphors, similes, images, plots, settings, themes...)

I like Malay!

Cikgu Hasni's such a cool teacher!

She makes Malay so close to my heart,

and that's what IB wants tho,

to never forget our root :)

English is fun I would say!

All the presentations, orals,

sharing of ideas;

well English is always my favourite lesson since forever!

(Even tho I am not da bomb at it, but it's okay to love it, right?)

I am not a high achiever,

I am such a normal student,

I am never a genius,

I was not born smart.

But KMB teaches me to work and study hard,

to study so hard to achieve my dreams.

The dreams that I always have since I was a little girl.

Alhamdulillah

It teaches me a lot of life lessons.

No, I do not get all 7 for my subjects,

my total points were just enough for me to make

it to the next step.

Support system was indeed very important.

Family, teachers and friends,

they're all there for me.

Thank you so much for every single thing.

And especially to the One who will always be there

to listen and lend me these groups of wonderful people;

Allah SWT.

Thank you Allah.

I thank Allah for this wonderful chance 

that He still gives me.

Because of His mercy, I am who I am today.

After all,

this is not all because of my hard works,

this is a gift from Allah,

He sparks happiness in my eyes,

that can be seen through my parents' eyes

and my teachers' smiles :)

Indeed,

the journey of taking IB

shapes me to be a better person,

and it cannot be traded with anything in the world.

(If I had to re-take IB, I would not want to :P)

But all of these experiences

will never be part of my life, 

if I rejected YTN offer earlier, right?

This is not a post to brag about what I've achieved.

This is what I feel, and I want to share this experience  with all of you.

We all have different struggles in life,

other people may say their programs are harder,

it depends on how we take it and consume it.

I cried, 

because my result was not up to my expectation.

But then I realised,

I was wrong for doing that. 

Because Allah still gives me chance to fly to Canada.

Super awesome result might make 

me feel complaisant 

and maybe the idea

of working hard might be forgotten.

My result is a warning tho,

this is a golden chance for me

to be who I wanna be,

to achieve what I wanna achieve

and may this chance be something

that can bring me closer to Allah.

Some people succeed today,

some WILL the next day.

Allah listens to all our prayers,

and He is the best planner.

Congratulations to those who make it,

the others, I am sure there're always chances to be grabbed.

I didn't just say this because of courtesy, no.

Truth is,

I've failed many times in life.

I've cried a lot. 

But failure is somehow important

as it can be a turning point in our life,

and it may change our life, 360degree.

InsyaAllah.

The matter of a believer is strange

because everything is good for a believer.

So this means that,

no matter what we're going through in life;

having firm faith that this is actually

good for me;

whether or not I understand it,

but I know 

deep down,

that this is good for me.

Allah knows what's best for us, 

have faith in His fate.