Nepenthe

The year is about to end in 4 days. This time last year I was still at the worst phase of my entire life, a soulless person trying to escape her darkness by traveling with her uncle's family to Tokyo. After a few weeks of desolation and without any written resolutions, I started coming back to life. I lost myself after series of terrible situations that made me lose all my self worth, almost to the point of self harm. It was the year that I began to take little steps of improvement that I wasn't exactly aware of. Maybe it was because I have more time to focus on myself so I did. Starting from physical appearances to health to interpersonal skills, I did it all. 2018 was the year that I began a solid skincare routine, subscribed to a fitness program and started working out, started being health conscious and watching what I feed my body, started cooking my own food and tried out a lot of recipes, started being closer to my mum and sister, traveled to Indonesia with them, started learning a third language, started watercoloring and cleaning and tidying, managed to pass all my units for the year after lots of 'N' on my script, started saving money, started making friends in uni, reached out (first) to old friends to reconnect and started being more social... oh well, the list goes on and on.

All without the help of anti-depressants.

At some point of my life, I thought I was one of those who had to rely on pills to be happy. Of course, there's nothing wrong with taking medications if you're sick, but I always wanted to prove myself that I could do this on my own. I wanted to create my own healthy coping mechanisms. Despite being hinted many times by my counsellor to have my blood checked, I opted for the natural remedies. Yes, they worked slowly but wonderfully although I do have a period of relapse somewhere in May and then a smaller episode of relapse towards the end of second semester, but I made it through. I really made it through. Who says progress has to be linear?

Of course, I have yet to figure out where I'm going with my life. Actually, I have a lot to figure out. As a means of trying to find a direction in life, I've chopped a lot of my hair (although that has nothing to do with life lol) and started to save money a little more seriously. I've also invested in a pretty expensive bullet journal (sis is a cheapskate) that I plan to really put myself into, making it my side-kick as I go through another year trying to better myself. Putting my deen as my priority, I hope Allah will direct me to Him and ease me to learn more about Islam and practice it. I've made a few changes in terms of my religious routine so hopefully that goes well into the new year.

2018 has witnessed my recovery, so I hope to be presenting my exponent growth to 2019.

Since I don't want to just sleep during my summer break, I mentioned that I wanted to jump back into reading and read as many books as I can in these three months time. This week at my hometown I picked up and finished a title from Mitch Albom called For One More Day. I feel so amazing already for being able to finish it within a week, but let's not talk about how amazing I am and focus on how amazing the book is instead. I know, I know, you can stop clapping.

I didn't actually read the synopsis of the book but I had read from a lot of places that Mitch Albom writes some pretty good stuff so I thought I'd just give it a read. Turned out it was about (okay I don't know how to do this) love that lots of people take for granted. As a woman who grew up without dating and in a family where intimacy is hard between us, I find myself sometimes longing for love, affection and attention from a significant other. Far at the back of my mind I know I should seek it from within myself, the people close to me and most importantly from my Creator, but that's it – it only stays at the back of my mind.

Reading this book has made me resurface this fact. I look back and realise all the times that I have been distant from my own family members, even though for the past couple of years I have been trying to change the situation. I could say that my relationship with my family has improved, except for that with my father. In the book, Chick "lost his mother to death", and he "lost his father to shame". On the other hand, I lost my father to death, and I would never ever wish to lose my mother to shame.

As I have mentioned, I have been trying the best I can to mend things with my family and the relationship between my mother and I have been a lot better, even though I still keep some personal things to myself. However, while reading this book, my mind always get transported back to the memories I have with my father. There are not many, but are still vivid.

I never lived with my father. He lived separately with my extended family but he would always come to visit, or we would always stop by their place while traveling back hometown. My father was artsy. He used to take unused school books from his children and draw in them. He wrote poetry too. I only remember one or two of them but I would be so inspired that I started drawing too. He used to do magics too. He would do his tricks whenever he came to visit us and I would be amazed every time. He taught us a few of his tricks but to this day, I only remember one.

My father was wise with his words. I remember when I was 15, he picked me up one day from school in KB, and asked me about my friends. I told him about how my old friends from the previous school gave me so many presents as parting gifts, and he told me that was how they appreciated me and meant that I was a good friend to them. I always struggled with self-love since I was young but at that moment, I probably teared up a little because his words made me feel a little appreciative of myself.

When I was 17 I got all As for my GCSE. I was happy but not exactly over the moon about it. One weekend, I was on the laptop in my room carrying on with my life as usual, and he was there visiting for a while. Before he went back, he came over to my room and kissed me on my forehead as a congratulations on my result. I was taken aback, didn't say anything except for a little smile and returned back to my laptop because it felt so strange. If I were more thankful for my results, it wasn't because of the straight As but his kiss instead.

When I was 19 I was late for my bus back to college. He was driving me there. My mother was there too. When we arrived at the bus station we saw the bus leaving. He stopped the car immediately and ran out to chase the bus for me. I had been in his situation before and I knew how embarrassing it felt but it didn't matter. Before I hurriedly got on the bus, body still high from the adrenaline, I shaked his hands and unconsciously hugged him and kissed his cheeks, as how I used to do it with my friends. It didn't feel as strange anymore, but in the bus after I calmed down, it dawned on me how weird it was to salam my father like that, because I never did that before, ever. But boy was I glad that I did.

I was turning 23 when he started getting really sick, and since then he rarely called me anymore. I didn't call him a lot because I was so caught up with life away in Shah Alam. I used to wonder why he hadn't called as much, but I never picked up the phone myself and asked him. I really wish I did. I wish I was closer to him. I wish I knew more about him. I wish I wasn't as shy as a kid that I never got rid of the thought of him being a stranger. I wish I hadn't run away whenever he wanted to talk more to me. I wish I stood up more for him.I wish I was more chatty with him. I wish I was nicer to him. I wish I had called him more often, or as often as he would call me.

But now he's gone, I'm 24 and I can't call him on the phone anymore.

So appreciate your folks when you still have the chance. It's the right thing to do. If anything, this should make me want to work hard for jannah so I could be reunited with him and do all the things I wish I had and hadn't done with him, eternally.

This is Farahana Nur signing off, trying to stifle a sob.

After what seems to be years (literally), I am finally through my fifth year of my bachelor's degree, and I am still not done. Yes, you read it right. The degree that should have been three years, but it's going to take me six years to complete. It's longer than a medical degree ffs. I have been under-loading and failing my units due to a lot of circumstances, some of them being the passing of my dad and trouble managing my time and difficulty with the da'wah circle that I was in. I was almost at the point of quitting altogether but for some reason, I am still here, although barely passing my units, trying as hard as I can to be a normal student living her university life – making friends, joining clubs and societies, taking part in events etc. all the things that I didn't do for the first 4 years, and most importantly, healing. I can't wait to be done with this because it feels like I have been held back for too long. It is time I progress into a new phase of life.

Anyways, I now have three months of summer holiday. The long awaited break is finally here but three days after my last exam, I am already losing my mind due to boredom. I was so focused on finishing the semester that I hadn't thought of what to do afterwards. I was supposed to be doing a voluntary placement/internship during this summer break but since my grandmother had gotten sick in the past month, it seems like I am the one who's going to take care of her for the time being. I am really scared of being really inactive for the whole three months so I am planning to do a lot of things to occupy myself (planning, as usual). I mentioned about this in my daily journal but let's put it here for a better documentation. It'll be a great satisfaction to check the list as we go through it, no?

• finish my watercolor papers (by painting of course)
• exercise four times a week
• read at least 5 pages of a book every day
• consistent post in my blog
• try cooking new recipes
• 15 minutes of French lessons on Duo every day
• swim every chance I get
• spring cleaning
• sell/donate old clothes and books

My anxiety was sky-rocketing last week. I skipped a lot of classes because I felt like I couldn't face anyone. I spent a lot of time in my bed scrolling my screen through a lot of social media, web comics, blogs, vlogs, youtube videos and so on until they all became boring. I felt dead again. I didn't know what was the trigger this time but the lag during my mid-semester break definitely took the inertia as I struggled to come back on track. One song into my 'cloudy' playlist and I was already breaking down into tears in my car.

I am still learning the healthy coping mechanisms that would help me. I know cleaning, cooking and working out helps, but I've been trying out writing and watercolour painting. Today marks the first day that I've finished an A4 page of painting. It wasn't actually a painting, just swatches of my watercolour cakes and a side painting of a sunset, but I love it nevertheless. I am currently liking the fact that I'm trying out and learning as much skills as I can before I graduate. One of them should involve social interactions but let me just indulge in introverted activities for now. As of now, I am focusing on learning French, swimming and painting.

I am a perfectionist, and this characteristic affects my anxiety a lot. I can't stand doing half-ass work, and if I'm not confident about doing something, I won't do it at all. I know learning to paint is going to teach me huge lessons regarding perfectionism and anxiety. I know my first try isn't going to be perfect, but I am willing to try and not stop halfway due to my untalented ass lol. Even from the first page, I've already learned that I am not so patient (I had to wait for the paint to dry before layering but I did not so it leaked everywhere -_-). So this is it, my first page of drawing, with cheap watercolour cakes, brushes and papers. I have sooooo many negative comments about it but for today, let me just settle with 'nice' (I'm being a lot nicer to myself, yes). My mood improves tremendously after looking at this imperfect, sloppy painting (ironic) and I just can't wait to finish my sketchbook and grow better in painting by the end of it.

To those of you who are reading this, I hope you take a chance to learn something new for yourself. Life is short, you have to try everything.

This is Farahana Nur listening to Mirror by Bazzi.

I've been eyeing this product for a while but I just wasn't sure if it was gonna work well and worth my money (because I'm a cheapskate). But when I heard that they were going to stop producing this, I immediately knew that I had to give it a try. I've been using it for about 3 weeks, one pump twice per day before moisturiser and I could say that it's been working quite well with my skin. My hormonal acne still comes every other day, but they healed up pretty fast and didn't leave a mark as dark as before I used this essence. As for hydration, it didn't do much for my oily dehydrated skin so I still need to invest in a good moisturiser for this problem. Overall, I hope the rumour isn't true and they will continue producing this because I will definitely repurchase!

     2.   Music: The album Cosmic by Bazzi.

This was released around April this year and I only started listening to the full album this month and I just gotta say that he got me hooooked! I love almost every song in this album, they're just so good that by now I probably know half of his lyrics, it's definitely my vibe. I've been replaying it every chance I get. I was gonna list out my favourite songs from this album but then I would be listing out the whole album lol. If you like soft hip-hop mixed with rnb and a little bit of pop, you should definitely check this album out here.

     3.   Book: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck by Mark Manson

Honestly I haven't finished this book and I've started reading it a few months ago (no shame), but this is one of those books that you have to take your time reading it because every page and every chapter is filled with truth that makes you question your life so you gotta slowly digest every sentence. With just a few chapters in, I can already feel my mindset and lifestyle changing towards the better, and helping out with my internal issues but yes, you gotta deal with a lot of tough transitions. Nevertheless, I assure you that after all the rain comes the rainbow. I feel like most of his principles are just the basic teachings of Islam which made it really really comforting because you know you're in the right religion/deen. This book, personally for me, explains the practical ways of the theories that you learn from Islam, so that's really good. Go and pick this up even though you feel like you already have a good life; it's just gonna make it better.