Everyone needs sky. Why? Because without sky, when we turn up all we could see is just gloomy, dark space. Sky is blue. Why is it blue? Because if sky are black, our day will be full of sorrow and we couldn’t see any slight of sunshine that will make our day brighter again. Sky makes us feel protected as it protects our day. Without sky, comets or anything from the universe might attack us. Sky makes us feel more secure than ever. Sky is beautiful and interesting to look at. However, we might hate sky. We thought sky is giving us too much sun in day and too much darkness at night.  We might hate sky because it keeps on raining for a few days or the weather might be hotter for a week. We will have reasons to hate on sky. But, no matter how we hate it, the sky will still remain the same. Every day, we wake up, we see the vast blue sky and we smile. Again today, the sky remains the same even human keep on blaming the sky for anything that stops their daily activities. Everywhere we go, sky is there with us. Everything we did, sky is there shielding yourself. Every single feeling we had, the sky will spread its blueness that is calming to us. Sky will remains as sky. I couldn’t hate the vast blue sky because the sky reminds me to those people I love. Wherever I go, I know, all of the people I love will look at the same sky as I do. The sky is telling them how much I miss the people I love so dearly.

I choose sky as my metaphor of life. No matter how badly I do, I know I have myself I could lean on. No matter how much some people will try to turn me down, I know I will not hate them because I will remain the same as my old self because I have myself with me. Wherever I go, I know I will be able to make people who are far away from me feels safer because my du’a are with them, always. I know I will be able to make those I love smile, one fine day. I reflect myself as sky. Though I barely can’t be with them everywhere I go, my prayer are with them, always. As the sky is changing as it will be raining, as it will be hotter, I too have changing in emotions. But at the end of the day, the sadness will try to make escape from myself, the anger will try to run away from me, because I chose happiness to stay with me. Sky is so pretty, so do me. Though every day I go through the phase of being someone who is not pretty, I believe in me, I love and accept myself with all of my heart. I want to be someone who can protect me because we will be alone one day. Everyone will leave us. Some might hate us. We need to able to accept who ourselves is because if we don’t love ourselves more, how do we accept everyone will love “the you” other than our family? Look through your souls. Find the inner self of yourselves. Start believing that you could fly higher until you reach the sky. 

I have been in both situations. 

I have felt the moment when one is on top of the world, and then tragically drop to the deepest depth. 

I have felt when one feels everything can go his or her way, but then it vanishes in a blink of an eye. 

In the end, it is how you deal with the situations that life gives you. 

 

I was at my peak when I was 17, freshly graduated with beyond-expectation achievements in hand. I had so many choices to choose from, so many great ambitions to achieve, yet so clueless on where to start and settle down. I felt like the world was in the grasp of my hand, and most probably, because I thought of it that way, I overestimated my ability. I chose thing that I knew from the very beginning would not bring me any happiness. I chose it because I wanted people to value my capability; a capability that was not there in the first place. I chose it because I did not want people to look down on me; something that I, myself, did in the process. 

 

Then, everything was taken from me. I looked at my friends, those who managed to get average results, go to different type of universities. I looked at them doing what they wanted to do most, and in the end, it became their strengths. They achieved something even better than me. I realised that I had been stupid, that I had been a fool, to look down on them, just because I managed to achieve something better first. 

 

Hence, to me, life is like a Ferris wheel. Just because you’re on the top of the world now, does not mean you will stay up forever. It will keep rotating. You will be on the bottom anytime life wants you to. My advice is to stay humble.

Each and every day, when you woke up tell yourself that today is another day to live your life to the fullest. Go explore many great things in life that can give you and people around you benefits. Look back on your life experience either positive or negative to learn more about yourself. Love yourself as much as you can. Don’t bother what others said about you. You only live once, so make the best of it. Always reflect yourself from time to time to improve yourself to be a better person.  Never stop learning because life never stop teaching.

Violets are blue,

Life is like a braid,

And this is my diary.

 

Life is not a life,

Life is a challenge,

There are north and south,

There are west and east,

Every day I will have to move,

Walk here and there with my friends,

Without my parents by my side.

 

Life is like a braid,

It is indeed hard to be miles and miles away from my parents, my elder brother and vice versa;

Because being the youngest and the only daughter to them, 

It is just not easy, not at all.

 

Life is like a braid,

My dad, my hero,

He has always been so protective to me,

through thick and thin, 
I feel very safe and secure whenever he is with me,

He will treat me like a little princess,

Provided me  with everything and I never feel less.

Life is indeed a braid, 

One day, my dad gave me a book,

An inspirational book, The Rules.

He told me not to read it until I am 18,

It is a book about how the life of a girl will be now, tomorrow and in future,

I am so touched and I don’t feel like turning 18 yet.

 

Life is like a braid,

The queen of my life, my mum,

The one who always nag and nag and nag,

But she is the most wonderful lady in my entire 

life,

She inspired me in every aspects,

Guided me through all the obstacles, through all the braids I faced in life,

She cooks very well, you will never regret eating her food every day,

I am so close to her, and that is why I felt so sad being away from her,

And again, life is like braid.

 

Life is like braid,

Undeniable, unconditional, braids,

Winding like the snake-like road,

Endlessly making me feel sad for being so far from my family,

However, life is not a life,

Life is still a challenge,

I am here, in Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, 

For one main reason,

For my future,

To accept challenges and face it fearlessly,

I am going to prove to everybody that I am capable to be someone, someday,

To make my parents proud of me, 

and to find my future and career.

Remember, life is like a braid,

Twisting around and again,

But life is a challenge to each and every one of us in this cruel world. 
Thank you!

And a friend, or known as a twin of mine from different parents, said “You are like a strawberry. Looks good from the outside, looks just fine, but sour inside. You look happy, but there is a lot of things in your mind, you are facing so many obstacles. But you kept it to yourself and hide it with a smile.”. As he typed that, I reflected on myself about it. And you know what, he was right. I had a lot in my mind, but I rarely tell people about it and just kept it to myself, which is unhealthy actually.

But I guess I got a great family and great friends, that is why I could go through life happily ever after like in fairy tales. Even though I have a lot of problems and worries, with the special people around me, I feel like I am on top of the world! And while I was typing this, I might actually relate to a chocolate-coated strawberry. Sour inside but with chocolate, it becomes sweet.

As we can see, the leaves of a tree are not only green in color. It might be yellow, orange, brown and sometimes red.  It changes color as time passes by and after a while, it will fall. But, new leaves will grow and the tree will look prettier than how it used to look like. Just like the leaves, I have multiple personalities and it changes from time to time. You are lucky if you meet me when I am as bright as the green leaves, but you will face the biggest crisis in your life if you meet me when I turn into a red-colored leaf. I might be really mad at that moment, but after a while, I changes into a brown-colored leaf and fall. I become lost and break into pieces once you step on me. I start to regret for being mad and blame myself even though I am not the one who was wrong. Despite that, I never fail to stand up again and grow, just like a new leaf.

When we look at a tree, the things that come in our mind are rough and strong. That is exactly how people that meet me for the first time explain how I look like. They say I look like a rough and strong person, they say I look intimidating. But once they get to know me, they say I am totally different from what they think I am. They say I am actually a cool person who is full of humor and they say they feel comfortable hanging out with me. Try to go and stand under a big tree. Don’t you feel it has some kind of a cooling feeling? Yes, that is how I am. Cool and comfortable, even though I look rough and strong.

Tree depends a lot on its roots as it transports water and nutrients from the ground to other parts of the tree. Before my little sister was born, I was the only child in my family. I depend a lot on my parents almost on everything. This is not because I was raised like a princess; this is because I am scared that I might make a mistake when I decide on something on my own. Just like water and nutrients transported from the roots to other parts of the tree, my parents love have been flowing in me; helping me to grow up to be who I am now. I never forget my roots no matter where I go and some people might think that I am weird because I am always in contact with my parents no matter where I go. I also never know how to lie to my parents no matter how hard I try to.

Trees provide oxygen to all living things and none of us can live without trees. So, live your life like a tree where everyone needs you just like they need oxygen.