Reading room

I've been watching the advert on hallmark channel about a movie called 'Reading Room' for some time now. Was wondering when was it going to be aired on but didn't really bother to see the date and time. However, after watching my fave show Desperate Housewives just now, as usual when hubby is away, TV seems the be the next best thing and friend to be with, I quickly used my oh so skillfull fore finger to start changing channels on the remote control and ended up at the Hallmark channel. Then I said, ooh, its that show they've been advertising lately. And I ended up hooked on it, but like the movie titled 'Tuesday's with Morrie' which I never watched the ending, bought the book though and plan to read it soon, here I am blogging away instead of watching the show until the end.

What touched me in the movie, was about the people, all ages, but mostly teenagers in this movie, and their difficulties in reading. It made me wonder a lot about Ridhwan and that made me shed a tear or actually a few tears...why? Well, when you have a special needs child, you somehow take a bit more effort to learn about disabilities and its effects, especially children cause you have one on your own. Since going to Nury itself, it made me see different children with different needs and disabilities too. That made me thought, ya Allah, how thankful I am to have eyes to see, eyes to read, and a mouth to make sounds that turns out to words and then to sentences and eventually to a language that not only I can understand but others around me too. And then I thought, how we seem to take, or more accurately, I seem to have taken all these most important 5 senses for granted when there are people out there who may never have all 5 of them or are struggling to achieve to master the 5 senses. And for that, it definitely made me think of my son Ridhwan....

I've always heard about SATs in the USA and it seems to be quite an important test, probably equivalent to SPM over here in Malaysia. But one interesting thing in the movie that I learned was that there was such a thing as an untime test where the children or teenagers could to their SATs or other tests I presume, at an untime period, meaning until they can complete it. These applies to people who have dyslexia and so forth. Gosh, how can I be so ignorant I thought. That gave me a thought, do they have that here? I guess they would as recently, a partially or fully blind gal scored her STPM and that shows despite her disabilities, she actually is an intelligent young girl who just have the disability of not having a good eyesight which we, so called normal people may have always taken it for granted...and that brought me to even more tears...and that made me thought even more about Ridhwan as I realise, how it is my sole duty to educate my son, and give him the chance to have the best education and most importantly..teach him the beauty and excitement of reading...to learn how to read....ya Allah, give me strentgh to be able to read more so I may help my son as much as I can...give me strength and commitment and consistency to be there for my son as much as possible, to educate him, stimulate him and not one day, to complain of exhaustion and tiredness, as he demands, he requires and he deserves the best education and most of all...he deserves to know and understand how to read...wallahualam....

Convo story...a continuation

Gosh..it takes me such a long time to finish telling my convo story ya..hehee..well, guess what, I got sick after my convo and it prolonged to more than a week and then we started with Nury's exercises and so my days are filled for Ridhwan's physio, exercise regime at Nury and the occasional visits to SJMC for the monthly or bi-monthly follow up....

Anyway, where was I...oh ya, to cut the story short, the procession of us graduates into the hall was very short actually, we were walking quite fast and there we were cramped up in our seats in the Dewan Sri Budiman Hall. Seriously, I just don't see why UiTM won't spend some money to make a good hall to cater for their annual convocations...and to think that they have the convo twice in a year..I should know lah kan, cause living so near the UiTM you can't help noticing and hearing the sirens of the policeman or the outriders bringing in the VIP...hehee...yup, that is how near my house is to UiTM...

After some really cool video footage of UiTM, which was really nice actually cause it showcased UiTM during their, ummm, some very long time ago ...hehee...can't seem to remember the name of the institute before it became UiTM...or even ITM...yes, they had some other name even before ITM...which I so can't remember at this moment...well, one of the video really made me cry as the song was the common 'kasi semangat' song...which is the "We are the champions" by Queen...the song happened to be one of my favourite songs pulak tu (thank my brother for making me hear Queen's song in the 80s again and again from his room..) ...but it was when I saw the video with the song in the background showing graduates smilling ang giggling away looking at the camera, clapping, with family, some crying, some laughing, some seriously listening to the speeches...I couldn't help myself thinking...gosh here I am, finally receiving my Masters scroll which I never thought of even taking especially when I first started working...so, must thank all my ex-colleagues lah for 'inspiring' me to further my studies and 'running' from the working environment...hehee, ya u all know what I mean kan....study=blah from company....

The video footage made me nearly cry but eventually I didn't cry as it would be too embarassing to be crying in between the boys and the engineering boys sitting near me spoiled my moment as they started making silly jokes...sigh, engineering boys will be engineering boys...made me remembered the boys in UIA dulu..always having some witty things to say...hehee...miss those days lah...

Anyway, then the anticipated moment of the agung entering the hall....of course before that there was the VC and deans and what not processions in the hall which sadly i couldn't be bothered actually...hahaa..oh but I was surprised to see my grand auntie walking with the procession ...she's a judge you see and it seemed that UiTM was giving some award for the chief justice...head...in short ketua hakim negara lah...heehee..

And so the speeches were given..and more speeches...and even more speeches...and at last, it was time to walk and receive my scroll...yippee!! well, not so yippee as it happened too fast that there I was lining up and the next moment I heard them announcing "Pemenang anugerah sarjana cemerlang, Shahreenaz Abdul Latip..." and I was pushed to go to the agung and was thinking, must say junjung kasih tuanku...must say that...and there it was, the agung opened his mouth and said "tahniah", that I was so shocked that I only smiled and took the scroll without saying junjung kasih tuanku..darn....all because I was shocked that he was actually going to open his mouth and say something...hahahaa...oh well, it seemed I was not the only who forgot what happened on the stage. I guess everyone was so nervous and anxious that everyone had some temporary memory block up at the stage and when they saw the agung....hehee...

At last, the ceremony was over and there waiting for me outside of the hall was my darling hubby and sweetie pie of mine, my son Ridhwan....I wanted to cry when I saw them but was actually exhausted of the waiting, that I told, lets just take some pictures and go home...I was darn hungry by then...hehee...that's the best part of staying near your uni ya...

Anyway, in the evening we took a family photo at the studio..our very first formal photo of my family...me, hubby and darling son...this photo is a memorable photo for me as it will always be a reminder for me, of the hurdle my whole family had to endure before but kept as stonger and closer....and as they say, the sweetness that you get to taste after all that is indescribable....