End of the tunnel (Pt 12) – The path less travelled by

Today it all looks nice and rosy, a young bride with her own loving parents and now a love of her own. What, then, is so different about Zira?

Very few know the tumultuous family life she went through at the first crucial stage of her education, the year she sat for her PMR exam. No one would want to go through what she did. The subsequent painful years brought her closer to us.

After her SPM she failed to get an offer to do a medical-related course. “ I like to work in a hospital,” she lamented. She was obsessed with a job in hospital.

Knowing that she could not have everything, she accepted to do a three-year course in mechanical engineering, a far cry from her aspiration. Nonetheless, she accepted, worked on it, succeeded, and saw herself as a technical instructor at a factory within a cycling distance from her house. Most would be satisfied but not this girl. She worked for nearly two years, all the while harbouring her a dream. She kept her applications going.

Then one day she turned up at Nuri all excited. She had received an offer to do a course in pharmacy – orang mengantuk disorongkan bantal! ( a sleepy one being offered a pillow ).

“ Pakcik, what do you think? Do you think I can do it?” She poured out her questions at Pakcik. I knew this girl too well. Over the years she never failed to call on us, to keep us in the picture on how she was faring in her job and otherwise.

She simply wanted a ‘yes’ answer. I knew it and she got it. Almost six years after leaving SPM she was about to begin again. Had she not forgotten her biology and chemistry? I was somewhat concerned. Many would tell her to forget it. After she hah had a good job close to her family.

This gutsy girl worked for her dream, and today, she is attached to a hospital – never mind the distance being a good 500 km away from home. She has got her dream:

Zira took a path ‘less traveled by; and that has made all the diffeence’, a girl who can offer us a lesson in life.

and finally she is alone no more

And today, she has her own man as well, with blessings from both parents. She deserves what she owns today. Today, too, she can look back - and cry.

Al Quran - Surah Al-Njm - Ayat 35

"Dan bahawa manusia tidaklah akan memperoleh, melainkan sekadar usahanya." – Dr Hamka



Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan


P/s,

Syaharahan Dr Hamka dalam Tafsir Al-Azhar:

“ ….. Inilah yan pernah saya sya’irkan waktu permulaan Revolusi Indonesia:

Insan medapat kadar usaha,
Tidah lebih tidaklah kurang;
Ajuk hati, tanyai jiwa,
Jangan menyesal kepada orang.

Hasil dari pekerjaan kita , kita dapati sekadar usaha yang telah kita lakukan. Apabila kita malas, akan mendapat sedikit, atau tidak mendapat sama sekali, tidaklah boleh kita menyalahkan orang lain, mengapa sedikit kita dapat …..”