3 wishes?

You know the feeling of being able to see the sun shining in a clear blue haze-less sky? After days of being shrouded and choked by haze, the sight of the sun is a very, very welcome sight. It is as if the bright sun is smiling down upon us saying:" Hey, everything is gonna be alright now!" 

That was exactly how I felt when we got news of a 1-week break after our End Semester 2 Examinations before continuing our preparations for the Professional Exams.

So yeah, I'm back in Melaka for the week and I'll enjoy and relax before heading back for some really serious studying. So anyone up for an expedition?

I was looking through some old files and I stumbled upon this: Shimri's Prayer Book.

Seeing as how my dad is a pastor, almost everything is prayed for, all the big decisions of life, sickness, injury and stuff. So this so called book (more of a file) is where the big decisions of my life are written down and my dad would know what to pray for me.

I have never noticed it but most of the things I do write down actually come true, one way or another. So it is like my very own wish book. I wonder how many wishes do I have left?

Let me show you what I wrote down in 2009 before my SPM and before I even joined the National Defence University to pursue my degree in Medicine and Defence Health. 

Pardon my hand writing, I have been training since birth to write like a doctor. Here, let me type the list out so you'll see it better:

1) Pray for right shoulder

2) Further studies??

3) Be a soldier in a high class country

4) Determination to study & train hard

5) Possible to go to Judo tournament in Japan 

Out of these 5 things, every single one has been granted. Judo tournament in Japan? Check! 

Further studies? Check! Determination? Check! Right shoulder? Ah here is a good story:

Not many of you know it but back in 2008 I sustained an injury to my right shoulder. It was during a judo sparring session when my opponent got me in an arm lock, being the stubborn hot headed teenager who never wants to lose, I refused to surrender and as a result my arm was over-twisted and I sustained an injury called shoulder subluxation. It is similar to dislocation but it is partial and temporary, meaning that my shoulder is not totally dislodged and it returns back to the original position after a while. And it hurts. A lot.

The glenohumeral joint is a flexible ball-socket joint. And mine is a little too flexible being able to move in and out of the socket.

This injury affected me badly, my movements with my right shoulder were severely limited. I could not throw a ball, play badminton, throw a punch, make any rotating movements without my shoulder "falling out". I lost confidence in my shoulder and thus my performance in swimming and judo slowly dwindled, becoming stagnant.

Back then, sports was a very big thing to me (still is), it defined me. So the lost of my shoulder was like losing part of me. I was stressed up and depressed though I did not show it, I kept it bottled up inside me. 

To release all the bottled up tension, I did the only thing I could: running. So when I could not swim, I ran; When I could not practice judo, I ran; when I was feeling sore and bitter, I ran. And I was sore and bitter a lot, why did this have to happen to me?!

With all the running, my stamina slowly increased and I became quite a good runner even winning silver medal in the 1,500m district level tournament. Little did I know that I was actually being prepared to become a triathlete. Imagine if I was not injured, I would have just continued being a swimmer and swimmers can't run (different muscle used). So yeah, my point is everything happens for a reason and it's cool how everything worked out in the end.

Back to my main story of the day, the prayer list. If you noticed the third item on the list: be a soldier in a high class country. Well, part of that prayer is granted, I am a soldier but in a high class country??? Positive thinking means that it is actually great news for our country! We are going to be a high class country sometime soon since I requested to be a soldier of a high class country, and I am a soldier of Malaysia. So let's all keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.

Or perhaps my handwriting is too terrible to be understood and we are all doomed to never be high class....

Here is a nice picture of my grandma to cheer you up after such dark thoughts:

My grandma beaming with her new pair of Mizuno shoes. " A thousand mile journey begins with the first step", so I may make a runner of my grandma yet. Don't be surprised to see an old woman wearing that exact same pair of shoes overtakes you during your evening run.