Achievement @ MindSay 
goals
I'm not totally at the bottom, and some things I have proved to myself;
- I can live alone, did for a year at uni (so that doesn't even worry me)
- I've achieved a good degree in a good subject!
- I can get job interviews (the ones I've had and samaritans selection)
- I have a job
- I can win friends
- I can get a bit of interest from girls (and the odd guy!)
- I can get anything (normal) that only has a financial price (anything material, whenever - so something like a new computer or gadget, doesn't matter, because I know I could get it if I wanted)
I might have to do some illogical things to prove stuff to myself - like get different jobs, even though what I have might be better... but I know I can run 2 jobs at once for a few months at least... then I'd know if it was right to change
I feel a lot better now that I know why it is! I also got reassurance from remembering something I said as a chem student when helping friends (we all helped each other) - that anyone can learn/do anything, as long as they give themselves time and patience. With that in mind, all I need is determination, and to want something (reasonable), and I can almost guarantee eventually I can get it, if it matters enough that I care...
All I really want is to feel on a par with normal human beings... so a deep routed inferiority complex (that causes my shyness) will end.
Happiness and Success
We use these two words a great deal, sometimes considering them synonymous, but are they?
We often think that we know or understand their meanings, although we rarely agree to it. I would like to discuss these two concepts, with the aid of the Quran. My opinions here are my own, asking Allah for His Guidance and Help.
Happiness:
I see it as a steady state of being, not a temporary emotion. It should involve possessing some feelings and not having others. That is having positive feelings as well as not having negative ones. Both are as important.
Allah the Highest described the state of those in Paradise as being joyful:
- “JOYFUL WITH WHAT ALLAH HAS GIVEN THEM OF HIS BOUNTY”. (S:3 A:170)
There is also Contentment and Pleasure in Paradise:
1- “ALLAH IS CONTENTED AND PLEASED WITH THEM AND THEY ARE WITH HIM, THIS IS THE GREAT SUCCESS” (S:5 A:119)
2- “THEY ARE IN A CONTENTED AND PLEASING LIFE, IN HIGH GARDENS” (S:69 A:21)
3- “AS FOR THE SECURE AND ASSURED SOUL * RETURN TO YOUR LORD PLEASED AND CONTENTED AND YOU WILL BE PLEASED AND MADE CONTENTED * COME TO BE WITH MY SLAVES * AND TO ENTER MY PARADISE”. (S:89 A:30)
In the mean time, they have no feeling of hatred, grudge or any such negative feelings. Allah the Highest said:
- “WE REMOVED ALL GRUDGE FROM THEIR HEARTS, WITH RIVERS FLOWING UNDERNEATH THEM”. (S:7 A:43)
- “WE REMOVED ALL GRUDGE FROM THEIR HEARTS, BROTHERS (AND SISTERS) ON CONFORTABLE SEATS OPPOSITE ONE ANOTHER”. (S:15 A:47)
Therefore, Happiness contains joy, pleasure and contentment and does not involve feeling a grudge or hatred.
We know joy. As for being pleased and contented, it is being in a state which is not spoilt by anything, enjoys what it has, and does not feel deprived because of what it does not, not feeling the need for it. Being pleased and contented is very important for happiness. If a person possesses what any one dreams of but does not feel pleased and contented with it, he can not be happy. It is when what one has makes one not need what one does not. This does not necessarily mean abandoning life’s pleasures. Al-Shafae wrote in his poetry:
Rich without money from not needing people
For richness is not having but not needing
In the meantime, holding grudge, hate or any such negative feelings you do not find in happy hearts.
Should a person have joy at times, be pleased and contented most of the time, and have not hatred or grudge in his heart, he or she is a happy person.
So, what is the relationship between Success and Happiness.
Let us try to see what is Success first:
Many people see success as the financial or work success. There is a successful engineer, doctor, businessman etc. Success at work is often measured in terms of the financial gain or status one achieved. This however reduces the human being to be a work machine. I believe that human life is much richer, broader and has many more facets to it.
A human being is also a husband or wife, brother or sister, a son or daughter, a friend and many more. A person’s life has many facets and activities, many of them are not earners or money, possibly spenders, but they are all part of the human life and persona.
There might be a person that is not particularly successful in their career, but is a happy husband to a happy wife and father to good and happy children. No doubt this is success, as he is successful in most of his roles in life. I have personally come across such individuals who did not achieve greatly in their work but who are envied otherwise by the rich and famous for their family and life otherwise.
In my humble opinion, Happiness involves that the varied facets of one’s life should give him/her a sense of contentment, joy and pleasure and no hatred or grudge. This is likely to be successful in most aspects of their life. That is to say that the successful person is who’s success leads to his/her happiness and their around them, in the broadest sense of the word.
If you want to a see a successful person, possibly to follow in their footsteps, look for someone who is Truly Happy, and you will see the True Success.
Dr.Ahmed Saafan
Anyway I make quite a specific aims for this year anyway - getting at least 10 excellents in overall achievements (including internal). It looks not that hard but in practice, I am still not that confident about it. I get only two excellents so far, and two merits for all my finished internal, and one achieve for english. It doesn't look good. I really concern about getting higher grade (especially in physic). Anyway, I think I still have 5 internals that I have a chance to getting excellent for that. And the research of english, I think achieve to merit will be a gift from God.
I will have to do another exams, which is the practice scholarship exams, after the normal subject ones. I am still working hard on the revision booklet for physic, and the AME scholarship calculus. I am still wanting some more revisions for other subjects, such as english, biology and geography. I think I will set up a time lines for tourism development of geography, reading for biology, and writing essay plan for english. That's pretty much what I will be able to do. I want to breathe, I suddenly realize I want to quit my job at bk. I need the job for money but I have no time for study. Sometimes personal and family stuff could take quite a lot of my time too. Everything is overwhelming and I hope I would survive after such extreme period. Of course, comparing some other students either in NZ or other countries, they possible face more stress, but for me, that's enough, I want to be good but I am good no more. Maybe I never be. I gave up the physic scholarship already and what else I can give up - none. I don't want to give up anything.
Next Monday is my english and film leture day at A.U, it will be exciting, I hope.
What makes a man leave the comforts of home and family for another part of the globe just to climb a mountain?
Such a man is Dale Abenojar (ah-BE-no-har) who is Philippine born, 43 years old as of this writing, a man with a wife and four children (all girls), who owns his home and is a car salesman. He is also a dreamer. Other people dream of becoming a teacher, a beautician, or owning a business to get on with their life. Dale dreamt of climbing a mountain, not just any mountan, but The Mountain - Mt. Everest.
Mt. Everest is not an ordinary ant hill. It is the highest mountain on earth. Its elevation is 8,848 meters or 29,028 feet above sea level. It is in the Himalayas, a mountain range that straddles the Indian subcontinent and the Tibetan plain. It is here, it is said, where the earth meets the sky.
Dale Abenojar was not content to dream. He made sure he would realize his dream. He raised funds by soliciting donations from friends. He pawned his vehicle, a Range Rover, and what else, because the donations he received were rather limited.
Dale is a loner. Unlike members of the First Philippine Mt. Everest Expedition (FPMEE), who were backed separately by two Philippine television networks, complete with back-up teams including TV camera coverage, Dale's team consisted of his best buddy Robin Mendoza, a couple of Sherpa guides and a sympathetic mountain climbing outfitter. No trumpets or brass bands sounded to announce his ascent to the top of Mt. Everest.
On May 15, 2006 Dale Abenojar reached the snow-capped summit of Mt. Everest. The Mountaineering Asociation of Tibet of the Autonomoua Region of the Peoples' Republic of China acknowledged his feat. The Association awarded him a Certificatet that shows he reached the altitude of 8,844.43 meters, the summit of Mt. Everest, at 10:45 a.m. of May 15,2006.
Dale Abenojar is not the first man to conquer Mt. Everest. But if he reached the top of Mt. Everest on May 15, 2006, he is the first Filipino to reach the peak of Mr. Everest, two days earlier than Heracleo Oracion, a member of the First Philippine Mt. Everest Expedition (FPMEE) who reached the mount's summit on May 17, 2005; or three days earlier than Pastor Emata, another FPMEE member, who climbed the sumnmit on May 18, 2006; or four days earlier than Romi Garduce, another Filipino climber who made it to the summit on May 19,2006.
The latter three Filipino climbers are not taking Dale Aenojar's achievement sitting down. As soon as they heard of Abenojar's attaining the summit on May 15, 2006, expressions of ridicule, disbelief and challenge issued from their camp. Their team doctor was especially vehement and vocal. Since Abenojar's witnesses were his Sherpa guides, the good doctor said the guides were bribed. The certificate issued by the Mountaineering Association of Tibet was said to have been falsified. The photographs showing Abenojar on the summit of Mt. Everest was said to have been doctored. Yet Ms. Elizabeth Hawley, a respected American expert on Mt. Everest, on a previous occasion, authenticated the photos as genuine, taken on the site of the Mount's summit. Most of all, the three climbers could not accept Abenojar's successful climb from the Tibet (north) side of Mt. Everest. They said the Tibet side of Mt. Everest is a difficult and dangerous route to begin a climb. It's called the Death Zone where many died attempting to climb Mt. Everest; the Nepal (south) side affords an easier climb. Abenojar explained his predicament. Being strapped for money, he had to choose the Tibet side because the fee to climb Mt. Everest on that side was $20,000.00; Nepal charged a fee of $65,000.00.
Messrs. Oracion, Emata and Garduce claimed to be the first Filipinos ever to be on top of Mt. Everest. Dale Abenojar's reaching the summit ahead of them dampened their story. It's hard to accept that someone else has stolen your show. Dale Abenojar promises to submit authentic proof of his climb soon as he is well. Right now he is convalescing from the amputation of his left big toe which suffered from frost bite during his climb. The ten toes of the feet of his Sherpa guide, Pasang, suffered frost bite also and had to be amputated. Gangrene had set in and life- threatening septicimia, or blood poisoning, would have set in if the toes were not amputated. Abenojar brought his guide with him to Manila. He said were it not for Pasang, he would have died on Mt. Everest.
We may well ask: was it worth it for Dale Abenojar? Remember, nobody promised him a prize should he reach the summit of Mt. Everest. All he can show for his effort is probably the certificate attesting to his success on Mt. Everest. That, and an amputated big left toe, and a pile of money debts he left behind when he left home for Mt. Everest. He's been lucky so far. A millionaire industrialist with a big heart in Manila, Mr. Lucio Tan, pledged to pay for all his hospital, medical and surgical expenses, as well as to pay for similar expenses of his Sherpa guide. What would be a windfall of good luck for Dale Abenojar is, perhaps, if the people to whom he owes money for his expedition were to find it in their hearts to write off his debts. That. indeed, would be a happy ending for Dale Abenojar and his family.
1994 Ford Mustang
Ignore that man in the driver's seat. This is MY car!
There is nothing ... no oppression that can cling to me when I put that top down and cruise the hills and bridges around here. I don't care what kind of day I've had or what issues are pressing me, it's so simple really. Just climb in, windows down, top down, wind blowing through my hair ... I'm FREE, content with my lot, in love with my kids, and certain of better times ahead!
hmmmm ... I have just realized that I have NO pics of my ride. Well ... that will be remedied tomorrow, for sure! You must see it ... and with luck, me IN it! ;) Until then, this one will have to do.
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