Lesson #4: Aquaphobia is The Correct Term, not Hydrophobia

All these while, I thought that the term applied to people who are afraid of water and drowning is hydrophobia. But I was wrong! The correct term is Aquaphobia.

According to the Wikipedia, Aquaphobia is an abnormal and persistent fear of water. Aquaphobia is a specific phobia that involves a level of fear that is beyond the patient's control or that may interfere with daily life. People suffer aquaphobia in many ways and may experience it even though they realize the water in an ocean, a river, or even a bathtub poses no imminent threat. They may avoid such activities as boating and swimming, or they may avoid swimming in the deep ocean despite having mastered basic swimming skills. This anxiety commonly extends to getting wet or splashed with water when it is unexpected, or being pushed or thrown into a body of water.

Whereas hydrophobia on the other hand, may refer to rabies, especially a set of symptoms of the later stages of an infection, in which the victim has difficulty swallowing, shows panic when presented with liquids to drink, and cannot quench his or her thirst.

Many people, including myself have mistakenly refer aquaphobia as hydrophobia. Thank God I finally knew the correct term for the condition. And for people who didn't know, I myself is an aquaphobic as a result of series of drowning events during my childhood. I have given up learning how to swim almost 3 years ago. I think not able to swim is not pissing me off at the moment and I also think that I am good with the way I live my life now. Yes, able to swim is really cool. But not knowing it doesn't make me a loser. There are a lot of other ways to enjoy myself and live life to the fullest.

So that was it. After quite some time of not updating. I finally had my 4th lesson to be written!

Lesson #3: When Travelling by Bus, Switch Off Your Handphones!

I think the title said it all. If I said you have to switch off your handphone, just do it if you don't want to be left traumatized later. No compromise!!

I heard about the stories of people get mugged when they travel by bus all the time. Sometimes, this happened to my seniors and sometimes it even involved my good friends. I saw people cried after their things were gone; robbed by the tak berhati perut thieves, or even if they managed to escape from being a victim, they just cried because of the traumatized incident. I never thought that I'll experience the event myself; being at the crime scene and watching the struggling with my very own eyes. Thank God it wasn't me. But still, it affects me, since the victim is Yet.

It happened so fast. And sadly, no one have the guts to help us. NO ONE. Every single passenger in the bus ignored us and pretended that nothing was going on. They didn't even bother to at least scream. Kejam gila.

It's like the worst nightmare ever. Yet was screaming and struggling her every breath to free herself from being surrounded by the thieves. There were 2 of them, standing at the front bus door, one of them was holding Yet's leg, while the other was trying to snatch her sling bag and blocking her way so that she can't move. I was standing right behind her, yelling to both thieves. I don't know why they didn't even touched me. Logically, I was more prone to be robbed since I was the one with the handbag while Yet's sling bag was tightly sticked to her body. I guess they didn't smart enough to figure that out. They wanted Yet's bag since they saw Yet putting her handphone back into her sling bag after replying some SMSes earlier.

So back to the story. I was yelling "Hoi hoi" at the thieves when a man came from behind and quickly stood in front of me. I was thinking that finally there's someone brave enough to rescue us, when actually the man was also one of the gang and he stood in front of me to further block Yet. Poor her. After a traumatized struggle for freedom, finally she managed to get out of the bus. When I saw her on the road, I jumped myself out before anything bad happen. She cried. And I was cursing the thieves all along. Actually we were both cursing the bus and the people in it. Babi punya orang!

It was a hell of an experience. Both of us learned something from it: Never ever show your handphone when you are in the bus. It is better if you just switch it off along the journey. But it even better if you travel by cab rather than bus, especially when there's no man accompany you. Bottom line, try to avoid from traveling alone by yourself or at least bring a male friend with you.

Thank God we both safe. Thank God they didn't managed to get anything. Padan muka.

Lesson #2: Miracles Do Happen!!

When I am just about to doubt about miracles, and started believing in hard work, then all of a sudden, a miracle happened! Among zillions of His slaves, this time around, He chose me! Yes. Me!!!

The miracle that I am talking about is miracle in academic context. I am actually through in believing in luck and miracle. Over these years, I was too depending on both of them. Hoping on continuous luck without putting any effort; without giving my best shot is totally wrong. I realized that a great success will only be achieved with great effort and sacrifices. Well, I made a mistake. We do need luck. And of course we do need miracle.

My Anatomy Final Block 15 Exam result was out. The highest is 94%. The lowest is 21%. And Alhamdulillah, I got 74%. I didn't expect to get such a mark, since I left 5 questions blanked and 2 or 3 of the questions required 2 answers. So basically, I left 8 blanked without any answer. I didn't study much also. For this exam, my effort was more or less the same with the previous Anatomy exams. Actually I can say that i struggled more during the last exam. My best score for this subject was 40++. 48 if I am not mistaken. So 74% is such a huge increment! A sudden improvement. And for me, it is definitely a great success!

It is not like I don't believe in hard work anymore, I do believe that hardworking people will succeed in everything they do, and hard work and great effort will eventually pay off, sooner or later. It is just sometimes, things go the other way round. It is either way better than what we expect, or vice versa. It is God, who's playing with us. It is one of His way to test us - and in my context, His tested me through my Anatomy result.

Thank you God. What happened today clearly shows how merciful You are, and how powerful You are as a creator. Even without struggling to death, I still got a good result, all because of You; because You want it to be.

Now I am sure about one thing: It is purely up to God to decide whether a particular person deserves to get whatever she/he wants. Humans can only plan, try hard and pray. No matter how hard you try, if you doesn't pray, if you didn't left everything to Him after giving your best shot, nothing will happen. And even if it does, it is just Him being so kind as He always be to all His slaves.

As for me, I am so grateful right now. And i promised myself to at least try to put more effort and be more hardworking and more prepared next time around. :p


Alhamdulillah. Miracles do happen!

Lesson #1: There's Still Plenty of Very Good People Around

Yup, and the nearest example is Yet.

I have asked her to come to my place after class to help me 'lap lap' my badan. As you all know, i am sick at the very moment. And usually, the sickness comes in one complete package: fever, flu, sore throat, headache, myalgia - you name it. Her anatomy class ends at 4 p.m. I know she will be so tired right then. But, being a kind person as she is, without giving me any excuses and hesitations, she agreed to come by and help me. I couldn't help myself to be touched by her kindness. Sangat terharu okay.

So my first lesson to be shared in this blog is to believe that there is still plenty of very good people around, and one of them is Yet. I am so lucky to have known her, and most importantly, I am so grateful to have her as my friend.

Believe me, only God knows how grateful I am.

To Yet, thank you for everything. I owe you. And if you need anything in the future, I will be happy to help you in return for your kindness.

freeDUMB

It's an experimental blog, for tryouts of new things and learning from mistakes.