By Nabilah Amri Badzlina
Reading and writing has always been taught by our mother since we were kids. Not to exclude the little Nabilah who has always been curious by her mother’s act in showing great passion to read newspapers or magazines in the morning and writing important notes in her diary.
She wondered what exactly her mother was reading and was amazed by her mother’s beautiful hand-writing. With that curiosity Nabilah repeatedly asked her mother to teach her how to write and be just like her.
Being able to read at the age of three and talk actively, she always read whatever writing available along the street and what went after her eyes, then she asked her mother what was the meaning behind those writings.
At that time for being curious over so many things through reading, her mother encouraged her to learn how to read Quran from the very basic, knowing the Arabic letters then, soon after Nabilah managed to read the Qur’an daily at the age of four, and also learning the message behind every verse she has read.
As she grew up, she eagerly wanted to try new things; from singing, dancing, music, and taking all lessons and training like singing class, ballerina class and guitar lesson.
For the time being she has no clear direction as to what she would become in the future and her mother always allowed her to try and learn several skills to improve herself.
The idea of what she wanted to be when she was older keeps changing. The tall girl used to dream of becoming a flight attendant but she needs to remove her hijab if she is willing to pursue that career. And it went on for wanting to become a doctor as she saw her aunt suffering from cancer for a whole year, or a veterinarian as she loves cats so much. However, most of those dreams went out of the blue as she entered Islamic boarding school when she was 15.
At the school she mainly focused on learning Arabic language and Islamic studies, where the idea of becoming a doctor has slowly dimmed because science studies were not being taught and it would be burdensome to take a special class outside boarding school only to pursue studies in medical school.
When the graduation has come near to her, she started to reminisce what is her true skill, ability and potential that will determine her career in the future. By looking at the past experience and considering various fields, she decided to continue her study in communication that seemed the closest one to her potential and to enhance her writing skills.
Back to where her university life has yet to come, the only thing that she knew about communication is just verbal, and she totally forgot that writing is also part of communication. But in a time, she realises that writing is also necessary as she remembered her mother once said that writing is your way of expressing your emotion and engraving memory, as memory may disappear, and it will remain as we write them.
Nabilah realised that there are so many journalistic skills that she needs to improve, from writing style in journalism and feature writing, how to conduct the interview, doing research and stay updated with current issues. Learning and pursuing journalism world is never easy unless she has courage and willingness to try and learn new things just like the old times when she was exploring various skills in her young age.
The recent book that Nabilah read was written by Tere Liye, entitled “Pulang”, the imagination and his style of writing fiction story is beyond amazing and full of plot-twist, and the book has drowned her deeply into the story, as she was part of the character in the book. And another book was written by Gita Savitri Devi, a non-fiction story that tells about her journey to college that leads her to study in Germany.
And sometimes she just went through scrolling Twitter to look for interesting threads that are motivational about life-style, tips and tricks, and mental health issues which are also important, especially during this pandemic where everyone is struggling with new normal lives where we are only connected by not directly interacting with other people. And sometimes we look for inspirational quotes in Instagram.
The biggest challenge that she has faced as she learns journalism beginning at her third year in the university is to practice her writing skills. Because the only way to improve her writing in journalism is to practice it over and over.
Writing now is her biggest struggle in her life, as she reads various kinds of writing by other people she tends to be insecure that she would not be able to write as good as other people. However, practicing is the only way to overcome her struggle and be like other authors.
If young Nabilah had experienced being curious over many things in life and eager to learn any skills that available in the world, why would the grow-up Nabilah not applying the same spirit like before and be more inspired to pursue her bright future?
Her mother is her first role model and she does not forget to always enjoy and be positive towards everything that happens and will happen in the future, and remember to train her mind to see the good in every situation because it all happens for a reason.***
(This article is written as part of the individual assignment series for Feature Writing class)