Stand up for yourself

Have you ever been to bed at the end of the day and were absorbed by guilt? That guilt rushing towards you holding “I should’ve said that” flag. This is a huge debate point in our regular talks. We talk about how people misunderstood us, how they hurt our feelings or how we are sure they meant no good with what appears to be an innocent question they’ve asked.

My mother is the kindest person on earth, I believe that trait and her smile are the reasons she is found attractive by strangers she encounters in her life. She came from a family that values virtues over materials and they believe in what I call the "sacrifice mentality". If you love someone you would go as far as sacrificing your all for them. You give without waiting for return because if that tells the world something it tells it how well raised and how sophisticated person you are. I believe this kind of thinking is beautiful and rare in today’s world. Being beautiful doesn’t mean it is suitable for all ages and all kinds of encounters. Al Ain as a small town is growing rapidly not just  in terms of modernity but in culture and way of thinking as well. Never the less, if each of us looked inside their houses we will still find traces of those people who were raised on the sacrificing mentality. Me myself had dealt with many troubles being truly influence by my mother’s kindness and following her leads. To listen to those older than you and never disagree, to always be kind and generous to others even if that was on your own comfort account, and to never return back the abuse by another abuse.

What our parents forgot

What our parents forgot to answer is how irrational it is to treat different  people with a single way. We start wondering why the same inputs would give us a different output each time. Eventually, we come back to the faulty conclusion of “Maybe it’s Me.”.  How many times in your lifetime you blamed yourself for a friendship that fell apart or for being mistreated after paying good or maybe not getting the situation right when everything else tells you;  you did the right thing? When the processing of your inputs is giving you unwanted outputs that’s a sign you need a different inputs to try with. (Excuse my technical terms I came from a technical background)

Social Intelligence

I’m here to assure you sometimes it is not your fault. You need to learn how to stand up for yourself especially if what you’re doing is right ethically and legally. In another words, you have to make sure that you 're not harming anyone around you in any way but still receive this kind of treatment. We need to learn what we once thought a bad person’s habit. We need to be SELFISH for ourselves once in a while.

People like my mom should not be underestimated. In fact those people have a very high emotional intelligence with clear self-awareness and empathy. They can easily read your facial expressions and know when to interfere or step back. However, a newer branch of intelligence was identified called the Social intelligence. Social Intelligence or as some prefer to call it “ people skill”; is about how you can smartly deal with your social life situations and how to interact with various types of personalities. It can be considered as a complementary to the emotional intelligence you already own, but they are not the same. Educating yourself on such topics can really widen you horizon and polish your ability to adapt in the vast moving world. And identifying such intelligence by psychologists shows how important it is to not just be the social beings we were born to be; but to be masters of the regular act of "socialising" in order to excel.

To Talk

We don’t realize how crazily social we are as creatures. We talk to people from different languages with different background and we learn how to analyze emotions and situations and act upon them. That’s a huge task in hand, but we do it as easily as breathing or drinking water and we would expect a clear communication without clashes or misunderstandings!? That’s way too optimistic! yet the issue can be resolved by simply talking and clarifying your point. If you don’t understand even a small part of the way a person acts never give the implication to the other side that you got it. Stop them to ask for further explanation. No one thinks it’s smart to be able to guess what people think inside their heads nor do they want to hear a yes when you mean a No. And NO one will refuse to rephrase his/her message to you unless that person is babbling about useless stuff and sees no benefit of transmitting the right message. I really regret standing in a middle of a foreign joke once and thinking it was ok and I should be more easy going. I did my part and asked for explanation but I was given some shallow answer and more laughs. It was hurtful and I should’ve said well you know what! A joke in a language that you don’t understand is not a funny joke and I wouldn’t accept to be treated that way. In my undergrad years, saying Yes when I meant No put me in a lot of trouble. I used to nod for the instructor when he checked if we got the topic, because I knew I could get it if I went through it at home. I always ended up wasting hours and nerves over one part I couldn’t get when asking was so much easier. Guess we have to live those moments to learn.

How someone I know did it

One of my workmates is a late thirties lady, she is really friendly and has a large network of communications which always wows me. I tend to sit with her in our free time to discuss issues around self-development and weird situations we faced during the week. I love how our talks takes a critical turn and goes as deep as analyzing the psychologies behind. She shared a confession with me that if there’s one thing she regrets doing for over a decade or so; it would be not speaking up for herself and sacrificing most of her energy and family time to others. People who she was going against herself for left her/never even remembered her at the peak of her relationship crisis. And what she made her mind to do this year is to revalue her relationships and be honest and most importantly transparent about her needs. She started talking her mind and she lost many people accordingly but those people didn't left that huge impact she thought they own on her life. What was more rewarding in speaking up was the people who appreciated her presence in their lives in first place, they had more of her attention and she got a hand full of their positivity.

Final word

I don’t ask you to be aggressive nor do I ask you to lower your standards. There is nothing more nobel than modesty and forgiveness but I ask you to protect yourself in a smart way so you keep your rights and dignity safe. We are lucky to have parents to correct our actions and clean community that brought us up to be the sophisticated grown-ups we are now. However, you need to acknowledge the fact that not everyone took the right turn on his way to adulthood. Some come loaded with hatred, greed, fear or trust issues while others come flying over their dreams, hopes, ambitions and kindness. Stop complaining of how they once treated you and start enforcing the way you want to be treated by and a step towards that starts with speaking your mind or as the topic suggests standing up for yourself.

Love,
Amna

  

It is a matter of priorities

Things were tough the last 2 years but I'm definitely not gonna talk about that now. Since 2013, I feel like I've been in a race with time working so hard to establish everything from scratch. My family, my career path, my health and my financial status. It has been a challenge to reach that balance and build up your own comfort zone among those variables. No one will ever understand the stress, the fear, the anticipation and the sweat you paid in return to all those luxuries in life. As the eldest among my siblings I was raised to take responsibility of the house and I was the closest to my mom to understand what a home needs to nourish and feed its people. I was taught to be a strong individual and that meant not to depend on luck but on my hard work. When I was under my parents wings life was much simpler cuz .. well, they have to pay for everything we want and need, and they have to worry for us about all the consequences. When I kinda settled down with my husband things started to change. I'm not gonna lie to you but I really changed due to that. people are there to criticise you more intensely and talk about how you lead your life.  You are now officially an adult. And adulthood comes with a price tag for the independence you start to enjoy. How to choose what, and how to react to the consequences of that choice is all in your hand from the minute you declare independence. I myself had to figure out that the paradigm of wrong and right is no longer valid in assessing what you want from life. Instead I discovered it is a matter of priorities to choose to do this and leave that. However, it is not a boundary to what you can have and what you can't have in your life, I believe you can have it all if you set your mind to it.

One of my future plans was to get a car. I waited long enough in college to get my dream car unlike many girls who got what their eyes laid on the following day (no hating but its true). When the time was right and the money was there in my account, I decided to go for that expensive car I loved at first sight. I picked something that fits my personality and fits the way I look at myself. The funny thing though; I got people asking around whether my husband got me this car by his own money!? :| My husband and I do support each other in every aspect and that include financial support but I refuse to be a total dependant on him and I ESPECIALLY despise being a financially disabled woman. I know there are women who come with this mentality of "never pay a penny to a man" or "let the man buy you all you dream of" but how many of those women lasted in a happy long term relationship in this tough capitalism we live in?! When I got married I didn't marry this person for his bank account ( nor I married a millionaire btw ). Women, get real. I don't know from where you got this implication that I got rich when I got married nor how I'm rich to you in any way (I am grateful for everything I have though).

We can put it in a simpler formula to make it clear if you are still not convinced.
you see the connection?
me before no job = no money. Now me got job = I got money.

Speaking about priorities, I got this car and as a result had to postpone travel plans while you might got to  travel to 5 countries in a year or buy 5 branded bags not caring about getting a new car cuz maybe... you got one already!!! no one said you can't get what I got, money saving and investment lessons can do the magic so why always comparing and belittling the hard work of others. I really don't understand how to translate this to other than unexplainable jealousy. and I don't get the concept of jealousy when its within your list of options. I might get jealous from a beautiful lady, a smart brainer or really strong believer (stuff that you can get with money) but why would I get jealous from something sold out there in the market!? cheesy.

Another similar story happened when I got a new job. people were looking at me narrow eyed thinking I must have some sort of "Connections" if you know what I mean. At first I was terrified, "NO I swear I didn't had any connections from that sort!" Do you realise that it took me a YEAR to get my CV to be opened so they can JUST consider hiring me. and I'm not less proud to say, I blow their minds when they did.
I was explaining myself to everyone and anyone who asked, because there is nothing more hurtful to be referred to a moral that doesn't go under your list of morals. I am against those practices of hiring people or giving them positions based on personal relationships although some does it shamelessly and even brag about it. But then I was like why do I have to explain myself to those who dared to think I did it the dirty way?! if they were really my people they wouldn't even think I was unworthy of getting a position in that institution without illegal help. So I stopped and let people think the way they liked.  And even my choice in applying for this job, it was all based on priorities. Forget there is a perfect job out there, because we are always left facing a set of advantages and disadvantage to accepting any job offer and we have to refer it back to our priorities in life. I had friends who preferred being jobless rather than work for a place that goes against their level of expectations while others who accepted a very well paid places without caring if they're doing anything worth that high pay just to cover their monetary life commitments.  This is a situation you can't classify as right or wrong but rather call it a matter of priorities. 

Do you know what is scary? having people turning green bean from envy while you think you are inspiring them to left themselves up. It makes me rethink my way of involving on social media. Should I reduce my level of activity and exposure?! or shall I stay away completely for the sake of giving my brain a better focus on life aspects?! What I know for sure is that I can't fake who I am and I'm more than determined to get rid of those negative signs online and offline this year on as a self improvement priority. We all have the same amount of time to work out what we wanna do (24hrs 7 days a week) and without a direction by setting priorities accompanied with actions, life will take you away before you even knew it. Stop whining and start putting your priorities straight and work for it.

It all comes back to priorities and people satisfaction is impossible to reach. By the end of this short post I want you to know that YOU who choose what you wanna do about your own life. Instead of wasting your valuable energy thinking about what others might have to say work towards what YOU have to say about it.

Love,
Amna

It's a Boy!

I spent almost a month at my mother's house afterbirth so I was away from my laptop for quite some time to update my blog not that I had lots of free time to waste on not sleeping or taking care of my baby. I grabbed a pen and a paper at my sister's desk and decided to write the old way while my cub sleeps in my arms. *pen dries up .. GREAT!*

It's a BOY !

I'm happy to announce that I was blessed with a beautiful baby boy on the morning of the 5th of Aug14. I kept my baby's gender a secret because well.. I love happy surprises and I love more listening to people's guesses. Often I got two guesses; those who saw me all dressing up with girly personality on predicted I'd have a baby girl. I had an extreme case of a woman almost swearing I'd have a girl, which makes me wonder why she been silent lately after having my boy?! haha. Others who saw how wide my hips got used old wives tales to tell its a girl although I know that my body accumulates all the stubborn fat around my hips naturally so pregnancy weight gain went there accordingly. I must say it was offensive to her the polite version of "your ass got bigger so you're having a girl" BUT nothing stopped me from ignoring them only to say "Ahhhha its not a baby girl! I WIN". lol


so YES I was carrying a boy, I've never saw myself a mother of a boy nor that I prefered boys NOR do I know how to deal with little guys but its all so right to me right now. It was surprising even though the first three months before ultrasound and all the waiting started to gave me the feeling that I'll be having a baby girl; yet my sixth sense or whatever you call it said otherwise & my guts screamed "its NOT a girl!!"Not to discriminate, both are a precious gift from above but it was a weird knowledge popped suddenly out of no where and it was so strong .. Maybe before the invention of ultrasound this how women from old ages knew what they are carrying? We women scare ourselves sometimes, I mean what do we not know?! lol

I would be untruthful if I deny that deep within I had this desire to have a baby boy first, despite my crush toward lil girls. A big brother to his lil brothers or sisters is a source of support and protection. Something I've always wished I had for myself and tried to offer being the eldest of my siblings .. Now all is left to get this is to do my best at what god gave me as a mother and devote it to raise this baby boy.

Oh! by the way we named him Mansour منصور which means victorious in Arabic

xoxo,
Amna Al Dhaheri

Pregnancy as we know it !

Whenever a woman tells you a story and wants to add a sympathy spice to it she would say:"and imagine! SHE WAS PREGNANT" and naturally you would expect yourself to go "awww" or maybe pay a prayer or two for her and then talk about what you wouldn't do if you were in her place.

In this post I wanna address the way we look at pregnancy. If not in the world; at least in the environment I've been living at. What was hard for me during this period and what false images are being tossed at a pregnant woman every now and then. I hope my readers 're as understanding and life simplifying as me. I was never taught how to make life look easy but I trained myself to accept that everything passes and eventually becomes a memory so why make a big deal out of the present.

What was hard at the beginning?

My first trimester was the most depressing phase, and I will state my reasons why. First of all and before the pregnancy symptoms even show, the stereotyping plays a major role in defining your acceptance to pregnancy. 

Before I got into this marriage I was pulled by two group of views. One called for slowing things down when it comes to having offsprings and even suggest you an optimal waiting time. While the other group threw blesses and wishes to see your production as soon as possible as if you're in a race with time and soon enough you will be like an expired product on the shelf. I was scared to be honest, scared that I might not be able to wait for a year or so without kids and let the stain of shame be marked on my forehead by the first group. And scared that I became what they made me see as a caveman's woman with 10 kids in hand and let myself go. It was so stressful that I thought I'm gonna be a failure and an embarrassment for carrying a child right away. Ignoring the most important thing is that these kind of decisions comes with mutual agreement between you and your partner.. but anyways they made you feel like the victim of deceiving and the sinner of this crime at the same time.

I tried to Google experiences from newly wedded couples but that came with no result as with Western mentality; it was so different from what we see in Eastern world. They usually get married at an older age and then seem to take their time to plan having a child. I got no source but my instinct and little did I know that god knew when it was the right time for us. 


Through the first few months I was blessed for not having strong pregnancy symptoms. Good appetite I had, and no mention-able morning sickness .. I remember having a little short of breath and fatigue but that was it. But wish it was it for people who made pregnancy a drama! there is no adaptation break to a pregnant woman, once you know ur pregnant you gotta throw those heels off. stop walking or exercising or wtever you used to do. eat more. don't drink fuzzy drinks. cut ur nails. don't wear that tight dress .. etc. How on earth you expect a pregnant woman to feel good about her pregnancy when you made her feel like she gotta put her old self on a blind auction like that!? It is understandable that pregnancy at this point is really critical for some women but it doesn't mean it have to be a dangerous life threatening thing. besides studies shows that high levels of stress put on a pregnant woman can cause miscarriage, premature births and low birth weight! 

Inspiring story: "Shayna Richardson was making her first solo skydive, when her parachute failed to open properly and fell thousands of feet and crash-landed in a parking lot. Incredibly, she survived. Shortly after the accident, she learned she was several weeks pregnant."  When it meant to be, ITS MEANT TO BE!

When its the right time to get pregnant in my opinion

Women there is no right time to have a baby but there are right conditions. The most important thing is you're health. if you are in good health so will be your baby. The reason why I feel sorry for those women who gets multiple pregnancies one after another -although some are really great moms holding households better than superman- is that I know how body changing pregnancy is. Increased blood volume, water preservation, wider bottom, skin stretch, blood pressure ups and downs..etc. Rationally, you would need to give that body a break.  

Another thing is father's full support. without my husband, Pregnancy would be so much harder to deal with, he supported me in showing his acceptance to my new mood swings and new look and he never waits for me to ask for anything I crave for or need. Forget about having time to examine ur partners skills of handling such big responsibility, you will never know that until you both go through it. and if he ever showed any signs of hesitation get him involved in the whole journey. I tell my husband how wonderful this is to us, how special our baby will be and that there's no perfect time for us to have this angel than now. 

My baby is a beautiful thing that happened to us, everyday its becoming part of our daily conversations, our laughing together minutes as we feel the ninja kicks and an effort we pay willingly when picking up clothes we both think would look deadly adorable. I can't imagine how my life would be empty without this little angel and I can't wait to see it. All I'm saying is for me I found it the right time and so will you. 

What really happens! 

It comes Naturally. Have you ever heard of mother instinct? well it starts way before you are even called a mother. when my husband asks me if I'm scared of squeezing my baby in my belly (LOL) I told him its part of me what will harm him will surely harm me first so I'm not scared. later in my second trimester I started watching carefully what I eat and never skip a pill of multivitamins or calcium that is beneficial to my baby. No one forced me to do it and I was never this organized before with pills but I never want to deny my baby from his right of being a healthy baby. Eventually you stop wearing high heels and tight clothes not because its harmful for the baby but cuz of you being a mother-to-be you pick more comfortable things to wear and what you sense are safer for him. I overcame the rebelling phase against all I heard from different women and thought well I'm the mom who knows better and lets leave it at that. 

Another thing to talk about when spilling reality is No, you don't have to be all bloated like a balloon. People were wondering why I gained weight but never assumed I'm pregnant until I reached like my 7th month! and no you don't have to have pregnancy allergies or scary food cravings or crazy weight gain. throw away all those images cuz pregnancy is not that terrible and everyone experience at least one thing at a time in their carrying period not the whole package.

oh, that's how a pregnant woman should look like?

What keeps me positive?

I shall say knowing about all the people who went through it successfully and believing in my own confidence that I will be an exceptional mom even if I'm not that exceptional. YES, there are days where I get so moody and intimidated by the responsibility coming but you got to change the channel and focus on happy channel.

And as for women terror of gaining weight, I'm gonna get my body back. we do that all the time with dieting and gaining even before being pregnant so what's the difference now? so what if you got a line or two of stretch marks its not like they didn't exist even on the skinniest people. A nine month that shall pass and a nine month to get it gradually back, my life, my passion, my body, my routine and a new life that would be better than ever. long story short its not as bad as they describe it and its not the end the world either.  

Pregnancy is simple to pass yet complicated enough to explain:

If it was ur first pregnancy like me, you probably has received tons of advises and warnings from women. I myself prepare a paper of questions for my Obstetrician on every appointment to answer my worries and concerns. and I came to this conclusion.. In pregnancy there are things that are black and white like you can't have an x-ray during pregnancy obviously but you can take a panadol pill safely. However there is also a gray area where no one knows for sure the main reasons or the right answers to it.  We see women blaming a hospital for not taking action before they miscarriage their babies yet the doctor work is not a work of a magician. It might be the fetus that couldn't support itself or something related to uncontrolled circumstances in you body of wonders. A lady I know scolded me once for not lying down all the time for her opinion that her cousin who laid down at every possible chance she got had an easy delivery but I've seen a friend who had c section delivery for not helping her baby turn to the right position by laying down all day!! 

who's at fault and who's right? No one.

we are talking about hundreds of factors, your body type, your pelvic size, your pain level tolerance, your habits, your muscles, your hormones, your choices and even your baby himself!! yet it all ends up at your expectation, if you think its gonna be scary and tiresome it will be such pregnancy. That's why I stopped listening to other people's opinions and had great depend on my strength and being in god's hands.

This was one long post and I still feel like there's more to talk about, I still have two months to go and probably will see and experience more until my due date. keep me in your prayers for an easy delivery and share with me what do you know/heard about pregnancy in your society? 

Peace,
Amna Al Dhaheri

House Furnishing for the weekend

This last Sunday was an official islamic holiday which extends our weekend by a day I knew I won't be spending out. I was just not mentally prepared to go out and needed couple of days to meditate at home and just focus on internal organisation of my life at home. I'm not the super mom when it come to house keeping and never will be like my dear mother who dedicate every possible break to clean and sweep the floors even when they're shining bright; but I do have a sense of responsibility to lift the dirt and tide up my house when needed. LOL

if I were a magician at home.. LOL

Last couple of weeks I headed to IKEA at Dubai Festival City with a mission ( and measures of course, never ever go without those two!) to design a huuuuuge clothes closet for future investment and finally get rid of my husband complaining about his clothes right of holding a space in our closet.*angel halo* I also had a small bookshelf and a desk in mind if I lay my eyes on any good designs.

I do admit my husband and I got carried away a little and got 3 meters set of two bookcases and a desk to hold our antiques, books, paper documents and well be a decent study area for both of us. We went to bed feeling accomplished and proud to finally get what we had planned for months ago and couldn't sleep thinking about when it will get delivered to our empty room.

IKEA Designing system, totally loved it!

so this weekend I had a welcoming task to do for my IKEA purchases! :D

The delivery service was so reliable and respected time just the way I love it. Although the installation of our new furniture took a while for bringing two staff only, they cleaned their mess and that was enough to forgive them :P

Here's my wide big closet ~

I love the mirrors in the middle which substitute any need for stand mirrors and a great motive when I exercise woohoo!! 

I designed a part to be for my baby's stuff which is a lot more space efficient than having those small expensive baby closets and had it provided with baby hangers, baskets and glass shelves that are not in stock right now but will go to get them later in June. probably gonna post about it later when all is well organised..

  

and here is my desk and bookshelves!

To me this is a dream perfect desk with a perfect lightening coming in, I can't wait to study and write in this corner. The place still looks empty as there're a lot more to add here and there but its a motivating start ..

Thank you IKEA for being so creative and making our houses prettier! Now all I need is a good quality time to get everything in place in those shelves *cries* 

Peace,

Amna Al Dhaheri

My Wedding Dress

I finally found an online picture of my wedding dress to share it with you

Sun Flower By Michael Cinco

Cinco is a Filipino designer who started off his fashion career in Dubai. During my search for my dream wedding dress I visited many couture houses of well known designers but never left breath taken the way I left Cinco's!

The office had a white decor all over the place as if you're entering a magical ice palace and the staff were the friendliest I have ever encountered. They knew very well the uniqueness every bride wishes for her big day and they did their best to guide me through the process of selecting the dress keeping in mind the body shape, personal preference and most importantly the budget.

Michael Cinco

The reason why I totally loved Michael dresses even the ones I didn't pick is that; they all have this majesty and prestige aura around them, where many designers managed to make me feel like a princess, Michael made me feel like I'm a queen in his dress

totally loved him and his dresses ~!

Peace,

Amna

IELTS challenge

I hate those ironic pictures of IELTS students

IELTS is a horror movie to most students especially when their academic future depends on it.
When I joined university I took a TOFEL test instead and was pretty enough with my English level at that time to get me accepted in all colleges. Now that I graduated I wanted to keep my options open to possible future higher education pursuing so I decided to go through all the trouble now when I am somehow free rather than wait for a last minute chance to apply.

The challenge I'm gonna talk about is not an expected academic one but rather a challenge of getting passed harsh circumstances on the way to get the IELTS. I reached a point where I truly believe its not meant to be to take this test or worse I got hit by the evil eye lol

I tried to keep it a secret from many people that I'm planning to apply for IELTS simply cuz I wasn't sure if I'll take it now or then. Only my close family members and some of my workmates -who were so nosy to ask what I'm reviewing in my free time *pfffff* - got to know about the IELTS on my schedule.

When I went to register for the first time I took few hours off work and had to walk around a huge ancient university building to reach the IELTS center. When I finally got there I was given a bank account number to pay the fees and was not allowed to even reserve a seat or fill an application before that!:l

After work on the same day, I headed to the nearest bank which told me that an amount less than 1000 won't be accepted and that money exchange offices are more suitable for such transactions.

I went to the office which then said it won't work to transfer money to a university account I need a specific person name and turned me back to the bank I came from..(this is when I started to lose my temper) 

I went back and explained that to the lady and she asked me about which bank the account is under and so its easier to go there and pay (why u didn't say so from the beginning!!).. unfortunately that bank was already closed.. 

Due to work stress I couldn't find the time to go and pay so I was late by a week or so and thus missed the exam on January, yet I believe its for the best.

to cut the story short; I had to go back and forth for around 4 times to register and every time I forgot an important document unlike the usual me who comes fully prepared. First my ID was at home then it was expired. back for my passport and lastly the receipt as a prove of my payment !!!!!!!!!!! on the last time I started crying on the way back and bumped my head on the car door so hard while my husband trying to comfort me lol

I FINALLY reserved a day, the first of Feb ~

My sister in law happened to had the same exam with her friend and it was nice to have an experienced company on the day of exam. All the time I was praying to this last step to go smooth. 

when it was time to enter the exam hall we took a place at the beginning of the line and when it was my turn bad luck came knocking again !!! I was told that I need my ID not my passport as the lady reserved my seat using my ID before knowing its expired and forgot to replace it with my passport number instead !! I kept my nerves cool and left the line rushing to my car where I kept my ID. Although I was supposed to be from the first batch entering the hall I ended up at the last of the line =___=

there was around 10 rows and guess what!? my sister in law and her friend were at the second and me next to college students at the 10th row !!!!! still cool.

prayers on my mind while holding my disbelief from the series of bad luck doings happening at once. The exam coordinator was reading the guidelines for the exam meanwhile I started feeling like I need a visit to the toilet immediately ! WHY THE HELL did I had cornflakes with milk on an empty stomach! I was in a war wondering if there's time to go to the toilet now or wait for the breaks between each session. I took a risk and went with the first option. xD


luckily the listening part went great but when the reading part was being distributed the craziest shock came rushing !! Now I understood the meaning of "Genre: G " posted on my table, I was assigned for the GENERAL version of the test not the academic! Here I went nuts, "EXCUSE ME!! EXCUSE ME!! I registered for the academic test this is not what I registered for !!!" *freaking out*  the row examiner went rushing to the coordinator and explained the situation while I was like no way such a joke is playing on me oh god no please no I can't wait for 15 more days to retake another exam nor can I go through the long process of registration AGAIN!!

Thank god the drama ended by giving me the right version without questioning and I couldn't believe I handed in the papers and got out of that place finally

I went joking with my friends saying I'm sure my result will get lost somewhere in UK there is no way it can reach me smoothly lol

The results came in time and the series of drama ended with a big joy of getting band 8 out of 9 alhamdellah. :)

In this exam I learned the true meaning of fighting for something you want and working so hard to get it. It was such an unforgettable story that will keep me laughing whenever remembered. Did you had such a situation where you thought maybe its not meant to be but you made it anyways?

peace,
Amna