Stand up for change ; An Open Mic Night

A few other youth and I are organising an Open Mic Night for sustainable development. Details on the event are stated in an invitation in the above. So, please take a look at it :) (Click to get a better view of the invite)

If you can't read the details above(Sorry, it's a little blurry. I don't know how to change a document into a picture,yeee ): ), here are the details :

Date : Saturday, 12th December '09

Time : 7.30 pm - 10.00 pm

Venue : DJROA Community Centre, Damansara Jaya

RSVP to me(or write in my cbox) or to this address : standup4change.youth@gmail.com

If you'd like to take part and perform for the Open Mic Night, please call me @ 012-3477049 and I will explain to you further details. You can sing a song, dance, read a monolog, act out a skit, read a poem, anything artistic will do. The only requirement is that it has to be about sustainable development, or about any social issue.

Or.. you can just come and watch others perform but also take part in the other segments of the evening :)

It's going to be an interesting night filled with insightful perspectives and artistic performances, with a nice full crowd (crossing fingers! :D) :)!

Please let me know latest by the 4th of December if you'd like to attend. Limited seats, so please hurry :)

See you there! Hopefully :)

It is 1.34 am now.

34 minutes after the Ascension of Abdu'l-Baha and for the first time in my 16 years of life, I feel so connected, more than before.

Today's programme was amazing.

I couldn't stop thinking about the dream I had when I was 9.

That little boy who saved me in my dream turned out to be You. That never fails to put a smile on my face.

I don't usually remember any of my dreams but this one, it stuck with me, and.. hopefully until the day I die :)

Our Angel

Yesterday : Jayattan's Memorial.

The slideshow of Uncle's entire life was being shown but the only thing I could hear or pay attention to was the grief and sorrow that my aunty, Jayanthi felt. She was crying, no, weeping with Sanjay in her arms ; he was crying too. That was the loudest and most devastating cries I have ever heard. I couldn't imagine how she was feeling. I still can't. I realised that I cry and weep sometimes for the littlest of things, I sometimes forget to appreciate my Mummy or my Papa, Shayna,Sunil or Sonia, and especially right now, my grandparents. I don't want to wait for their last breath before I feel guilty for the way I've treated them, I don't want to wait until they aren't alive for me to wish that I had treated them or anyone for that matter, better. Jayanthi experienced a terrible loss, and so did we but ofcourse, she was affected by it most.

Yesterday, I realised how wonderfully amazing my granduncle was. He was actually one of the youngest in the family, just a little over his 60's but he was always the one who stood out most amongst the 8 siblings. He was the one who first initiated our very first big family gathering with the thought of only wanting to bring the family in unity, for all of us to appreciate,love and be united. He always put family first.

Jayanthi said this last night, that when Jayattan was first diagnosed with cancer, the first thing he said was "Let's throw a party! Get everyone to come, the whole family, call everyone and let's have a party."

Really.. how many people do you know that would say that?

His joyous spirit was so immense and so great that eventhough I never really got the chance to know him well, he left a huge mark in my heart just by being the jovial, loving spirit of the family.

I do love my uncle although I never really knew him well and I know that he's okay now.

EMPOWER.

EMPOWER

It feels like forever since I last blogged.

Anyway.

The EMPOWER Workshop finally happened.This workshop happened last Saturday and is actually and hopefully one of the many workshops that EMPOWER will be organizing. The whole purpose of EMPOWER speaks for itself, to empower youth to become agents of change.

Inspiring is one thing, but to empower, it lasts long, it motivates and enables people to actually DO something, to pay it forward and not just to sit around and think “Wow, that was a great workshop. It really made me think.” , but to actually empower youth to be a part of change.I was actually really amazed at the turn out. I didn’t expect to see so many people but I was so glad that these youth came, it really made me happy inside :) The main facilitator that day was Fiona, who works for United Nations and has facilitated many of these workshops before.

The theme last Saturday was “Self Esteem”.

One of the activities that we did was called “Shopping Spree”.

We made believe four stalls.
One of which I “owned” :)

We had stickers that stated characteristics of people like fat,short,casual,sporty,pimply,plain,sexy,pretty, etc. We stuck these stickers onto each participant’s forehead without them knowing what was said on the stickers. So, they had no clue what kind of person they were, they just had to go with the flow. The participants would go to each shop and the owner of the shops would treat each person according to what is stated on the sticker. At the end of the game, the participants would attempt to guess what kind of person they were. Then, we talked about how different people get treated based on their physical attributes.

Then we had an activity that broke the group into two different groups and just discussed about self esteem. I saw a few people from school that came for the workshop, and some of them were very outspoken about the types of peer pressure we face in school, the way certain people get judged just because they might be a little different from the norm, how some people feel the need to be a certain way just to fit into the mould that society creates.

But then, in the end, it was nice to see how everyone began to realize that there is no reason to constantly please society but to be happy with yourself and if you’re happy with who you are, then you shouldn’t have the need to follow what society asks of you to do. The last activity was a Pay It Forward activity. Like I said earlier, this workshop isn’t only to inspire but to empower these young bright youth to become agents of change, to become the driving force of the transformation of society.

Just a few from the many photos :

Overall, it was a good, productive, insightful, energizing and empowering day.
I’ll post up the dates for the next workshops(hopefully!) next time.

Do come! :)

I don't know if you've realised but, Google is so cute with it's "Sesame Street" theme! It was Bert and Ernie one day, Big Bird another, Cookie Monster d: and today it's Oscar the Grouch!

See!

Ah, I bet everyone knew this, but still. I miss Sesame Street. I miss being young and small. Everything seemed so simple before.

Here we go, there's nothing left to choose.

Two tearful movies in a day - My Sister's Keeper, The Time Traveller's Wife, no, not doing me any good.

I don't understand why I watch sad movies when I'm sad, stupid, yeah, stupid, but I do it anyway.

Mat Kearney all night long. I need to get my head straight again.

This time, I want to forget. Please let me.

I'm just gonna take a deep breath in, and forget.

I need...

a big dose of hugs.

:)

I had the best sleep today, well, the best in about a month!

Anyway I'm only posting something up today because well.. today, someone very special turns 18,yet another year older.

Hi Sukh :) I wanted to call you and text you at midnight, but well, I couldn't, I have no credit.

Well anyway, happy birthday! It's been awhile since we spoke and I miss you! HEH

Remember when you used to be my... (I'm hesitating writing this because it's so embarassing!but...) "petbro" and I was your umm "petsis" (gags) I can't believe we used to say that haha but :) It seems like it was just yesterday but it really was abooooout 5 years ago! Woah. Time's really passing too fast. I always respected you for your strength(inner strength d: don't get funny ideas) and your faith. I think you're a good role model for other youth today.

(no picture with you ): )

We'll go out, my treat(since I'm just too free now d: ) :)

Happy Birthday,love!

It's so crazy how we condemn others so easily. It's like the "new trend" today is to be rude and to use foul language. I don't understand how that can be. Foul words come out so easily nowadays. It's almost as if we've forgotten that we have a conscience. I admit, it never really mattered to me before, about the use of foul language but.. times have changed, things have changed, and I would like to think that I am a changed person,not perfect at all, no no, just changed, I hope.

I don't know, I guess, sometimes, I truly do get hurt when people use such language, or say harmful things just for the sake of making you angry. Most of the time, I think, I don't really show how vulnerable I am, well, maybe because I don't want to. I think I get scared sometimes, to show my vulnerability. I think that's because of my past, and because I was so vulnerable before, I'm scared because well, I don't want to go back to my past. Not that I'm forgetting my past, I will forever remember it, as a constant reminder to never repeat it again but back to my point, harmful words will and can never resolve anything. Harmful words only harm others, and mostly, yourself. In the end, we live our own lives, we choose what we want to say or do and in the end, we only have ourselves to blame, we are answerable to God for our own faults. So technically, we are only harming ourselves when we harm other people.

I just wish that we would actually use this precious gift God has given only to us (our conscience, our right mind) and stop ourselves before using such words, to think about the consequences, and then.. act.