Hupomeno

Sometimes people look at me, or more specifically at my face, and would exclaim that I look like my dad.

Less than half of them would say I look like my mum.

There were rare times when one or two would point out that I look like my godmother.

Most of them would comment that surely I will grow up to be exactly like my parents - a lawyer, or a politician. Like the old man I met recently when I went to court with my dad, or some clients I bump into in the office.

I have finished my A-levels. Got my results already, which I won't announce here - whether it is good or bad. Gloria in excelsis Deo. At least I can apply to universities which can help me pursue law. I'll be attending Undergraduate Law in Australia this coming May, and I cannot deny that I am rather nervous about it.

People say I am lucky, that I am blessed. I admit that I am. However, there are always haters out there who won't admit to my face that they hate me or whatever for some faults I have. Recently I have received one comment (unpublished) from an anonymous reader for my previous post - Give a little love and it will come back to you: "...People are afraid of the daughter of Yang Berhormat Wong Ho Leng...". There are more, of course, but I won't elaborate here.

It is rather pointless, anyway, to let this bother me. True, those who do not know me say that I have a rather stern face that most are wary of. Most of my friends in college think that I am this quiet person who just kept my head down and studied hard during the first semester - until they got to know me better, that is. My closer friends would interject that I can be funny sometimes if I let my guard down. Little kids I have met over the years in DAP ceramah, or Sunday School, or longhouse visiting, did not run away in fear - they weren't afraid of me. However, my best buddies would "complain" that I am completely and utterly insane. The stuff I did, the risks I took, and the dares I accepted.

My question is: why judge me before you even take the time to know me?

Just to break it down in case you don't understand:

I am a normal girl with normal likes and dislikes. I quarrel with my siblings, get into mischief with them - like messing up the whole kitchen on one my failed attempts to cook. Twice I have practically destroyed laptops. I never got excellent results in school. I like sports, I hate wearing makeup. I like music, sometimes when I feel down I turn the volume up and listen to music at full blasts when no one was around. I get bored sometimes in lessons, when the terms get technical and filled with jargon that take me a few long seconds to get the meaning, like "indemnity, caveat, liquidated, retainer" and many more.

I have toys too. I have a Siberian tiger-cub toy named Zoe, which is my current favourite. I still sleep cuddled with Ubah and Zoe. I love story-books. I have dreams, I still wake up in the middle of the night when I have nightmares. Sometimes when I can't sleep I would go to my dad's study and talk to him for a while, and he would amuse me with his usual "One day, Ubah came to Sarawak and liked it here and decided to stay. The End. Now go to sleep" sentence.

I like comedies. I hate horror. Romance movies bore me. When it comes to Twilight, I am Team Jacob, until now I still laugh at jokes of Edward Cullen sparkling like a pixie. (What vampires sparkle, anyway?) Bella has a poker face in the movies. Taylor Lautner is H-O-T. Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez shouldn't date - no offence to them. Pianoguys are awesome. Nick Vujicic is an inspiration.

I love animals. I have an extreme dislike for insects and reptiles. My current obsession is now a husky. I have a 3-year-old dog named Lucky, a cat which just one day decided to stay at our place. Her name is Comel, and she visits us every day. Just yesterday she gave me a scare when I was sitting on the front porch watching my siblings play by brushing up against my arm.

I have fear of failure, like any other person.

I have my ups and downs days. Sometimes I am rebellious.

So how am I different from other teenagers?

Would you like it if anyone judged your child just because of who you are?

I always have to remind myself that other people definitely got it worse than me. For example, barbaric lies were spread about Sdr Lim Guan Eng's son; or that Sdr Anwar's daughter, Sdri Nurul Izzah had received phone threats.

I am definitely blessed. And I cannot promise that I will turn out to be exactly like my parents. I will try, however, to follow their good traits. Mum is good in management, dad has good leadership skills (even though his skills are more to task-oriented than relationship-oriented). Both of them would always finish what they started. I will definitely try to follow that - sometimes I get lazy though. Typical teenage behaviour. But I'm trying. My bane is short-temper, but I am working on that.

On a brighter note, I have learnt new stuff recently.

The word Hupomeno is the Greek word and means "to persevere". Pistis is "faith". Katameno is "constant residence". Persevere in life, have faith in God, and your church should be your constant residence.

A quote: "When you begin a journey of revenge, start by digging two graves: one for your enemy, one for yourself" - Chinese proverb.

You can't undo something that has happened, and you can't take back a word that has already been said out loud.

Cats' eyes are beautiful. Like glass, or a teardrop.

When you look at a book's page at a certain angle in the sunlight, there are bumps and bruises and ink doted across, it's like life. At first glance, everything is always perfect, but life is just made up of little imperfections at closer look. A successful person does not have a perfect life. A person is only made strong after being battered by mistakes and regrets.

Different shades of life make the painting more beautiful - Mike Dolan.

Laminin is a molecular structure shaped like a cross. Basically we all have the cross within that holds our bodies together. I'm not bluffing, go check it up on Google.

Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

It is near impossible to rinse your mouth with Listerine for 30 seconds straight. I tried it and ended up laughing and nearly swallowing the rinse.

Wayne Dyer quoted: "Judgements prevent us from seeing the good that lies beyond appearances".

Lawrence G. Lovasik quoted: "It is just as cowardly to judge an absent person as it is wicked to strike a defenseless one. Only the ignorant and narrow-minded gossip, for they speak of persons instead of things".

And Mother Teresa: "If you judge people, you have no time to love them".

Life is how you make it.