ASMA HAMID

It has been nearly 2 months since I started 'adulting'. I won't say that time flew by because in all honesty, I've just lost track of time. I'm unable to differentiate when last month was and when 2 months ago was. University seems to feel like it ended years ago but at the same time, I was shocked when Hannah told me that bonfire night's coming up because it felt like it was just a few months ago when my mates and I were discussing whether to go. I have a feeling that this is how it's going to be for the next few years, I just hope it won't be like this for the rest of my life. However, there is always the weekends to look forward to though I have nothing against the weekdays. My weekends throughout the two months have been a mixture between doing so many things and doing nothing at all. There was a day when I stayed in bed the whole day just because I couldn't bring myself to do anything. It turned out that it wasn't a great idea because I wa...

Even though I complain about my university life revolving around me trying to get a first class just to not get it in the end... I feel like I did so much in university that I should give myself a pat on the back. However, there are so many things that I regret not doing in uni and so, I'm going to list it out.  1. NOT NOT STRESSING OUT I most probably spent 93% of my uni life just stressing out about getting a first class. I had so many breakdowns, so many sleepless nights, so much binge eating (im struggling to get back to my old weight now) and so much hate towards myself. If only I had known that it was impossible (for me), maybe I wouldn't have struggled so much. Look, if you're smart and you're meant to get a first class, you'd be able to get it without making yourself feel horrible. So don't force it upon yourself. But, don't fail your degree... because what's the point of spending so much money on uni if you're not going to get a c...

It's been 3 weeks since I moved and I've had pretty good days throughout the weeks... except for the occasional days when I couldn't bring myself to eat (which to me, is very ideal). However, last night, I had a dream and when I woke up, all I wanted to do was go home.  I allowed myself to let it out in the shower before stepping out, feeling a little bit more positive! But for the first time ever since I moved or started work even, I was looking forward to Monday. On Sunday, I felt extremely down, especially because I knew that my former flatmate's leaving the day after. I stayed in bed most of the day, just waiting for Monday to come except for when I had to prepare for work.  That was when I realised that it's not going to be easy. I'll have days when I would love it here but then days when all I want to do is fly back home. Days when I want to explore whatever is out there and days when all I want to do is stay in bed. Days when I look for...

I'm in my second week of adulting (ie working). I now have a routine that includes waking up at 7.30am and going to bed at 10pm. In between, I obviously go to work for 8.5 hours (including lunch) and I'm still figuring out what to do with the remaining 4 hours that I have in the evening. I've asked my colleagues and most of them spend half of that on commuting which I don't have to worry about because my house is just 5 minutes walk from the office. Last week, I would arrive home and feel like dying because I was just tired but I've realised that my body was just not used to it. Now that I'm in my second week, I'm not tired anymore, just bored to death. Yesterday, was a little bit better because my housemate, Hannah was around so I hung out with her while she was making dinner but she's on a business trip today and tomorrow. Therefore, I decided to google the things that I could do. And guess what, I've found a massive list of things to do. ...

Above is an instastory post during the assessment day.  Job hunting hadn't been easy but fortunately enough for me, I've landed a job in an industry that I wanted to be in. I was lucky enough to know what I wanted to do before I graduated which meant that it was easier for me when it came to job hunting. To be fair to everyone, the opportunity did not come rolling to me. If you had been with me throughout my final year, you would've known how much time I've spent in searching for jobs, researching companies, looking through industries, studying for interviews, writing my personal statements (to fit each company) and updating my CV. All of this takes a lot of time and even though I did do all of that to procrastinate, it still took a lot of time. My graduate job would be in the building industry doing building services engineering. Just reflecting back to the past, I decided to do engineering because I wanted to realise my ideas. I picked mechanical engi...

After years of wanting to do some water activities, we finally did it! The reason why it took so long was because the water is ALWAYS cold during term time and people are never in Sheffield during the summer. This year, however, everyone has to stay because of graduation and with the temperature hitting 27°C, there really isn't a better time. We headed out not so early in the morning, got some Subway and headed on the X5 from Sheffield Interchange to Almond Tree Road. Felt like we were overcharged as we were given the South Yorkshire day ticket when a Sheffield day ticket would have sufficed after asking for a return. (Just checked and you can actually get there on a tram (to Halfway) too - which would then be obviously cheaper than getting the South Yorkshire day ticket). Shows that you shouldn't trust google maps that much.  However, that aside, we then walked for half an hour and a bit from the bus station to get to Rother Valley Country Park . Arriving the...

During exam period, I received an email about a competition on improving the design of a rice seeder. As uni was coming to an end, I knew that this was the last time that I could play around while working on a project. So I got my friends to join in with me because it'll be years, if ever, we'd get to work on something together again. Obviously, everyone had different reasons for joining. Hannah wanted the money, Zaf wanted to reconnect to his roots and Amir just wanted to join whilst I wanted to work on something with them for the last time.  We woke up early on Saturday morning, headed to the diamond and waited hours for the laptop to install solidworks. We had a brainstorming session followed by finalising the design. Because the concept was a bit difficult to grasp, I questioned the design. Zafran then proceeded to say "Come on Asma, it's not rocket science." Which caused quite a stir because, clearly, I KNOW THAT IT'S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE BUT...

Ramadhan wasn't as much as a challenge because I had my bad days and good days. The bad days were the worst and the good days felt like I wasn't even fasting. By the end of Ramadhan, I was just surprised with how fast it went by. Unlike previous years, this year, I decided to not force myself to do ibadah. Therefore, every sunnah I followed, I did it wholeheartedly. I felt like that's a good way to lead Ramadhan. I also had exams during Ramadhan which got a bit difficult sometimes especially because I had to have breakfast at 2AM and dinner at 9PM. My schedule got all messed up which meant that I had a really bad day during my first exam. The rest went okay, however, so I hope that all is well. Dad and Mum sent some kuih raya and as soon as exams were over, I started getting bored so I made kuih raya! This year, I made brownie cookies, pineapple tarts, cornflakes meringue and just yesterday, helped Hannah with her honey cornflakes.  A few days before Eid,...

  College and university life were the toughest I have gone through, I tear up realising that it's all coming to an end. Once I enter this next, longer stage of life, I will obviously miss it even though I wanted to jump off a building or in front of a car half the time.   However, I couldn't deny that I only got through this because of the people who were there with me throughout my journey. I lost some and I gained some along the way but things happen for a reason and I'm thankful for every single person who means or meant something to me during this journey. So this is an appreciation post - like how I did one for when I left high school, here's one for university.  I lived my life in Sheffield with two houses, one where I pay rent and actually have a room and the other, where I 'bunk' and stay in the living room. I spent a lot of my first and second year hanging out in the other house mainly because there's a telly and I usually felt l...

I recently made one of my biggest and most selfish decision ever. Do I regret it? Not yet. Will I? Probably not. When I went to the career fair, I questioned myself a lot. I kept on thinking how every single decision I make is for my own personal interest. I applied for certain jobs because I knew that I would get more from those opportunities. I also straight out said no to people asking me to contribute back to the society (through teaching) because I knew that it would not give me any direct benefits. So then I wondered what is the reason of me being sent here? (I'm not self sponsored) I'm getting tonnes of money spent on me every year since college. And where is all that money going to? To the development of someone who in the end, prioritises herself and not the development of the country. And so I asked around. I wanted to know what other people felt about this. I asked them questions like do they feel as if they've contributed enough, do they feel that th...

The Malaysian Career Fair started a week earlier from my university’s Easter break. This meant that I had to skip classes, miss out on work and rearrange my meeting with my supervisor. It was worth it. I went not expecting anything but I left learning so much from the whole experience and from talking to talent acquisition specialists, recruiters and employees. I won’t give you employability tips, tell you how your CV should be or teach you how to network but I’ll tell you what I’ve learnt. I have had a few companies that approached me before the career fair itself to screen me and invite me for interviews. With one of them, I had a phone interview, video interview and a psychometric test that I had to do before the final face-to-face interview where I was offered a position. Throughout the whole process, I felt so welcomed to the company and I wasn’t even in it yet! It was for a position that is not within my field but I was considering it because it has always been someth...

2017 felt like it was 4 years combined into one: pre-sky, post-sky, summer break and the new semester. It was just so long!  RECAP Poland Poland, even though super stressful is still the best trip during uni within europe I’ve been on. I went snowboarding on real snow - and I left with a whole new perspective on men and how I’d rather not live with one. But it also made me realise how I’d love to be one, just because travelling with them felt more adventurous (we went hiking!) and they’re always up for anything - even though you’d really need to force them sometimes. SKY SKY and my SKY team will forever have a space in my heart. It made me grow and it also allowed me to witness my friends developing themselves. I met amazing people from different backgrounds and had different perspectives of life but in the end, they all lived a life where they did things that were meaningful to them. I saw how people were under appreciated just because they don’t speak...