Winner

Some people around the globe might think that execution of Movement Control Disorder (MCO) make them feel as if they are imprisoned but to me, I have been quarantined much earlier than those people. Back then, I had always been in an imaginary jail that I create myself for I could not see way out of there no longer. I would say this MCO is one of the keys that opens the door for me to be free from this prison and certainly I have done many things throughout the implementation of the MCO.

As early as the first day of MCO, I learnt through people kindness - kind enough to help me reach Sungai Buloh station by 7.45 a.m. so that I would not miss to board ETS train back to my hometown. I stayed at Razman’s house at Rawang a night before I boarded the train. He promised to send me to Sungai Buloh KTM station by dawn with car. However, since nobody at home except both of us, the car was unavailable because his family already went back to Kedah earlier. He only had a motorcycle but he was not in a good condition to ride me there as he was in functional brace for his knee after knee surgery and he was advised to limit his motion. Then, he figured out to borrow his neighbour’s car after Subuh prayer. However, nobody answered him when he tried to call them. At that time, I was a bit worried if I missed the train but he still insisted to help me to get there. I tried to book Grab from his house but nobody picked the request. Then, here came his last move, he offered his motorcycle but I myself must ride and leave the key in the basket under the black cloth. I had no other option but to agree with him but at the same time I feel so bad that I must leave the key unsafe under the cloth at the parking area. All praises to God that I was able to board my train and I will never forget Razman’s kindness to me although he himself could not bring me there due to his current health condition.

For the first three weeks of MCO period, I was struggling with the inner me, the barrier that I built within myself that I was not like way before I endured the pain of being rejected by the one I had given my everything. Just a day before Ramadan commenced, I decided to press the reset button of my life as much as how I wanted to hand over all my worries, uncertainties in life and disappointments and began to become a new person from there all over. This MCO period if not by Allah’s will had made me realized there are more things that I should concern and my blurred life visions had become cleared.

In term of spiritual, I started to contemplate that death would always run after us no matter how we want to avoid it. To press the reset button to become a better person, I started with forgiving people including myself. I learnt in my past how it was so hard to change when we ourselves do not forgive ourselves, hence, I must act on myself first. I could not change other people and the environment but I could always change myself to be better at least. Hence, I forgive myself and it felt like rooms of opportunity being set upon me. My visions for the world and hereafter become clear once again. In prayer for instance, I try my best to understand what I say in the prayer and always hope that Allah would accept my prayer. I started to relate that between my belief that time is created by Allah and the objective of human to prostrate to Him, hence, I came out with the conclusion that how MCO period actually give us more time to devote ourselves to Him and once the time spent, it would never return.

While not neglecting my responsibilities as a son, academic activity should continue as well. It is not a big problem for me to study at home with the aid of e-Learning, instead I feel more comfortable with the approach of online learning throughout the period. We have no fixed schedule for the current posting, so we literally can join every classes available in different posting, thus help me and my friends prepare for final professional exam that would include all those postings. Other than the class with the lecturers, I also have my own study group and we have session almost everyday except weekend. I am so grateful for having classes and discussion with my friends as this really helps me in terms of knowledge and boosting my confidence as I needed to present the case or topic to the audience. Personally, I watched YouTube videos on how to retain a lot of information and I learnt that the proven methods based on literature are active recall method and spaced repetition. As suggested by the video, I downloaded mobile application called ANKI which in Japanese means ‘memorize’. It is an application of self-made flashcards that incorporate both active recall method and spaced repetition. Basically, the software in the application already help me to revise the flashcards that I made by spacing the time based on my ability to answer those questions. I could grade the flashcards as hard, intermediate or easy once I answer and the harder I grade it, the more frequent I will re-encounter those questions, hence it will boost my long-term memory. I am not a person who likes to write notes and the video also mentioned that making notes was the least effective to retain long-term memory yet the students still prefer to do it. I am glad that I finally met my own new study technique and I hope it will help me to pass with distinction in the coming exams. Being blessed with the MCO period, this chance to be better in my academic should be seized and benefited to the fullest.

The opportunity to stay at home with the family is indeed a great blessing. After I start to realize that there is no greater love could be portrayed than my own family, I started to have more idea to develop myself towards a bright future and doing what I like which may benefit me in the long term. Initially, I tried to imagine what I would like to do soon after graduation which one of it is to teach at school as I really have that passion to teach and inspire my students. Previously, I used to teach students privately at their home as well as the tuition centre and it really generated my income. I said to myself what if I just start now during MCO period instead and so happened that I came across an application called OSEM where I could have income by just making sets of notes or questions for school students and each time students read my notes, I would get some royalty. I hope that I could help more students now to understand their lessons at school easily and hope I will prove it through this application. Besides that, I already joined Entrepreneurship Online Summit via Facebook last week which they taught the participants how to generate income at home through empowered digital marketing, investment and real estate property. These are knowledge that I already wish to know long time before and I was really glad that I could join it now during this crisis time. All the speakers did really great job to provide inspiring talks and experiences yet free with no fee. Actually I have no idea what to do to start my business other than teaching and I am not good in promoting my business either. So, I thought that I want to start writing books and blogs and wish to be able to publish it one day however I still have zero knowledge and this. All praises to God that always makes my journey be easier, I came across a virtual writing workshop that would be held online via Facebook. Although I had to pay RM99 for the fee for that, I still determined to join because I believe that it would benefit me in the long term which I think it would be going to be my important business in the future. Thanks to my family for understanding my passion and I hope that I will help them more one day and Allah will ease everything for me so that this would become my hereafter investment.

Apart from being a helping doctor and inspiring teacher as well as author, I also have passion to sing, learn languages and travel. The reason why I want to generate income now because I would like to join vocal and piano classes soon after graduation. I believe that every people can express their feelings through songs and as a doctor-to-be, I find that our musical industry still lack motivational songs. Most motivational songs usually would be the theme songs for the big sport event. I really wish that I can make my own songs not just to be listened but aimed to inspire and motivate. Although there are available online vocal classes but I have not enough money now and I would postpone it once I have income through teaching and writing. Other than that, learning languages also is part of my wishlist. During this free time, I started to download mobile application like Rosetta Stone and Duolingo to learn some languages like Mandarin and download ebooks on Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK) which literally means Chinese Proficiency test. I planned to sit for HSK level 1 test after I graduate and upgrade my proficiency in Mandarin language so that I could use this to greet my Chinese patients in the future at the hospital. Other than Mandarin, I would like to learn Arabic, Tamil, French and Japanese because one of the reasons is that I want to explore my career in those countries as a visiting doctor or pursuing my postgraduate study. Hence, I must build strong medical knowledge from now in the hope that I could help people all over the world. It has been my dream to become a sport medicine specialist and one of the reasons to choose this is to travel with the athletes to big sport events. I wish I could travel all over the world one day once I am really financially stable and I will make travelog for each journey. As for now, I just survey and start to make rough plan on how to go those countries and write about the plan in my blog so that in the future I will revise them and write about those countries once I am able to reach there, I promise.

All in all, action speaks louder than words. I am the one who not give up in my life once being rejected. I have many things to do and plans are already made and now it is time for the execution. I believe that everything has already been planned by God and only He knows best for us. I will just do as much as I can to get there but I do not get what I want, I have nothing to lose as His plans are greater than mine so I will just follow the flow. MCO period is nothing but a test for all of us and the future lies on whether we plan for the betterment or other side. This is what I do during these days, what is yours?