On 23^rd of March 1990, a baby girl was born in Hospital Besar Kuching, Sarawak. She is the youngest one among her other 10 siblings where they live in a very rural and unfitted life. Three days after that, an angel took her to be adopted due to her biological parents’ financial condition. And now she is writing about herself as it is the first assignment she got from Diva Noor Kumalasari look alike.

My name is Nur Zarifah Liyana Rosli. My friends address me as Effa and my mommy call me baby. And Rosli is not my biological father, that is the reason I do not have the ‘binti’ on my name. Rosli, my adopted father. I got nothing to say about him because my mommy and him have been divorced when I was still 4 months. Reason for their divorce? . As always, men and cheating is like they are born for it. Frankly speaking, I do not know him. I have not seen him until today. He abandoned my mommy and me without doing any of his responsibilities after the divorce. Even when he was still a husband to my mommy, he did not do his duties and responsibilities as a husband to my mommy. Those are what I heard from my families. But I do know something about him. He is the brother of our local actress, Rosnah Johari. Enough of that. Now, I want to write about my mommy. The lady that made me what I am now.

Her name is Suraya Binti Noor Mohammed. Noor Mohammed is my grandpa. I called him Tok Bah. He is a pure Pakistani and her wife that I called Mak, she is a mixture of Malay and Salons. I have never felt any regrets for her adopting me when I was a baby. I feel grateful to Allah for making my fate with her. She is a wonderful mum. It might be painful as her words sometimes are quite harsh. Nevertheless, I have learned a lot even though in a hard way. I do understand, it is not easy to be a single mum with a responsible that is to raise a child up alone. She is also a father for all these years. For me, it is the hardest task for an imperfect human being. But Alhamdulillah, I think she succeed in doing this task. Maybe not yet in the highest level but I still think she did a good job in raising me up. My mommy is actually the 4^th child among her 11^th siblings. Sadly, two of them passed away, making her the 3^rd in the family. I look up on her so much. I do not have any idea whether does she know about this or not. My mommy used to travel to overseas a lot when she was working in a very big private company. Meaning, Mak was the one that took care of me most of the time.

It does not making me a spoil brat for being the only child of my mommy. She has never pampered me at all. She taught me to be independent in sense of getting something. The first time I worked when I was 12 years old. I worked as a part-timer on the weekends with my neighbor. They have a catering business. It taught me a lot from there, appreciate every single cent u have as it is not easy to earn money and also not to waste your parents’ money. You will only understand what I mean if you go through what I have experienced. Since when I was a little girl, I will save my money whenever I want something. Because I understand, I am not as lucky as others. My mommy is the only earner for herself and me. Keep on asking money from her, is not helping her at all. I felt sorry for my mommy. And again, I do not have any regret having her as my mom.

In this paragraph, I will be talking about my beloved grandma that will always in my mind. Mak, only god knows how much I love her. The moment she went away, my life seems meaningless. I still remember, Nina, my cousin and Uncle Papa that still living with me, knocked my door around 3 or 4 in the morning. Before they have said anything, the look on their face says everything to me. That time, my world was like turning upside down and I blacked out. Till today, I am still sad for her leaving me. Sometimes I ask myself, why did god took her away from me? I thought He knows that I cannot live without her. But then, when I think it in the bright side. He might be needed an angel at that time. God I miss her so much. I pray so that her soul is rest in peace and I know that she is in the most beautiful heaven as she should be because she is a beautiful person at heart. After she passed away in 2004, I could say that I failed all my subjects when I was in form 2. It really gave a big impact on my life. She is the most important person in my life. I could say she is in the same ranking with my mommy. She is a great cook. Even though I do not have a dad, I have Mak. She pampered me a lot. That was why my cousins who are older than me are jealous of me. Even my aunties give me more attention than they get. I do not know why. Of course I am not a person who loves to suck up people . I just don’t know how to be a pretender and say something that is not sincere.

I have always been boycott by them. Reason? It is because I am an adopted child in the family, that is all. I have been through so much in these 20 years. My first uncle once said to Mak, I am just another people’s grandchild, not her. Imagine how I felt when me, myself heard it. They are bias, God’s power. One of my aunties also adopts a child. Surprised, Johan did not get the same treatment and experience as I got. The reason why, my aunty is very rich and Johan has a perfect family as he has dad. It is okay. I will never ask anything bad for them. Alhamdulillah, my cousins that came after me, love me and respect me including Johan. Nina, Mira, Johan, Zafera, Zehan and Qistina, all of us are like siblings. We love each other so much and I do have respects for them too. I treat them as my own sisters and brother. And all of them are smart n good hearted. That is all I got to say about my family. Next are my hobbies.

I have few hobbies. One of it is taking pictures. I started to like photography when the moment my mommy bought me a black looking like a bulky little boxy gadget for me. First time I hold it, I held it like my first baby. With all my carefulness I treated it like a fragile thing. Its name is Canon 1000D. In my sense of view, journey is not like a destination. This is because, we will stop at our planned destination whereas journey keeps us going and moving on non stop. I would use my own theory of journey in my subject of photography due to learning photography or other things, we should not put a limit on it. Through photography I will able to direct myself towards an expression and exposition of my mind. Photography, in a simple context, is my visual diary encompassing an ever growing body of thought and expression. Not only that, photography is like a small voice at best, but sometimes, one photograph or a group of them can lure our senses into awareness. Much depends upon the viewer in some, photographs can summon, enough emotion to be a catalyst to thought.

But, to be “the one” in this field, I do realize that I have to see something that nobody else sees it. Photography has always been associated with some notion of cutting out and keeping the past in order that it is not forgotten, although not necessarily in order to commend or legitimate the events therein. Photography is also known as one of the mediator in the media’s world. That is why, we, the Mass Communication’s students have to learn this subject as communication could be done through pictures. As the saying goes, “a picture worth a thousand words”.

Shutter speed, ISO, aperture, white balance and all of the elements that are there in a DSLR has its own priority, importance and usage. But the uniqueness is, each of it works together, cooperatively and tolerantly. As sometimes one of them has to be priorities first than others. If only the human beings could work together as these heartless buttons, it is not impossible our life can be as beautiful just like a beautiful photo been captured. It relies on the society how the way they want to live their life. What I love in photography is, if you put a little bit more of observation, it is really related to us, our life and surrounding.

Besides of capturing any moment in time, either for assignments when I was in Malacca or fun, at the same time I am learning about not taking others for granted. As I have discovered from the small living organisms in my surrounding. Teaches me a lot I guess. God’s willing, if I been given more convenience financially, I do want to upgrade my DSLR so that I could start to reveal the life of the micros living organisms that I am fanatic of. And I do have a thought, once, to pursue photography seriously. Keeping it as hobby, that will do. Because I am not creative enough to see things like an expert photographers suppose to see it.

Then, I love to cook and bake. Watching Mak and Mommy cook and bake in the kitchen that was what did when I was small. Thanks to them, now I know how to cook certain dishes. Being a woman, you must know how to cook, that was Mak advised to me. I like to cook Italians’ food because it is my favorite. I also love to make desserts. Every week I will find a new recipe. Mommy will always keep the free recipes’ book that she got from the supermarket. It’s kind of cute sometimes.

Dancing is the best thing to do. Not only as one of the ways to exercise, but it is also interesting and entertaining. When a boring day comes, I will play my favorite song that I can dance loudly, and I can go crazy alone (chuckling). I want to come clean, I do go to clubs. I just love to dance. That’s all. No other reason such as a place to flirt or doing bad things. I know my limit and I know what I should not do as a Muslim. That matter the most. Mak told me, I started to dance when I was about 1 plus. I will be dancing whatever kind of music as long as I can move. Kind of shocking when I knew it.

Finally, singing. I practice my vocal, of course in the bathroom. The most comfortable place for everyone to sing. Most of my family told me I have a good voice but I disagree with it. As I reckon that they are just being polite to me (hahaha). So far, I have not across in my mind to try my luck by entering any competitions because I do not want to look as silly as the people in “American Idol” and making fools of themselves. Study is what am I suppose to do now and only by doing this I could repay Mak and Mommy’s good doing towards me since the day I was born. I hope, there will be no judgments after reading these. Lastly, I want to thank to Allah for giving what I have been given. I pray so that I will be a successful person living for today’s life and after. Amin.

Last but not least, I may look rough on the outside. Actually, I am super duper ultra sensitive and soft at heart (hihihi) or I could say I am all about “TLC” (chuckled). I will help you what I can. And I am a kind of person that will protect and love my friends so much. It is hard for me to like and love anyone. Yet, when I start to like and love that person, it is going to be harder for me to hate them. To make it short, try to know me before saying or judging me. Most important thing, I detest people who talks behind my back. Take my advice, if you have any problem with me, just talk to me. Talking behind my back will just make it worst as it pieces anyone up. Mind your own business and just don’t mess with me. Fin and chow. =)