21. To find my place

I would like to remember today's ride home. Because I bumped into Ivan on the way home. The first time I met this character, he was introduced to the freshies as the President of Arts Club. He was always there for Arts Camp guiding the freshies. He become an Abang figure to us. He's short and had a tiny braid. The next time I saw him, was in Arabic 1 class. He struggled with the words. I sat beside him sometimes and helped him with the words. Sometimes he didn't do his homework. Sometimes I didn't do them too. Arabic is very heavy even though it's easy. He always wears skinnies in many colours.

I always see him around in school and he always says Hi to me and smiles at me even though I'm very sure that he doesn't know my name.

The next time I saw him was after the Muslim Perspective of Success talk for Islamic AWareness Week 2011. I was surprised to see him. So I chatted with him during break talking about school and juggling schoolwork with organising something. After a while I told him I needed to pray Maghrib and I'll talk to him later. And he said, "Yeah, I need to pray too". It took all my grace and composure to prevent my jaw from hitting the floor. Yes I coolly turned away to walk up to take my ablution and then to the AS6 Musollah.

After prayers, I asked Aisyah and Hamzah about Ivan and they said he converted a few months ago. Wow. MashaAllah.

So just now I had the blessing to bump into him at the bus stop and we boarded 95. He was headed to Masjid Kassim to take a fardhu ain class. Honestly what is that? I asked him if he went to Darul Arqam and he said yes but he started by taking an Adaab class at Masjid Kassim and it started from there. He began to show an interest in Islam from there. I think it's totally courageous and amazing. MasyaAllah. I take a lot of granted about my life, being a born Muslim.

Also, being a senior, Ivan advised me a lot on what to look out for in choosing my major: the staff at the department; how I feel about the staff- if I can be close to them, if I can feel like I belong to the community; the internship opportunities; the activities they do for the welfare of the student. He also advised me on juggling schoolwork with organising events, even though he admits to not juggling well. He thinks that it's tough in NUS to do well in both. I think so too. It's really tough focusing on seeing through an event with doing your readings and essays well. It's a superhuman feat. He is very humble and he tries to help me.

Well of course he doesn't know my name. He only knows my face. But at least he knows who I am. And I know who he is. And I totally respect him since the house head intro-ed him to us freshies. And I'm sure, he is one person who Allah sent my way to advise me regarding school stuff. Especially on a day where I was demoralised, getting a B- for Paper 1 for Writing Module. My target is B+ for this. I need to get it. InshaALlah. Please pray for me, if you are reading this.

I am Nur Safiah. :)