Short eh?

I have been short for literally my whole life, so its really nothing new for someone to tease me about it.

" Hey, I'm Syahmi, just call me Sam. "

" Oh! Nice to meet you! You know you're kinda short "

" Whaa.. Whooaa.. Oh dear! When did this happened? I must been unaware of my physical appearance for the past 23 years of my life! How could I be so blind? Thank you! From the bottom of my heart, oh stranger whom I just met. Thank you for enlightening me with your brilliance and informing me of this important and highly relevant matter! I will now waste my time indulging in this epiphany that you have bestowed upon me. "

" You're welcome???? "

" Shut up! "

I used to be self-conscious about it when I was a kid and thought something was wrong with me. I had high hopes for myself and believed that I might be just a late bloomer. I wore big T's or some of my dad's Tees that were obviously too many sizes up for me because I thought it was cool and gangsta at the time but also because I believed I'd grow into them.

TLDR.. High school came and I was still short.

People teased me but I stayed confident that the day will finally come when tiny little Sam hits the prophesied growth spurt and towers over you peasants who believed there was no consequence for teasing and bullying me!!

But the prophecy was false..

I was told on average that boys stopped growing at the age of 16. Once I reached the age of 16, people start giving me a false sense of hope and said it was actually at age 18 that boys stopped growing and once I was 18 people started telling me 21?

Like seriously!?

Whaaaaat!!??

I eventually stop looking forward to a day that would never come. I never got my growth spurt and I never even grew enough to be of the average height. I remain small and membulat over the years. It was always funny when people thought it was a diet issue or physical fitness issue, but people kept saying crap like..

" Oh you just need to drink more milk, gotta get that calcium for them bones to grow! "

and I'm like....

" Bitch, I drink milk every mornin! My bones are strong but they aint growin! I ate my greens and I ate my fruits but the results just aint showin! "

Geez! Dont get me rappin guys hahaha.

Overtime, I came to embrace my short stature and it became less about tolerating it but actually cherishing myself for who I was and to be honest it's come in handy and brought me into some interesting situations over the years.

Tho Im not saying that being short is better. I hate being unable to reach things from high shelves without a stepladder or having to parkour but being shorts pretty cool in some cases, makes the world seem a little bigger and grander even if its just a few centimetres.

I dont mind being short but if I had the ability to control my size, would that make me a super hero? or a super normal? But meh, I wouldnt really fight crime with it, Ill probably just use it to mess around with people to be honest. Haha

Think Before You Speak!

Conversation are probably most important, but also delicate way we communicate with each other. What we say and how we say it affects a lot of what we intend to mean. You probably grew up with a mom and dad or any adult telling you that

" If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all "

or

" Think before you speak ".

Well essentially that's what discretion is. Actually if the only thing you have to say might come off as mean, be a little careful with your wording.

" Aah la baju yang ko pakai tu, memang buat ko nampak gemok. "

" Eh, asal ko nampak kurus macam lidi doe.. bukan 2 bulan dah ke ko pergi gym? "

But I like to live by an old saying in Sufism.

Before you speak, you should let your words pass through three different gates.

1. Is it true?

2. Is it necessary?

3. Is it kind?

To be honest, this helped me a lot with interacting with other people. As kids we didn't really think about what we said. It was usually just word vomit where we played ignorant to what they meant or the impact they had on those who received it. Like those kids, who retaliate to their parents disciplining them saying things like " I hate you, mom "  and " Nak lari dari rumah lah " or some bullshit empty threats.

Look here privileged ten-year-old, I'm sorry, you got your toys taken away because you prioritized it over your other responsibilities, but you probably die out there after a day without your parents lets be honest.

Like if you are gonna run away and you meant it. You just do it. Just do it without announcement. Like if someone kidnapped you and held you for ransom and they went to the kitchen for a few minutes, you're not gonna be like..

"Hey! I hate you! If you don't set me free, I'm gonna run away! "

If you have the opportunity just freaking run!

Okay fine, maybe that's not a good analogy. Don't run away kids. Anyway..  where was I again?

Oh yeah! Discretion.

I come by a plethora of people who don't exactly think about what they say before it leaves their ugly mouth. People often get carried away with their sense of freedom of speech and disregard the consequences of their words or actions and fail to display the empathy needed for us to understand each other. Just because you CAN say it, doesn't mean you HAVE to!

Again. Is it true? Is it kind? and is it necessary?

If it fails any of these, you might want to reconsider letting it pass through but if it still manages to force its way past the gates, maybe don't be surprised if nobody likes you.

Kan kan kan kan kan kan...

A few months ago, we had a gathering between contractors company in Petronas. Its a common thing and Petronas that day held a dinner. I went there with 2 of my friends with a clerk/woman of the company being one of them. Then, after we walked by the entrance of the hall, random ballsack of a dickhead randomly comment our outfits for the dinner.

"Dah macam sakai bodo aku tgk" while staring at us up and down and then she just walked away! O_O

Of course we were like.. " wtf? " I mean geez, we don't even know that woman and out of nowhere insulting us like that. My friend was like " Dia tu dah kenapa? ". I mean do you really need to say that? Is it true? Cant confirm. Is it kind? Its an insult, hell no but of course the most important thing, is it really necessary? Hell no!

Well in the end, we act like nothing happened. My friends and I could definitely agree with each other outfits that day since its appropriate for the event and it wasn't ugly looking nor an eyesore for anybody to look at. In fact we looked great. We laughed it off and didn't really took it too serious too, since the next person we met, compliment our good looks. Perhaps that woman had a bad day and just went randomly insulting people out of nowhere. Oh well, whatever..

Obviously, its unrealistic to have our words go through all of the gates every time we speak, but overtime you kind of get the hang of it. You find out which things are appropriate per scenario. I for one, usually add in another gate.

4. Is it funny?

Well, simply because that's the nature of my work and my outlook in life. Some things are unnecessary but I find them humorous. Some times its funny because its unnecessary, but you got to be tasteful about it. Someone nearby might make a funny noise, and I might laugh at it. It was neither true, kind nor necessary but I found it funny.

The woman who commenting on us? Not funny!! >.>

Anyhow, discretion and empathy is something you develop as you age. As kids we just went about and said whatever the hell we wanted and not gave a shit about what other thought because " Hey! Freedom of speech " right? If you get offended or triggered well, you are too sensitive and you just have to deal with it, right? If I can be a douche, then I will proceed to be. Its simply because when you lack empathy, it's just so easy to be one. I know some of you might start to fear speaking at all anymore. I mean, what's the point, right? When worrying if every single thing you say might deter people and render you unlikable.

But clearly, that's not the point of this. Some people believe that action speak louder than words. But a lot of the time words are responsible for influencing actions from others. Whether or not the actions are benevolent can be up to you. Think about what you're gonna say. Speak responsibly. Think before you speak!!

Dear readers/viewers...

Discretion is advised.

Rejection

Rejection is an everyday part of our life and it sucks. We as humans are raised to get used to disappointments and many of our actions are determined by a level of fear of being rejected and the reason of this sucks is because our species depends on us being social and interacting with each other regardless of how antisocial some of us are.

As an introvert I can tell you that being around people....

Tires me up...

I enjoy being with them and doing activities together but I need my isolation every now and then. I think a lot of people can agree with me on that. Anyway despite how smoothly you think your life is going, you are bound to face rejection the moment you set foot outside of your home, which luckily I myself don't do very often.

Oh.. -_- ( geez, I need to get out more.. )

Rejection happened anywhere and everywhere. Like for example, when you asked a local store employee for help..

" Ummm, excuse me, sorry cik. Ada tak jual kasut jenis macam nie tak tapi warna biru? "
" Semua warna yg kami jual ada kat atas rak tu dik (with the annoying voice ever) "
" Ohhh, ooooooooook O_O "

Or ordering take out from the menu..

" Ummm, bagi saya oreo blog smoothies dengan red cranberry jelly satu. "
" Oh sorry, kami kehabisan ais "
" Aik? " ( Dah kalau dah tau ais habis, kenapa bukak kedai idiot.. -_- ) "

But I guess when you hear " rejection ", a lot of people had the idea of romantic rejection in mind. Like for example, you're at a local cafe and you find yourself infatuated with a barista. You find her cute, she has a nice smile, you like the way she say your name correctly, tasks others before her man had trouble with..whatever. You have a crush! How do you go about the railing of your life potentially with hers in order to build a new track alongside of them?

Its easy! Just go for it! Just Shia Lebeaouf it...

Just talk to them, have a conversation, be genuine, if they are not interested, thats fine, it doesnt change who you are at all nor does it diminished your value as a person. Do not ever depend on others for self validation. Just come out of it knowing that the next time you're interested in someone it cant be as difficult as the first time..

Back then, I dunno how but I endup up representing my English club in a public speaking competition way back in my grade 3 / tingkatan 3. I thought I was underqualified as hell cuz back then I was pretty quite kid, I dont really have some major stage fright but I was shy. Despite that, I do have quite a sense of humor. I remember that during that time of the year, it was quite mandatory to send a representative from each club of the school for public speaking. The speech is about anything granted it was appropriate.

With that said, I made a speech about toys and games and long story short, the whole class enjoyed it. I didn't do too much research on the topic, but I'll just try to make it as funny as possible. After that, somehow I got voted to go onto the next stage of public speaking which is somewhat like a qualification competition to go to MSSD - Dungun and compete with others from different schools. Every other representatives from different clubs looked like they have some sort of valedictorian level of speech and there I was talking about politics affecting the society and stuff. On top of that, the audience was mostly composed of adults but my speech was mostly catered towards kids. Too bad at the time, a lot of my jokes weren't received very well and that took a toll on me.

The feeling dude.. The feeling of trying way too hard to be funny and no one laughing is a great fear of mine. I felt extremely rejected but I do felt proud of myself afterwards.

Why!?

As a quite, introverted kid who today has still has some trouble making eye contact when talking to people, I felt a big development in myself from that experience. I think what it comes down to is how a lot of us are just trying to figure out where we fit in, where we belong in this world full of different people and different ideologies.

We desire to be with people who can agree with our thoughts, people who can accept us regardless of our quirks and its not an easy task. Everyday we face judgement from those around us and its basically a constant challenge of seeking acceptance but still maintaining a sense of dignity. I know I face that kind of challenge every time I wrote a new post on this blog for all of you to read. Some may not be a good article but Im just happy to be able to entertain most of you but personally I think thats the point. Nothing comes easy. Even when you work hard to achieve what you desire, you're not always rewarded accordingly.

Get used to disappointments but don't yield to it. By that I don't mean to keep pursuing the girl you like even after she told you, she has a boyfriend. Take the rejection, all forms of it not as a failure but as an experience to help you prepare for the next one which who knows it might not end up being another rejection.