5 days in Singapore

"I think Aisyah was driven not just because she was rowing for herself, but for the future of the sport in Singapore." Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said at the Berita Harian Achiever of the Year 2014 Ceremony at Shangri-La last week.

 

(more of his speech here: http://www.pmo.gov.sg/content/pmosite/mediacentre/speechesninterviews/primeminister/2014/August/prime-minister-lee-hsien-loongs-speech-at-berita-harian-anugerah.html#.U_6H47PlpgA_)

Another story to tell my grandkids. My grandkids will be so grateful I don't have to repeat my stories because there's plenty to share, haha!

I surprised my mum by coming home for a few days last week. She pretended she "knew what was going on", I told her, "Don't bedek." but I'm glad she was happy. What made her even happier was when I was awarded the Anugerah Jauhari in the BH Achiever Awards. This is the second year running they're awarding to youths below 30 (thankfully I'm still eligible lol) and coincidentally, last year, it was awarded to a 19-year-old President's Scholar with the same dad's name as my dad. I mean, how rare it is to find dads with a name Mohamed Rafa'ee and there you go, the two of us, Anugerah Jauhari, yo. 

Had my first ever press conference on the morning of the award ceremony. I was nervous as hell! I didn't know what to wear! Was considering between a UA Batgirl Tee or a plain grey tanktop with a pencil skirt and an Under Armour hoodie. I went with the latter, although both sounds pretty casual, they could have denied my entrance to the press conference if I was anymore laid-back than that! (Also, thankfully I wore UA gear because UA people were asking me why I wasn't wearing UA stuff for it and I showed them this photo LOL)

 

 

Under Armour said, "Okay next time we'll give you attire with the logo on the shoulder or chest."

The main winner, the ustaz from RRG, touched on really heavy and deep stuff which made me feel like I had nothing good to say about saving the world or touching the hearts of the community, which made me feel a little sad. But I felt stupid for being sad because I WAS FRIKKING SITTING AT A PRESS CONFERENCE TABLE THERE IS NOTHING TO BE SAD ABOUT! So I lifted my chin up and smile. I answered the the media's questions to the best of my ability. I think I did pretty well. I deserve a pat on my back.

The excitement didn't end there. The award was presented to me by PM Lee himself and I was so excited to meet him in person, so much so that when I shook his hand, I didn't know what to say and blurted out, "How was your day, Mr Lee?" and that was about the only thing I asked him that night.

Superfailblog.com

Reminded me of the day I met Minister Teo Chee Hean at the Peter Lim Scholarship Ceremony last year and all I said to him was, "You're tall, sir!" and he said, "So are you!"

#OMGWHATISWRONGWITHME

I must have a list of PROPER things to say to Ministers the next time I attend such events. GAAAH.

Anyway, the award night went awesome. I was so, so, so honoured to be receiving the award in front of the most influential people in the Malay/Muslim community in Singapore. And I had to deliver a Thank-You speech, I felt like I just won the Oscars.

The speech.

You can read it here: sph.com.sg/system/assets/1535/Saiyidah%20Aisyah%20Speech.pdf

Took me hours to ponder through it, finding the right things to say, making sure I don't bore the audience with my Thank You list.

 

 

Finally done with the speech on the way to the Award Ceremony!!!

Thankfully, the speech went well. And even more thankfully, people loved it. They came up to me to tell me that the speech was beautiful. Thank you :)

It was amazing when so many important Malay/Muslim community people coming up to me to congratulate me and taking photos with me. It was as though I just won the Gold medal again. It was amazeballs (which in case you didn't know is already in the Oxford Dictionary: Amazeballs- extremely good or impressive).

It is really, really comforting to know that people still care if I am getting the right amount of support for my rowing career. I get asked a lot about this funding issue and to make things clear for everyone, I am currently on No-Pay Leave with Ngee Ann Polytechnic and the Sport Singapore is making up for my "loss of wages" with a grant to support my full-time training. It is not much, but it is sufficient to put a roof over my head and some good food in my tummy. There is support, there can and should be more support for local athletes like me, but I can assure you that there is support, and it is growing. And the thing is, we have to stop depending on the government to grow the local talents that we have here to build a sporting nation. It has to start from each and everyone of us, taking the initiative to show support to the local athletes, whether in terms of monetary or even as simple as showing us your emotional support. Knowing that there are at least 5 million people supporting us from the stands, gives us that additional boost to make the nation proud.

 

Okay,

TIME TO STOP BEING DISTRACTED WITH ALL THE ATTENTION.

That's why I'm back here in Sydney, training my ass off for the last few weeks before I depart for my first ever Asian Games.

Pretty stoked!

It was a good trip back, I reckon. I managed to catch up with some friends whom have just joined me in the "let's put a hold on our jobs and go chase our dreams" (please consult your respective superiors before signing up) and had a good laugh during lunch with my colleagues. And then, I realised how lucky I am to be doing what I'm doing now. I do miss work, and I miss Singapore, sometimes (when it gets too cold here), and I miss my home and my family. But this, this thing I'm doing now, this is just like waking up to a dream come true every single day of my life. Alhamdullilah. Alhamdullilah. Alhamdullilah. I cannot be anymore grateful for this. And I remind myself everyday to be grateful for this. Everyday.

And lastly, thank you Berita Harian for awarding me with the Anugerah Jauhari. It means a lot to me knowing that what I thought initially was just a selfish reason to chase my dreams and to prove people wrong became a story to motivate our youths to fight for their dreams.

Like I said in my speech, "stay strong, because you'll never know who you might inspire."

xx