The Act of Becoming an Activist

Studying for Secretarial Science under a diploma course was never an easy one for me. We had to learn to develop good communication skills and do excellent presentations to get high marks. To make things more worst, this semester, they brought up a subject called as Public Speaking and as for us, like it or not we had to be prepared with two different speech, Informative and Persuasive. My first blog, Life As a Semicolon were actually my Informative Speech and when the time comes for the persuasive, I've made up my mind to talk about The Act of an Activist.  It might sounds a little bit boring, but its not a bad topic to talk about after all. I guess I'll start with the definition of Activism.

Activism is the action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change. The reason I brought up this topic today, is because I would like to persuade you guys to be a part of an activist as well. By becoming an activist, you have the ability to do no matter your age, your means or your background. You believe that you can make a difference and that you have the power to do something about an issue. The goal of an activist it make the world a better place for us to live.

The first and most important thing about being an activist is leadership. Leadership is not a process, but a natural choice based on how well one is to lead or influence. Grew up in a rural part, I never liked to be called as the “leader of tomorrow” instead “I am a leader of TODAY and tomorrow”. We had prominent figures like Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and even our very own first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman who stands as examples of what an activist must be. Tunku Abdul Rahman fought for the freedom of our country not on his own but gained the support of the whole Malaysians.

 Human Rights, global warming and climate change, human trafficking, terrorism, high rates of unemployment, poverty and hunger. All these issues need our attention as leaders today. I repeat “leaders” not “leader”.This means we need more than a leader to solve issues. The government and NGO’s are doing their part but we as the community need to play our part as well. It’s not too late for use to become activists. 

We can all do something to change this world, to be what we want to see out of it. Let us take these universal adversities as our opportunities to show the world our best. -As Nelson Mandela said, “The greatest glory in living lies not in never failing, but rising every time we fail.” I believe that we all geared to do something to positively change this world into what we want to see. Let us be the change we want to see and that change will come for us. 

So, I guess that's all from me today. I've uploaded a few pictures and a video on Human Rights. Have a look if you want too. Thank you.

                                                           

                       

                                                                   
                                                              Bersih 4.0

                                                           

     

   
                                                              Women Activism

                                              

Life As A Semi-Colon ;

Have you ever wondered why there are days when it turn out to be such a nice day or sometimes a tough one or maybe a boring day? But, if it did turn out to be a tough day, then why can’t you make some changes to make your day easier? My purpose today is to give you a little confidence on life as these is all related to my topic today, “Life as a Semi-Colon”.

What is a semi-colon? Semi-colon is a punctuation mark indicating a pause, typically between two main clauses, that is more pronounced than that indicated by a comma. Okay,  basically it’s just a look-alike comma. Nevermind, you don’t have to waste time about it because it’s not important at all. Semi-colon is a mark that plays a vital role in writing and writers love using in while they write usually the novel writers. A famous novel writer, Nicholas Sparks, one of my favorites, used to say that “Semi-colons helps to boost up my confidence and they change my story a little whenever I want to”.

Writers tend to use this semi-colon when they want to add a twist to his or her story. Besides that, a semicolon represents a sentence the author could’ve ended, but chose not to. Means, maybe it will have the continuation but you can’t expect what will happen. Just like your life. In this case, the author is you and the sentence is your life. You choose how your life will be. It’s basically you that make your life. Do not let small things get over you like depression, anxieties, tension and even a breakup with your girlfriend or boyfriend, as these kind of things will make you lose hope in life. Maybe not now, but later. Semicolon expresses that you have to make a turning point in your life. Gain more confidence, have the strength to lead your life. I mean go out there and have fun dude! Why worry about problems when you have a long journey of life to go?

You might think that I might be saying this very easily or for fun but do you know out there, there are patients with cancers and other sickness who still continues their life as long as they can although they knew they are going to die sooner or later. In America, they brought up a project called as “Project Semicolon” in 2013. It was the idea Amy Bleuel. She’s a graphic designer. Amy described her father’s death as something that brought more pain to life than anything she has ever experienced. So, her struggles, and that of her father’s made her determined to offer support and guidance to people who need.

She asked people to draw a semicolon on their wrist to show their struggles or to show support for loved ones and friends struggling with mental illness. The message quickly spread and two years on, people are getting the semicolon tattooed on their skin as a symbol on their ongoing struggle and triumph over the disease. It’s really popular nowadays, you can even see people uploading pictures of this tattoo on Instagram and Facebook. It has a serious meaning behind it. It marks their struggle, victory and survival but however that their life is not over yet. In America, when they meet people with semicolon tattoo, and although it’s someone they don’t know, they just go and start up a conversation with them. They share their problems.

Like me, I once had a depression too. I’ve gained so much of fear bringing up my own life. Who know my story could have ended a long time ago. But no, I’m here. I have a small print on my wrist that reminds me I’ve let go of these feeling. This tattoo is so important to me because it’s a symbol of my story that continues each and every day I used to carry the weight of my burdens. Now, I carry a semicolon because my story isn’t over. If you woke up in the morning and thinks it’s better to put on leave today as the classes are all the bored ones, draw yourself a simple one along your hand.

You don’t have to put on a real tattoo, instead, you can draw using a pen whenever you think you don’t have a mood on that particular day just like how I did.  That’s all from me today. But before I end my blog, I would like to take this opportunity to say sorry if I had touch the religion part. I understand that Malays are not allowed to have a tattoo. So, please do not mistake me as this is just something that I would like to share with you guys. Oh yes, before I forgot, there are some pictures that I have added, so take a look if you want to. Thanks for taking your time reading it. Bye!

                                                                AMY BLUEL

                                         
                                                                    QUOTES

  

                                     AN IMAGE OF A GIRL WEARING SEMI-COLON TATTOO