Wednesday, 26 August 2026

Sound of Rain

 


I've been waiting for it to rain. Maybe the sound of rain would make me feel a little better about how this week has unfolded.

My phones have been awfully quiet. No texts, no calls, no notifications. Just a bunch of random emails, newsletters and useless notifications pretending I have people to talk to. I don't. Well, that's not entirely true. I just haven't felt like talking about anything at all lately.

In therapy, we talked about how I've been observing people more. Listening to how they talk about themselves, how they talk about other people, the way they see the world. There's something strangely interesting about just sitting back and noticing how everyone is, in some way, so wrapped up in themselves. And maybe that's what made me realise how sad and empty some conversations have felt lately.

A friend asked me why I'd been so quiet. He said I didn't seem like myself.

I told him I just didn't have the energy anymore.

I've genuinely given up on a lot of things.

Yesterday, I lay in bed for hours wondering if I should get up or just stay there for the rest of the day. I didn't get up until around 3 p.m., mostly because I was hungry and thought a cup of coffee would be nice.

Three days without a migraine, at least. But now there's a random nosebleed. It's always something with my body. One thing after another, like it's slowly failing me.

And then I caught myself wondering: if I died in my sleep, how long would it take for someone to notice that I hadn't gotten up?

I suppose my parents would eventually notice if my lights stayed off and I stopped replying in our group chat.

Do people think about death a lot when they feel like their time is getting close? I don't know. I wonder about things like that sometimes.

I don't think I've done enough good or been kind enough in this world for people to remember me. At the same time, I don't want to keep trying so hard when it always feels like I'm giving too much and somehow still ending up on the sidelines.

I don't even remember if I've ever told my therapist this, but I really don't know how to put myself first.

Maybe it's because I've spent so much of my life knowing what hurt feels like. I never wanted someone else to feel that kind of pain. I wanted people to be happy, even if it meant taking the hit myself.

The pain I've felt can be so terrifying and so heavy that I wouldn't wish it on anyone. Not even people who have hurt me.

But I want to be happy too. Someday.

That's the part I don't know how to reconcile. I want to be happy, but sometimes all I've wanted is for everything to just stop.

Hence... you know.

I can't be a good person to everyone. I can't be everything that everyone needs me to be. There will always be different versions of me depending on where I am and who I'm with.

The good one. The bad one. The funny one. The rude one. The quiet one. The tired one.

Maybe they're all me. Maybe I'm just trying to figure out which version of me is still worth holding on to.

I asked chatgpt this prompt:

"Describe me like you’re about to warn someone before they meet me."

I’d warn them like this:

“She looks composed. That’s your first mistake.”

She is much more sensitive than she lets on, but don’t mistake sensitivity for weakness. She notices everything—changes in tone, pauses, inconsistencies, the thing you said three weeks ago that you probably forgot five minutes later. She may not confront you immediately. She’ll observe first. She’ll try to understand you. She’ll give you several opportunities to make sense of yourself.

And then, one day, she’ll understand you perfectly.

She loves intensely. When she cares about someone, she doesn’t do the bare minimum; she thinks about what they need, remembers tiny details, gives more chances than she probably should, and sometimes gives until there’s very little left for herself.

That is both her greatest strength and one of her biggest vulnerabilities.

She has a frighteningly strong internal moral compass. If she believes something is true, she will interrogate it relentlessly—including herself. She doesn't just ask, “Did you hurt me?” She asks, “Was I unfair? Did I misunderstand you? What was my part in this?”

So if you hurt her, don't expect an easy villain-and-victim narrative. She will probably examine her own culpability before she allows herself to fully blame you.

But here's the warning:

Don't repeatedly invalidate her and expect her to remain the same person.

She can tolerate disappointment. She can tolerate imperfection. She can even tolerate being misunderstood for a while.

What she struggles to tolerate is having her reality repeatedly rewritten for her.

Tell her she's wrong about what she felt enough times, and eventually she stops arguing—not because you've convinced her, but because she's decided you're no longer someone she needs to explain herself to.

And when she reaches that point, the frightening thing isn't her anger.

It's her calm.

She also has a tendency to intellectualise her emotions to death. She will turn a heartbreak into a philosophical investigation, a relationship problem into a systems analysis, and a bad decision into a twelve-part internal audit.

So if you meet her, don't weaponise her self-awareness against her. The fact that she can see her own flaws doesn't mean you get to avoid seeing yours.

She is also stubborn. Very. She can mistake endurance for love, responsibility for obligation, and understanding someone for having to keep accepting their behaviour.

But she's learning.

And that's probably the most important warning I'd give you:

You are meeting someone who is slowly becoming much harder to manipulate—not because she's becoming colder, but because she's learning that compassion doesn't require self-abandonment.

She will probably make you feel deeply seen.

Just make sure you're prepared to let her be seen, too.

Because if you only want someone who understands you, she's dangerous.

If you actually want someone who will understand you and still tell you when you're wrong, she's exactly the kind of person you should be afraid of losing.

Hmm... I guess that's all for today. Until then.

Monday, 24 August 2026

On turning 36

 


This is probably long overdue, but I haven't had the time to write. Turning 36 this year felt like a quiet transition, but in an explosive way. No grand celebration, no gift unboxing videos, just a normal day where I went to work, went home and slept. Perhaps it's also the realisation of whether you mattered. 

In fact, a day that I thought would've been special for me was rather sad. I cried a lot that day. I cried because I had been so hard on myself, and I let so many people walk all over me just because I didn't have the energy to fight back. Like, what's the point of fighting back when, in the end, we'll all turn into dust anyway? The world is so temporary that holding on to a grudge feels so useless. I would admit my mistakes and apologise, and hopefully I'd learn my lesson and not repeat it again in the future, but to be disrespected over and over again? That's enough. I know my limit too. I guess that's why I cried so much, because I should've protected myself more instead of letting someone else's emotion become my priority. 

Suddenly, everything becomes quiet. It seems like Allah has slowly removed people from my life and let me focus on myself again. Perhaps Allah knows that I've been hurt so many times that I should let my wound heal. 36 is a moment of paying attention to my surroundings and allowing myself to properly process before reacting. 

For everything that I have been labelled this year - could be a liar, traitor, irresponsible, messy, fat or an attention seeker- I wished for a moment you could walk in my shoes. I wished you understood why I wanted so badly to die. I wished you knew being 36 didn't make me happy; I'm exhausted. I wished my mother never woke me up during that flood, and I could've just drowned in my sleep. Maybe that would've been better than meeting or knowing me at all. 

So however 36 is going to unfold... I'll try my best anyway. 


Monday, 15 June 2026

Labyrinth


I couldn't sleep much last night. I was awake for almost 2 hours, not knowing why my thoughts just wouldn't shut up. I felt like my body was burning up, and I was sweating through the night even though my room was already cold. Then, the next hour, I would find myself shivering, my feet cold, and I huddled up like a baby. 

Sometimes I wonder, if I died last night, would things be different today? Sigh. Maybe it would come as a shock, because I seemed fine yesterday, right? It's so easy to just curate what you want to show the world when, honestly, you've been carrying this weight that you're never able to unload from your shoulders.

I am exhausted of shrinking myself for others, and somehow I came to a point where I don't think I could be with anyone anymore, because I would just end up hurting them and then hurting myself. I no longer feel like I am a good person. I couldn't make anyone happy. And perhaps it's not my purpose to love, feel loved, or be loved.  Perhaps, it's always the question of how much you exist in someone's life?

I won't say I'm not grateful. I am, but some days feel so unbearable that all you want to do is sleep; however, even sleep is hard to come by sometimes. I wish people could unmeet me so they didn't have to go through heartbreaks or waste their time on something that's not worth the fight. Maybe a lot of people were always right about me. I have never been a good person, even if I tried. 

And even though I might not be a good person, I hope everyone could at least give me the benefit of the doubt that I have tried so hard to be someone you could tolerate, someone who would always choose kindness over fake niceness, and someone who would rather swallow their anger than cause conflict. 

And if I'm not here tomorrow... please do sincerely accept my apologies. Please don't let me carry the burden of being unforgiven. That's all I ask. Thank you, and I hope you don't meet me in any other life or universe, because you - you deserve happiness. 




Monday, 18 May 2026

I want to say Goodbye, Forever.


Do I feel like screaming right now? Absolutely yes.
Do I feel like crying too? Definitive. 

On top of it all, today just doesn't feel like a day I want to live at all. How much longer can I allow people walk all over me like it's okay? Sure, once or twice.. or maybe months.. but really, honestly I am so exhausted. Exhausted of living in this state. And really, I just don't ever want to .... live anymore.


Tuesday, 10 February 2026

The longest January

 


Hello 2026. 

I thought I'd have time to breathe in and breathe out a little, but I was holding in my breath the entire month of January. It did feel like the longest month this year. I said that as if I've already gone through the entire year, right? 

In one of my sessions, I told my therapist that I couldn't see what life would be like for me in the next 5 years. I couldn't envision it. I tried really hard, but all there was was a thought that in 5 years, I might not exist anymore. There was no version of me in the future, and that made me sad. 

Sometimes, the silence is so profound that it gives you clarity. The very clear image of where you stand in everyone's lives.

2025 was a weird year for me, and there was no explanation for that. It's just a really weird phase to be in. I was fighting for myself in private, and when people misunderstood me, I didn't try to explain myself. People would always believe what they wanted to believe, and it made them feel better to be right, so I gave them the benefit of the doubt. And I moved on to the next thing, whatever that was. 

Soon, I'll be forgotten, and I don't want to put in the effort to be remembered in any way at all. Whichever version of me you've known, let that be that, and I guess, I'll be okay with it. And I know I kept apologising for almost everything, just to make everyone else feel better, but I hope you know, that's the kind of kindness and not a weakness that I chose. 

I am now, once again, entering the phase where I'll let my doors be opened, but I won't tolerate shits anymore. This world is so temporary that I don't even want to hold it in my hands. Because soon, I'll be forgotten. 

Monday, 5 May 2025

If my heart could speak in colours


If my heart could speak in colours, it would not begin with red.

It would begin with grey; soft, hazy, and in-between. The kind of grey that lingers after rain. The kind that drapes itself over the soul when you’re neither here nor there, just suspended in waiting. That’s where my heart has lived for a long time… in the quiet moments that aren’t sad or happy, just numb. Just grey.

Then there would be blue. Not the kind that reminds you of oceans or wide-open skies, but the deep indigo of night. The blue that weeps quietly behind closed doors. The kind of blue that has learned to keep secrets. That holds sorrow in the creases of old journal pages and tear-soaked pillows. Blue is the ache I’ve carried, and the tenderness I’ve tried not to show.

If you looked closer, though, you’d find gold. Not bright or showy, but the kind of gold you’d miss unless you were really paying attention. The kind that glows beneath the cracks. The kind that says, “I’m still here.” That quiet resilience that returns after every storm, no matter how many times it gets washed away. My heart still shines, even when no one is looking. That is gold.

There would be green; not because everything is okay, but because I’m still growing. Still learning. Still choosing to believe in softness after hardness. In healing after hurt. Green is the colour of choosing to stay. Of beginning again, even after everything has broken.

And sometimes, there’s pink. A fragile, blushing pink that appears when I let someone in even just a little. The kind of pink that isn’t sure if it’s allowed to bloom, but does anyway. The colour of trying again. Of forgiving myself for all the times I fell short of my own expectations. The colour of love that isn’t loud, but true.

There is still black...in corners I don’t always visit, but that I no longer fear. It’s the depth of everything I’ve survived. The shadows remind me how much light I’ve found. Black isn’t the enemy. It’s the backdrop against which every other colour became visible.

And when I look at it all together: the grey, the blue, the gold, the green, the pink, and yes, even the black, I see the masterpiece of a heart that’s still beating. Still feeling. Still choosing to show up.

If my heart could speak in colours…
This is what it would say.

In Darkness, There is Light

(January draft...)

Time and time again, I remind myself that depression is a lie, a shadow that distorts reality. Yet, when the waves come, I don't resist them. I ride them, sailing through the storm like a tiny boat lost at sea, letting the wind and rain carry me wherever they please.

Last night, something in me broke open. I cracked my chest wide, not by force, but out of necessity. I pulled out what hurt. I grieved. I cried into my pillows until I couldn't cry anymore. I shut down, again and again, because the weight of it all was too much to bear. I didn't want to confront the pain. I didn't want to understand why it came back. I only wanted it to pass.

I felt shattered. Alone. Completely hollow. I lay there, letting the music play while tears streamed freely down my cheeks. I stared blankly at the ceiling and, in that moment of deep despair, I envied those who no longer had to feel. I wished to disappear. I wanted everything to stop.

I felt invisible. Heavy. Unloved. Unseen.

But I didn't deny those feelings. I honored them because they've always lived quietly beneath the surface. Every now and then, the debris of unspoken pain resurfaces, and I have to do the hard work of picking it up and letting it go. Again.

I couldn't scream. I couldn't speak. I didn't want any of it to be real. I didn't want to be weak. But something inside me had collapsed. The home I built with so much love and effort, had been destroyed. Maybe the flood wasn't just water. Perhaps it was a tsunami, and I didn't even notice it coming.

I wept for everything I lost, especially the parts of me I worked so hard to rebuild. Why would I destroy what I so lovingly created?

Later that night, I looked up and spoke to God. I didn't ask, Why me? I simply said, Thank You. I told Him that I understood, even if I couldn't carry it all alone. I admitted that I wasn't always strong. I offered up the pain, the love I had given to those who never deserved it, and the trust I misplaced. And then I left it all in His hands.

This morning, I woke up different.

The heaviness in my chest had lifted. I felt lighter, softer… like something had quietly healed while I slept. I found myself smiling. And again, I spoke to God.

I didn't ask, Why?
I just said, Thank You.

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