hold it against me

Whenever I commit a fault during my driving lessons, my instructor would say "I would hold it against you for.. (insert the fault here)". It was his favourite sentence!

You see, when I drive around in a manual car, I still suffer from palpitations even though I have been learning to drive in the UK since September last year. Because driving is a skill and after so many years of not driving a manual car, the skill somehow starts to diminish. And it has been quite difficult for me to become acquainted in using the invention called "the clutch". 

Skills. Believe it or not, an average person is a master of multiple skills. What differs one individual from another is the level of competency. Let's look at some of my skills:

1. Communication skills

I'd say I have good communication skills. That's the reason why I got high marks for this module in the first 2 years. Even during my OSCEs (Objective Structured Clinical Examination), the examiners would give good comments regarding my history-taking skills. But even though it's good, I still failed the exam last year because it's not assessing my skills but rather my knowledge which makes me think that they should have called it another KNOWLEDGE exam instead of skills. Never mind, this is my rebellion against my medical school.

So some people would think that I'm an extrovert rather than an introvert in social gatherings when I'm consciously using this skill. Yet most of the time, my personality overpower my competency and thus, me being me - a happy and quiet introvert.

2. Language skills

I've always thought I have good English. This notion was proven wrong when I began my CP1 (Clinical Phase 1) in my 3rd Year. I've talked about this in my previous university blog. I guess I haven't really embraced the social linguistics of the English culture. The key is practice. It would be such a shame if I don't get to improve my English after been given the opportunity to study here since 2009.

3. DF skills

DF is dakwah fardiyah. Google this to find out more ;)

It should actually come natural to me to do this particular skill cause it's supposed to be my forte. But probably because I have been distracted with so many challenges (ie exams and failures!!!), I probably have overlooked the need to practice this skill. Have I given up? No not really. I think it's because I lack motivation. Shame on me! I love making people's days. This is my cup of tea really.

Conclusion

You know yourself better; you know the skills that you have. The 3 things that you need to bear in mind are - practice, motivation and perseverance. 

Just realised that this conclusion relates to my ultimate challenge in May. Heh.

It's hard to wake up every morning thinking about what would happen in May. On the bright side, every now and then, Allah sends me a silver lining to keep me going. And today, I received one of the best silver linings I could ever wished for during this difficult period, alhamdulillah :)

Every cloud has a silver lining. All you need is the willingness to search for yours...