Extreme Charity

Today is supposed to be my turn to present a speech. I participated in a race to complete all of the project within the Toastmasters communication manual. But, because I basically tend to procrastinate, no surprise there that I would be preparing my materials on the last minute.

I remember a couple of projects at the end of the communication manual was pretty easy to do. So, I thought, "Arghh... Alright I'll give it  ago." I notified my VP of Education that I'll try to make up something but I can't promise anything (so she won't expect much). I tried to thought of a topic that was something I know very well of and very passionate about. I know I've always been good about giving, doing charity, and actually has a couple of good experience regarding that, so I chose the topic "extreme charity". Afterwards I chose a project that will suit my topic - which I had decided on "persuade with power". To be honest, I thought it was a difficult project to do, but looks like I nailed it!

WHAT IS EXTREME CHARITY?
It's an odd name, isn't it? I translated it directly from the phrase "sedekah ekstrim" in Bahasa Indonesia, which literally is "extreme charity". So, extreme charity is an act of charity where you give up a large sum of your wealth which the amount would make you feel very nervous and worried about giving it away.

Some of the famous people who give away a large chunk of their wealth to charity, who is also known as philantrophists, includes Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Warren Buffet. From the sirah nabawiyah, we know the famous story of Abu Bakar who donated all of his wealth for the development of Islam.

WHY YOU SHOULD TRY EXTREME CHARITY?
1. It will give you sense of happiness and make you feel richer
2. No one has ever become poor from giving
3. Empowering our those in need
3. God's math is not 1+1=2

Because I'm Proud of My Identity

Blog ini memang dari awal sengaja ingin dibuat dwi bahasa, suka-suka penulisnya lagi kepingin pakai bahasa apa :). Dan kali ini sepertinya lebih mudah mengutarakan cerita ini dengan bahasa Indonesia. So, here we go...

Identitasku sebagai seorang Muslim selalu aku bawa kemana-kemana. Orang akan mudah mengenali bahwa aku adalah seorang wanita Muslim. Ya, jilbabku yang selalu dengan indahnya menutupi auratku sejak kelas 1 SMA.

Akhir-akhir ini fenomena Islamophobia semakin menjadi-jadi di Australia. Mulai dari reaksi terhadap Lindt Cafe siege dan kemudian insiden penembakan di Parramatta. Selalu ada rasa was-was di hatiku setiap kali berjalan di area publik di suburb yang mayoritas penduduknya adalah non-Muslim karena tidak jarang juga Muslim (terutama wanita) mengalami tindakan rasis. Alhamdulillah, aku beruntung bekerja di perusahaan yang menjunjung tinggi perbedaan dan memiliki kolega yang memperlakukan aku sama seperti yang lain.

Hari Jumat lalu adalah salah suatu hari dimana aku sangat bangga pada diriku, terutama sebagai seorang Muslim. Manajerku mempersembahkan sebuah penghargaan bagiku di dalam pertemuan business update di kantor di hadapan orang banyak yang mayoritas non-Muslim. Saat itu adalah saat dimana akhirnya aku bisa menunjukkan ke khalayak ramai bahwa orang Islam juga bisa berprestasi. Dan aku tidak perlu banyak bercuap-cuap, cukup aksiku saja yang membuktikannya. Because action is louder than words. 

Penghargaan itu aku dapatkan untuk kontribusiku selama hampir satu tahun terakhir. I've been juggling between three things: BAU, adhocs, and volunteering, and never dropping the ball (based on managers' testimonial). Sejujurnya aku merasa kerjaku kurang optimal dibandingkan tahun lalu, tetapi alhamdulillah for everything. Setidaknya aku dihargai lebih dari sekedar gaji. I love my job.

My First Ever Interview

On Saturday morning, I was checking my office email for some reason (don't follow this!). I found an email from my colleague who is currently handling one of the initiative that was formerly mine. The initiative was employee profile, where an associate gets nominated by their managers to be interviewed. The result of the interview would then be published in company's Yammer group.

I scanned through the recipient list and said to myself, "why does she need to copy me on this?". I didn't realise until I read through the whole email that I was nominated to be interviewed this time! I read through the testimonial that my manager and her manager gave why I deserve to be featured. It's really sweet of them. I don't think I've done a better job compared to last year, but I'm definitely grateful to be appreciated for my efforts.

There were 7 questions in total that I needed to complete. Three questions were quite easy because it was only asking about my role and myself. Three questions were super difficult and one question I couldn't answer at all hahaha.

"Get To Know Me" Tag

I was thinking of doing some random posts about myself, but could not decide what to reveal. So, I went onto search for 'tag' questions! I found this "Get To Know Me" 21 questions tag on Ysis Lorna's blog and I think it's appropriate. Let's get started...

1. Are you named after anyone? Yes! My mum and dad used to listen to a radio station and the name of the announcer is "Dita".

2. When was the last time you cried? Just last week when mum was about to return to Indonesia. I cried because she said, "why do you have to be so far away?" Perhaps it never crossed my mum's mind that her daughter will be living 7 hours and $700-$1000 away from her.

3. Do you have kids? No.

4. If you were another person, would you be a friend of yourself? Yeah! But I would think that I'm a boring person.

5. Do you use sarcasm a lot? No, I think about other people's feeling before saying things.

6. Will you ever bungee-jump? Yes, but it has to be with a very trusted facilitator.

7. What’s your favorite cereal? Anything chocolatey. But if I have to choose one, it has to be Milo.

8. What’s the first thing you notice about people?The way they smile and greet other people.

9. What is your eye colour? Brown.

10. Scary movie or happy endings? Happy endings, but not the one that would make me cry. I've given up on horror movies after I put on Ju-On on a cloudy day with thunderstorm and lights off.

11. Favorite smells? Lemon/orange blossom, wet grass after the rain, good perfume (can't really pick, torn between J'adore Dior, Chanel Chance eau Fraiche, and something-else-that-I-can't-recall)

12. Summer or winter? Summer. I just can't do anything if it's too cold, too lazy to move.

13. Computer or television? Computer! I can live without TV (and had done that for 2 years), but not without a computer.

14. What’s the furthest you’ve ever been from home? Either Sydney, Australia or Tokyo, Japan... but both destinations takes 7 hours flight from Jakart.

15. Do you have any special talents? People will tell me I have talent in design. What do I think of myself? Not too sure, but I sure know that I don't have the skills to sell.

16. Where were you born? Indonesia.

17. What are your hobbies? Learning new things, baking, design, photography.

18. Do you have any pets? No, and I'm generally the worst at taking care of other living things. So, forget about pets.

19. Favourite movie? Don't really have a favourite. Hopefully you don't think I'm boring :D.

20. Do you have any siblings? Yes.

21. What do you want to be when you grow up? Simple (but hard) - being successful! That includes both my professional and personal lives.

My Hajj Miracle Story - Pt.2

ALLAH DOESN'T CALL ON THE WEALTHY, BUT ENABLES THOSE WHO HAVE THE CALLING

Alhamdulillah we will have sufficient amount of money to go for hajj, but the problem doesn't really stop there. The hajj service that we used is one of the popular one amongst Indonesians, so we had to book it fast. We inquired about the price around October 2013 and we were told that there are only few seats left. So, if we're interested we need to registered ASAP. Usually quotas won't be full until a couple of months before the month of hajj.

We were in panic because we haven't done our homework on comparing the price of different hajj travel services and were also told that we had to pay $2000 for deposit to secure a seat for next year's hajj. We didn't even have that kind of money in our savings. But alhamdulillah, with basmallah (and faith to Allah) we were able to scrape money from other budgets and pay the deposit. A month after that we were trying to get by with little money, but alhamdulillah we were able to manage and it was all well worth it.

IN CONCLUSION

Most people will wait until they achieve everything, especially finance independency before going for hajj. But I'm very grateful for the choice that we made. There are a lot of places in Makkah and Madinah where prayers will no-doubt will be granted (inshaaAllah). And alhamdulillah, since returning from hajj, Allah has made our life much easier. The homework now is to maintain our ibadah to show our gratitude to the Almighty. 

My Hajj Miracle Story - Pt.1

I consider myself very lucky because I was able to go for hajj when I was still in my 20's and without my parents financial aid. Me and husband had the opportunity to practice hajj in 2014. In that year, Arafah day fell on a Friday, which is considered the best day of the week.

A lot of people asked me "what miracles did you encounter?" when I had just returned from hajj. I got confused because I don't think there were anything particular things that stood out. But when I went on to tell the story of how I even get to go for hajj in 2014, someone said "that's your miracle".

HANG YOUR DREAMS 5CM IN FRONT OF YOUR FOREHEAD
In the book "5 cm" by Donny Dhirgantoro, there is a quote "hang your dreams 5 cm in front of your forehead , so that you can remember and strive to reach it".

I'm a firm believer that one should always keep a written list of what he/she wants to achieve or have a visual reminder. It may sound silly, but I believe it plays a part in achieving your dream. So, when I was still a student in university, I created a list of things to achieve in life. One of the points in the list says, "go to hajj before 35 yrs old." I was a bit doubtful when I wrote "35 yrs old". But then I thought, "you know what, anything is possible for Allah."

Then, when I first started working in 2011, I setup a picture of Ka'bah as my desktop background. My friend said, "wah, masang gambar ka'bah di laptop". I said, "Yes :) I'm going to go there someday". The Ka'bah desktop background was my visual reminder. I see it almost everyday. And even when I don't think about it, I believe the universe conspires to help me achieve it.

FROM A 10-YEAR PLAN, TO JUST 1-YEAR

After two years of marriage, our household income is still just enough to get us by and set aside some savings, alhamdulillah. I wasn't working at that time and was constantly in stress because I used to be so active. I was praying night and day, begging to Allah to give me a job. And in the previous Ramadan, we sort of did the unthinkable, we gave all of our savings to charity.

Just one month before I finally got a job, husband and I were having conversation about saving up for Hajj. We made a target of going for hajj in 10 years, calculated the cost and also took into account the inflation, and finally calculated the monthly amount that we needed to save. We then made a commitment to save our money x amount each month for the next 10 years for Hajj.

About three months after we gave up all of our savings, alhamdulillah, finally Allah answered my prayers. I secured a contract position within the company I used to work for in Indonesia. It was only a contract position, but I'm grateful for anything. A contract position will do just fine.

So, I received my contract and began calculating the salary that I will be earning during the contract. Miraculously, the amount is just enough to pay for two person to go for hajj. I didn't know what was going on in my head. I could have thought of buying other things, but I was thinking about going for hajj (?). I was so excited and asked my husband if he would like to go for hajj the next year. Of course, he would say "yes!".

4 Reasons Why I Keep My Wardrobe Minimal

MINIMALISM
noun | min·i·mal·ism | \ˈmi-nə-mə-ˌli-zəm\
A style or technique (as in music, literature, or design) that is characterized by extreme spareness and simplicity

I have just found Joojoo Azad's blog recently about minimalism (minimalist wardrobe). I (sort of) jumped into the "minimalism" wagon several months ago after I realised my closet is getting too full. When I moved to the new house, the new closet was even more screaming "I can't fit any more clothes!". I just can't comprehend how I was able to accumulate so many clothes.

I haven't really done any closet clean-up, because I still love my old clothes. So, what I'm trying to do now is to SHOP LESS. I did challenge myself to "no clothes shopping" for a year, but only managed to commit for 6 months (those darn SALE!). Something important I learned along the way, tho, is to buy only something that you will wear over and over again.

This is my 4 MAIN REASONS why I like to keep my closet minimal:

NO MORE OVERLOADED WARDROBE
As I have mentioned, since moving to the new place, the new wardrobe seemed to be screaming "I can't fit any more clothes!" The rack is just full with clothes to the extent that I wasn't able to slide the clothes easily. It takes quite a lot of energy if you have to forcefully separate the clothes while browsing through the rack. I said to myself, "I'm not going to add more clothes into the closet." - which I have already disobeyed because I just purchased sleeveless blazer from David Lawrence.

SAVE MORE MONEY
Do you realise how much money you spent on purchasing clothes? If you normally budget $100-200 a month on purchasing clothes, that is a whooping $1200-2400 a year! After seeing my closet really stuffed up, I tried to limit my shopping spree. In the first half of 2015 I only purchased one David Lawrence cashmere cape, and that was heavily discounted. I went a bit overboard on my my birthday though, but I still purchase discounted items which included a very pretty black trench from Portmans. And my most recent purchase is a sleeveless blazer from David Lawrence outlet. I don't have a sleeveless blazer, so it's a perfectly sound reason to purchase! In summary, within the past year, I only spent my hard earned cash on 5 pieces of clothing, which I think it's pretty good. Chaching!

CHOOSING OUTFIT IS NOW A BREEZE

Choosing an outfit is now down from 15 minutes to just 5 minutes. I have been so frustrated with the time it takes for me to choose an outfit to work! Until I found an article about someone who wears the same thing everyday (it's not that she doesn't wash her clothes, she just had multiple quantity of the same item). I thought, "hey, why don't I do that?". So, I did. I chose my basics (cardigan, t-shirt, chino pants/jeans) and stick with it. 

MORE APPRECIATIVE OF WHAT I HAVE
I know it's very easy to get bored of your wardrobe, but perhaps it's also time for you to learn to appreciate of what you already have. I now try to be more appreciative of the clothes that I have in my wardrobe. I have purchased my clothes for two reasons: I REALLY REALLY REALLY like them and I'm gonna wear them (many many times); so I try my best to get the thought "I'm bored of that outfit" out of my head.

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UPDATE: If you're looking for information on how to start minimalist wardrobe, I find this website very informative. So, please do check it out!