A new chapter.......

It’s been almost 6 months since I last posted anything here. I don’t know where the time went. I am constantly busy with work, travelling all the time, taking turns with hubby so that there is always at least someone to be home with Aiman, attending to his needs, where we can. When we can’t, we have no choice but to leave Aiman at my in-laws’house.

Weekends are even busier with Aiman’s activities – his football practice, his tuition and many other activities, not to mention the constant wedding invitations that we get on almost every weekend.

I have done next to nothing in the craft world, except to go stash shopping! LOL! Will tell more about that later.

It’s already March, and this event that I am about to write has passed more than a month already, coming to 2 months in fact, but I thought I’d write it down anyway as a journal for Aiman, so that in years to come, he can come here to read it and reminisce what he went through and what we had to go through during his secondary school days.

On the evening of 8th January 2013, I got a call from hubby who had just arrived from Kuching that he had just received an sms from MRSM informing us that Aiman has been accepted into MRSM. I was in Penang at that time, but luckily I brought my laptop along. We needed to go to a link sent through the sms to get the offer letter.

My hands were shaking trying to key in the special link given, and when the offer letter finally loaded, I could not believe my eyes upon seeing Aiman’s name clearly typed in at the top of the offer letter. I read the name again and again, and his IC number to be sure. Yes, it was correct. Aiman did get the a place at MRSM, a boarding school that almost every parent would want to send their child to, and Aiman just became one of those lucky ones among thousands that applied! Alhamdullillah, syukur.

I called back hubby to inform him that indeed Aiman got the offer letter, and by that time, he had already picked up Aiman from his parents’ house. When told to Aiman, his first reaction was, “Are you sure it is the right Aiman Syafiq? That it isn’t Mohamad Aiman or something like that?”.

I told him I am sure because it was his IC that was written. The name could be wrong, but not the IC.

His next reaction, according to hubby, was, “Oh No!” But he was all excited too in his own way when hubby said that he talked non-stop throughout the journey home.

Nothing was discussed when they both got home as they had the cat chores to do and they needed to have dinner. Besides, I wasn’t home to discuss things further.

Besides the surprise offer letter, there was another surprise in store when the offer letter stated that we needed to register by the 15th of January 2013, which was less than a week from the time we got the offer letter!

We had expected the offer letter and date of registration to come sometime in March or April as my nephew got his offer letter in March when he got a place in MRSM 2 years ago. So it came as a really big surprise when Aiman got his offer letter in early January. Despite telling ourselves that we were prepared for it, in actual fact, we weren’t.

However, since time was limited, we did not have time to dwell into how we felt, but went ahead and started making preparations to send Aiman to Langkawi, an island reachable only by car and ferry after many hours of driving, or by airplane.

There was the medical check-up to do.

There was the things to buy – his uniform, his everyday clothes as they had specifically said no round collared t-shirts, and Aiman hates collared T-shirts or shirts.

There were also the towels, the bed sheets, the pillow cases, the shoes, the toiletries and 1001 other things that needed to be bought all in 4 days as we decided to go there a day early to avoid any last minute incidents.

In the mean time, Aiman went through some emotional roller coaster days prior to the registration day.

One day he would be happy to go, telling all his friends that that week would be his last week at his old school. But the next day, he would throw some tantrums and retaliate as we took him out shopping to buy the things he needed for the new school. Emotions ran high that week as I also went through some emotional turmoil of my own, between wanting to send him to boarding school for his own good, and wanting him to stay with me for selfish reasons. I prayed hard that sending him to boarding school would be the best for his future.

The time came when it was time for us to make that trip to Langkawi. We woke up early and headed on to LCCT to take the 10.00am AirAsia flight to Langkawi. We had some minor incidents at the airport when Air Asia decided to fly off without us 20 minutes before the scheduled departure time when we got to the departure hall less than 1 hour before our flight time. Will try to put that up in a separate posting on what actually happened that day.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, we had to buy another set of tickets for the next available flight, costing us an extra RM210.00. Air Asia sure knows how to rob us in broad daylight by making us ‘miss’ the flight. They did the same thing to other passengers when we took the flight back to KL a few days later.

Anyway, came the day to register, it was a proud moment for us as Aiman got ready to register at the school.

Everything went well during the registration process, alhamdullillah.

There were a lot of forms to fill in.

After we were done with the registration, we proceeded to his dorm with all his things. We had to go through an inspection of the bags to make sure that we don’t bring in things we shouldn’t, like round collared T-shirts and T-shirts with large drawings on the front.

We got all his things organised into his closet, help him make his bed and got to know the parents of the other boys sharing his dorm of 4 to a room. They seem nice and just as concerned as us, some, like us too, were sending their child off to boarding school for the first time.

It was unfortunate though that we forgot to exchange phone numbers. Had we done so, we could have formed some sort of support group for each other for parents sending their kids to boarding school for the first time and the ups and downs of having to let go. LOL! *grin*

After we got all of Aiman’s things organised in his locker, we went back to the hall for a briefing for all First Form students and parents.

Seen here is Aiman with his cousin, Ayin, who is 2 years older, waiting for the briefing of new students.

Aiman will be the first badge of IGCSE students in MRSM Langkawi as this is the first year that MRSM Langkawi is introducing this program.

Other MRSMs that have introduced this program is MRSM Alor Gajah, MRSM Kuantan, MRSM Seremban and a few more I can’t recall.

It was another proud moment for us again when Aiman got chosen to lead the school oath by his Homeroom Teacher, Cikgu Lutfi.

After the briefing, we had a couple of hours to take Aiman out with us to town to get some last minute things. We took Ayin with us and went to Merry Brown for a very late lunch.

We reached the school again at 5.15pm, and did some last minute inspection of Aiman’s locker to make sure that he has got everything that he needed for this first 2 weeks as we promised him that we would come visit him in 2 weeks time.

If Aiman had any feelings of going to miss us, he did not show it. He was eager for us to leave so that he may join his new found friends to play football.

He was excited that he now has his friends 24/7, compared to at home or at his grandfather’s house, where he is always alone.

He was excited that he could now play football everyday instead of just on weekends when he was in day school in KL.

It was I who was in tears (though I tried to control my tears from falling in front of him) as we said goodbye to him that 15th January 2013 as he starts a new chapter in his life.

It was a silent journey in the car from his school to the airport as I went through my emotions. On one hand, I wanted him to go to boarding school for the best of his future. On the other hand, I want him with me because he is our only child.

He is the child that would keep me company when hubby goes outstation. He is my strength. He is the child that kept us smiling just thinking of him and makes me want to come home straight from work just to hug him. It is him that we work our schedules around each day. He is our world.

To have him so far away breaks my heart but I kept consoling myself that it is for the best, but my tears would not stop flowing. I want him to come home. I want him to stay. I want what’s best for him. I want to be selfish; I want him to be with me.

We arrived home late that 15th January 2013 when our flight got delayed. We went to bed exhausted from the day’s event and from the emotions that we went through the last one week.

Hubby said that for the last one week, we were busy preparing Aiman mentally  for the new life that he will be facing, but we forgot to prepare ourselves for the days when Aiman is in school in Kedah, far away from us. We did not prepare ourselves to come home to an empty room.

I cried just looking into his room and looking at his stuff spread on his bed and on the floor. I felt so heartsick.

Even as I passed by the Kota Damansara Exit each day to work, even without me realising it, my tears would fall as I approached the exit leading to his old school. It was hard. It was emotionally draining.

My hubby and I had prayed hard to Allah to show us what’s best for Aiman. We hope that we had interpreted the signs given to us correctly.

We will keep on praying and hoping that this is the best for Aiman, and the best for us too.

We pray to Allah to give us strength and lots of patience. We pray that Aiman will always be in good hands, and we believe that Allah will protect Aiman always. Amin.