What this medal tells?
To me, is a symbol of a strong heart of a special 14 years old vision impaired female student I knew yesterday..
She was my running buddy in a big Marathon event organized by the organization I am working with. As part of the charity, a number of staff offered as volunteer to take care of these vision impaired students. Part of it was to run by pair (buddy) so that, they can participate just as other people...
The students age ranged from 11-17 years of age...Most of the students were really eager to 'win' and compete among them. They are active, motivated and determined regardless of some obstacles they face with their vision.
Well, in the beginning, I asked her (my buddy) whether to run slow or fast...so that I can control my pace while guiding her (In fact, I am not a fast runner :P and I don't like to run fast - lazy in fact. But I am quite a consistent leisure jogger). She answered 'kalau slow pon boleh, laju pon boleh'. I felt relief (In fact most buddy hoped their student run slow :P. But NoT the student). Then I asked her 'Adik nak menang tak?'. She answered 'Nak!'...in my heart was 'Oh my god, i am finish' that means I have to run fast as well or else to let her go :). Ok Fine. Next, one of her friend said 'Kak, adik yg akak bawa ni athletes, yg tu athletes tu pon athletes'... kwang3x.
U get what I mean?
But well, that's fine...when we go near to the starting point, I advised her to tell me whenever she feel like going slow/ stop and couldn't cope, just don't force herself to run...I told 'Adik bagitau ye kalau tak larat..mmm tapi skali akak yg tak larat?' she answered 'takpe kalo akak tak larat, adik tarik akak'. :D :D
Then, the countdown started - we started to run. Its OK, juz give it a tryy...
We run at normal jogging pace in the beginning ..1st km...then she said she do not want to stop to avoid from feeling tired, but to keep running...we decided to just run at normal pace 'just jogging' well that's fine...1st km, 2nd km, 3rd km...I already felt a bit tired, the journey seemed long...but I still can stand...She looks consistent and trying her best to keep running regardless of the crowd (There's also many runners from different category - sea of people). Somewhere in the middle we need to walk because there was no space to run. So, we decided to walk fast looking for any chances to increase speed...After a while, the path was clear, she started to run again...so did I (we were given hand band to attach to each other) I purposely let her run a bit in front of me so that the whole running pace is controlled by her, while I was just guiding her safety...After 3rd km even though I already felt tired, luckily I still could follow her pace, Alhamdulillah. Only after the 4th km, she told me that she felt a bit tired and we walked fast for a few minutes. We could not see other vision impaired category (pair) runners around us...neither in front nor behind us. Absolutely huge crowd. When I told her that we almost reaching the finishing line in a few hundred meters more, she started run, increase her speed, and overtook other normal runners. And finally...we were at the finishing line and won 2nd place in this category! I couldn't believe it..I say a big congratulations to this special student. She won a blackberry smart phone. Both of us received medal.
These people have fantastic spirit, regardless of some difficulties they faced due to the vision, they keep focusing on what they do and trying their best to achieve something that they look forward without giving any reason.
The braille version of the medal
I really inspired and learned a lesson from them. Not to give up easily and use all our strengths to survive in this challenging world.
In relation with my next coming eye diagnosis which I scared most, I feel that I have acquired some strength to go through it.
I saw other people survived. Thanks to Allah You sent this 'message' to me...
Thank you my dear 'adik', I really admire you...
~~Beautiful life is optimizing what we have, but not regretting what we do not have ~~
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