Chapter One: Backstory.
It took me about a month to decide on what to blog about for my AX-3305: Digital Publishing module. I have decided that I will be focusing on writing about my experiences and journey as not just a full-time university student, but.. also a wife and an expecting mother.
Yes, you read that right! I am currently juggling my life as a student, wife and soon-to-be mum. Although I am not quite sure whether this topic is interesting enough to write about in a blog but I am willing to try and make it enjoyable to read. Not everyone can experience this roller coaster ride that I am currently in.
Four years ago, I graduated as a Higher National Diploma student in Computing and Systems Development in Laksamana College of Business or LCB for short. The place where I first met my husband. Our love story is nothing out of the ordinary, we were classmates in 2014 and instantly became close…friends (at first). A year later, we started dating and the journey began.
We graduated from LCB together in 2016 and that was when the so-called reality began as we were unaware of our future, yet. My husband went through some setbacks mainly from constantly receiving job rejection letters and e-mails. Though that never really stopped him so he started working as a part-time waiter helping my mother at our food stall (Gerai) at home with a minimum wage.
I, on the other hand, had no plan on what to do with my life after LCB. Zero. None. Nada.
As a typical Libra, my indecisiveness have emerged and unexpectedly decided to try my luck by enrolling myself in Universiti of Brunei Darussalam (UBD) for the July 2017’s intake. And there goes another chapter of my life in becoming a full-time undergraduate student.
From worrying of not getting accepted to UBD to worrying about what Major I will be taking if I got accepted. After months of waiting, I finally received an acceptance letter from UBD on May 2017 and I remember I shook my head in disbelief as that was the consequences of my “wing it” action.
Fast forward to August 2018, I was in my second year first semester and after two years of hardwork and dedication, my husband finally got a decent job in Kuala Belait. As we all know, Malay culture lets Malay parents (specifically the men’s family side) asking the girl’s family side for a hand in marriage, this is known as merisik. Unexpectedly, this was what happened to me after a month.
On 29th September 2018, my husband’s parents (now in-laws) came to our house to meet my parents and all of a sudden, I heard them discussing from wedding dates to venues and even, dowries. We had this conversation a month before it happened, I thought his parents were joking when they casually said to us while eating dinner at Jollibee Giant Rimba (now Rimba Point), “we think you two should get married this year”.
“Baiktah kamu dua kawin tahun ani”.
