Oohhhh Yeeeahh!!

"The same fire the dragon breathes, he shall burn by." - 'Macho Man' Randy Savage

The above was my Quote of the Day on Sunday May 20th, 2012. One year ago on May 20th, 'Macho Man' Randy Savage had passed away. For anybody who doesn't know, 'Macho Man' was a legend in the professional wrestling industry.

When I heard the news about 'Macho Man' and his passing, I was a bit shocked and sad. Obviously, I don't know him on a personal basis. But as a fan of pro-wrestling since I was 5 when 'Macho Man' was at the top of his game, it did upset me. 'Macho Man' was one of the reasons I actually started watching wrestling and stayed a fan. Heck, I even used to climb up on my couches at home and deliver elbow drops to pillows. I also had a 'Macho King' action figure (for when he was the King of the Ring winner).

In the WWE (then known as WWF),  I only got to see him as a good guy with his wife, Elizabeth (both on-air & in real life). For anybody that watches Bollywood movies and sees those couples, Savage & Elizabeth were the wrestling version of that. I remember watching 'Macho Man' against his feud with Jake 'The Snake' Roberts, and also forming alliances w/other big names like Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, and 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper. I'll also remember him for his theme music, which was the 'Graduation Theme' song (as I like to call it). Eventually he disappeared from there and went over to WCW.

In WCW, he continued being a good guy and coming out in his flashy attire. After a certain point, he joined the nWo, and then the nWo Wolfpac. I kind of lost touch on wrestling for a few years when WCW started to go downhill, and didn't really follow wrestling in general so I'm not sure where the rest of 'Macho Man's' career went after that.

But he the ultimate good and the ultimate bad guy. When he was a good guy, any & every wrestling would love to cheer him. When he was a bad guy, everybody would love to boo him. In either case, he played his role well. And he did that while being one of the best in-ring performers. I'm disappointed that he hasn't been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as of yet. Hopefully soon (maybe by next year).

Till now, I remain a pro-wrestling fan (even though it wasn't as good as it used to be), running my own fantasy-based wrestling league online. And when I think back to some of influences, 'Macho Man' Randy Savage's name is one of the ones that pop up.

R.I.P. 'Macho Man'. And to quote you, "Oohhhh Yeeeahh!!"

YMAA Leadership Retreat 2012

Last week, I had one of the best experiences of my life. I was given the opportunity to attend a leadership retreat for four days. And what an incredible four days they were!

Right from the get go, there were challenges. Fairly small, but still challenges nonetheless. A two-round application process; speaking w/manager at work and getting the days off to attend; figuring out a way to make a payment after some technical issues. But they were resolved fairly quickly.

The bigger challenges came after being accepted. My biggest challenge was being asked to drive to the retreat and bringing three other folks that were selected to attend. Driving - not really a big deal right? Well, it was for me. For anybody who knows me, knows that I had a huge fear of driving. And I mean HUGE. When I was younger, my mom and me were involved in a horrible car wreck...needless to say the fear was embedded since then. But slowly, I started to overcome the fear and began driving fairly regularly as of last year (around May as well). I only drove fairly short distances (maybe about half-an-hour distances because I never had to go to far). So the challenge to drive four hours to a retreat definitely was making me feel nervous. But with the help of the folks in my car and more importantly of Allah (SWT), I overcame this challenge as well. By the way, the drive was incredible. Just looking at nature on the way there...it was so incredibly peaceful.

At the retreat itself, we had a fairly packed schedule with workshops & activities. The challenges that came here were learning about myself. I've taken leadership courses before since I studied Business in college & university; but I personally believe a person will always learn something new about themselves. And I was able to figure out some more things about myself: my strengths; my values; my weaknesses; my limitations; my abilities; and most importantly, my potential. There was also the challenge of creating a business plan and presentation in a very short time frame. But we were all able to overcome that as well (albeit a rough copy, but so many incredible ideas nonetheless).

Another challenge for me was going out of my comfort zone on my daily routine: waking up, showering, drinking my morning tea, and getting on with my day. The first challenge was the lack of sleep. The first day was a bit rough, but once you get in the flow and keep busy, it becomes easier. The other challenges felt smaller and I didn't think about them much once the day started. Another challenge was eating breakfast...I generally have a hard time eating before 11AM. But if I didn't eat at the allotted time (i.e. 8AM), I'd be hungry till about 2PM. So I ate lightly, and was fine. There was also no cell phone reception...it had me worried at first but a huge blessing because it allowed me to enjoy the environment I was in so much more.

The last challenges will be on-going. The smaller challenge is implementing the project that we are working on. I see this as a smaller challenge because the passion that everybody showed & has makes me truly believe we'll all be successful in carrying out our projects. The bigger challenge is creating a change. Why is this a bigger challenge? Simple answer: before we can change the world, we need to change ourselves. I won't speak for anybody else at this point. Anybody who knows me well has seen me evolve and change, especially throughout the past few years. The harder part is making sure not to stay stagnant. It is always important to grow, and growing in a positive way is a challenge. But I believe I can achieve it. I can't describe why...I just have a strong feeling and firm faith in myself.

Outside the challenges, the most incredible part was being at one with nature during the retreat. Just standing in front of the body of water in front of me, the sun shining down, trees on both sides, and gorgeous weather. So incredibly peaceful. Just standing there, with my eyes closed, taking deep breaths, thinking.....how endless are the bounties of the Lord? The answer: limitless.

I have a poem I wrote called "Meet Me"; and the scenery from this retreat fits the poem so well. Here is a picture:

The biggest lesson I learned was not to doubt myself or my abilities. I learned this in many ways (as mentioned above). I learned to appreciate things a lot more, especially the environment. I also created more networks, made some new friends. That's always a blessing in itself. I got to share some poetry with folks, as well as my 'Quotes of the Day' with people. Overall an incredible, incredible experience to say the least.

One final note: I have to give a HUGE shout out to my best friend Lekha. Since there wasn't any cell reception, I couldn't update my 'QotD' on Facebook. I asked her to update it for me, and she took the time to do it. If anybody wants to know how a best friend should be, Lekha is the prefect example. But that subject is for a different day. Thanks again ketchup buddy!!

Reflection

Its incredible how so many aspects of life can change from one year to the next; from the smallest things like how you look (e.g. changing a hairstyle) or learning new stuff to bigger things like emotions and relationships (e.g. family; friends).

Last year (2011) around this time, these was one of my Facebook statuses: 
"Saare Jazbe, Saare Armaan, Saari Khushiyaan, Saari Duniya Tere Bagair; Tanhaiyyan, Tanhaiyyan..."
(which means: All Emotions, All Desires, All Happiness, The Whole World Without You; Loneliness, Loneliness...)

And another status:

"seriously if this year ends up getting any f*cking worse, it may end up killing me =|" 

Needless to have, things were pretty terrible; the year itself started off on a terrible foot and carried on over for most of the year.

This past week, I used the following three quotes as part of my 'Quote of the Day' initiative: 

1.“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” - Khalil Gibran

2. "Don't grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form." - Rumi

3. "Patience is that a man bears whatever afflicts him and swallows his anger." - Imam Ali (AS) 

What I experienced in 2011 helped me grow without a doubt. And thus far in 2012 for the most part, things have gone pretty well. What an incredible change that has happened in the emotional aspect & relationship aspect of my life. Admittedly, sometimes when I look back it still hurts. But unlike before, I'm still able to smile because of the possibilities that are ahead.

"What started in October 2008 came to a close in October 2011."

First Post - Mini-Introduction

Hello folks!

So I've decided to enter the 'blogging' world. Its mainly to take a new step forward with my "Quote of the Day" (QotD) initiative I've started as of 2012. But it'll also be a way for me to express myself in different ways for people to get to know me better. So with that, I'll get onto something I wanted to accomplish with this first blog.

Sometime in early March, I posted this as my Facebook status:

"There comes a point in life where you need to leave some people where they are and go down your own separate path, either because they broke your trust or because they have a different set of principles & values.
Don't burn any bridges though, just close their gates. It's important not to burn any bridges, because you never know when & if those people may come back.
But if they do, be careful before you open up those gates again. Because they've broken that trust before. And if they don't have the same principles & values like trust & honesty, there's no guarantee they won't break that trust again"

I wanted to address to get some things off my chest regarding this update and go over some things about myself. First and foremost, I know I'm not a 'perfect' friend. I have my faults like everybody. However, I do appreciate my friends. I've learned the hard way to do that. I also only have a few very, very close friends. And when I view somebody as a close friend, I have a an extremely high level of loyalty towards them (and my best friend, Lekha, can attest to that); it may even be up to a fault. I don't expect much out of a friendship. The one main thing I require (as I'm sure most would) is respect. Two instances prompted me to post this (which is why you see two reasons as to traveling on a separate path).

I try and respect people and their wishes as best as possible. If that means that they are busy with things going on in their life, I don't want to bug them by constantly texting/messaging  them. And this is where the respect part comes in. I also will stop trying to 'contact' somebody if they aren't responding. Its not because of an ego issue (I don't have much of an ego...maybe a small one, or at least in my perspective). The reason for this is because of respect. If somebody doesn't have the respect to reply back, I'm not got to keep on disrespecting myself by constantly reaching out to someone; I have my own self-respect (and I've learned to develop this trait the hard way as well). People's actions always speak louder than their words. When a person is trying to stick to a certain value yet they go against that value, it doesn't mean much. I won't go more into this part because I'll end up expressing what happened (and I don't want to do that).

The second part I wanted to address was the part of breaking someone's trust. And this goes back to loyalty for close friends. I'll try keep this fairly vague without sound too 'emo'. A golden, unwritten rule about friendship (and especially close friendship) is to never break someone's trust. Like glass, trust is incredible hard to put back together once it is broken. This is another lesson I've learned the hard way, and will continue to learn. This is a rule I've abided by (at least in my perspective) and will continue to do so. However, it feels that other folks might hold this as one of their principles. These are the types of folks I want to keep my distance from. To give a quick example, let's say there are three people: A, B, C. A and B have know each other for a while, and A views B as an excellent friend and vice versa. A has kept their loyalty towards B. C comes in and some shape or form ends up hurting/offending A. While A would not expect B to avoid complete contact w/C, A would expect B to keep a certain distance from C out of loyalty & respect. And when B instead completely embraces C, A would feel there is broken trust. I won't go much into this whole loyalty/betrayal issue as well.

The final point: while I've gone down my own path, I haven't and will not burn any bridges from my part. I've kept the gate closed but it can be opened at any time. But I will be more careful if/when I do open those gates again. And I hope the folks whom I wanted to get this message got it. I also hope people can understand my perspective on things.

Going forward, most of my posts will be related to the QotD initiative to make it more effective (and the posts will be a LOT shorter lol). And with that, I finish off this blog post. Thanks!