Nabila

Happy 1st of March! Is it just me or 2020 is moving very fast? So many things happened ever since January; both good and bad. February for me is a mixture of both but with more bad things. But bad things that happened shouldn't cancel out all the good things that happened, right?

Just like in January, I only read 2 books in February.

○ Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

February was only the start of the second semester and already, there are a bunch of assignments. Hence the lack of reading. Nonetheless, I'm glad I did some reading. Six of Crows must be one of the great fantasies I've ever read. I found myself loving each second I was with the characters in their great adventure. I can't believe I've been missing all those wonderfulness all these years. The second book I finished this month was A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and oh my, it hurts just the way it did the first time I read it, if not more. I got to read it without any rush this time around so I could savour the story. It was heartwrenching and very beautifully written, leaving the mark that already existed in my heart bigger than before.

I'm currently still reading Crooked Kingdom, the second instalment of the Six of Crows duology. I'm still continuing to read How to Stop Feeling Like Sh*t by Andrea Owen and I'm putting Freshmen by Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison on hold because I'm really not feeling like reading any contemporary YA right now.

○ I finally finished Gilmore Girls that I started to watch in last June! I totally had many ups and downs with this show, I even thought of just discontinuing the series in the fifth or sixth season but I'm glad I didn't! This TV show actually played a huge role in the start of my first semester of uni but that's a story for another day. It is now my go-to comfort TV show besides Friends. I will miss the Gilmores, other supporting characters and of course, the town the show took place which was Stars Hollow. Gilmore Girls was a heartwarming, funny and very comforting TV show.

○ I also finished The Good Place and although I'm relieved that it had the best ending and all the characters had their perfect ending, holy fork I'm sad that it ended.

It is one of my favourite shows, the writing must be one of the best I've ever seen and the characters will always, always stay in my heart. It's a comedy but so different from other comedies that I've watched in terms that it taught me a lot of things not just by the characters' life lessons but also made me explore philosophies that can be implemented into my own life.

○ By now, I'm labelling myself as a sitcom fan because no matter how much I tried to run from it, I always ended up starting another sitcom show. I finished the first part of Family Reunion and it definitely was a very enjoyable and hilarious show. I realized that most of the sitcoms that I watched were very similar to each other in terms of its plotline and in that they are mostly white people sitcom shows. This show has a unique, fresh plot, is a clean family show, creates a light-hearted, feel-good environment and according to other audiences, is a great representation of black families which is fantastic for me.

○ The last show I finished in February was Locke and Key and disappointingly, I hated it. The trailer looked really promising and the base of the story has a huge potential. Family with magic house and keys and teenagers + kids as main characters? Sounds overdone but I couldn't get enough of this kind of trope so I watched it. The story, however, has a lazy ass writing and the characters must've been the stupidest characters that I've ever watched in my entire life; the only smart people were the youngest kid in the show and the villain. It felt like they were trying to make this Stranger Things 2.0 but failed horribly.

Still watching: Victorious, Unrequited Love

Planning to watch: Peaky Blinders, Family Reunion Part 2, Crash Landing On You, Itaewon Class 

○ iDECIDE by iKON

Warning: A mini fangirl rant. This is their first comeback without B.I. and although it still very much hurts listening to the songs knowing very well that there will be no B.I.'s voice in it, iKON did their best and I'm here to support them. B.I.'s case is going to get closed real soon and I'm here to see both iKON and B.I. rise again, either separately or together.

○ Leave It Alone by Hayley Williams

February was a very emotional month for me and Leave It Alone said pretty much everything I wanted to say (for like more than a year now but it was just out so..)

○ Kayman Coalface Soap

No wonder everyone on Twitter has been talking about this soap non-stop, it is actually very amazing! I could see little changes on my face after a month of using it and will totally continue using it.

○ I started the second semester of uni. Like I said previously, although it's only the third week, I already have so many essays, reports and even video assignments due next week. It's hectic. Let me catch a breath, life.

○ I lost 2 people I looked up to. Earlier in February, my teacher passed away after more than a year of fighting cancer. I never get to meet him before he passed to ask for forgiveness and see his face one last time and it will forever break me. The second last week of February, I lost my uncle. It was very sudden because I thought he was doing better since he just got discharged from the hospital a few days before his passing. I'm glad I got to see his face one more time before he was buried. May Allah bless these two souls with ease in their next journey, al-Fatihah.

○ The week after my uncle's passing was very hard for me. I had so much work to do but I easily got distracted and I was so tired hence I ended up not doing anything. I went on a field trip just 2 days after his passing, then continue going to classes the very next week with another short field trip coming and literally had no time to breathe. Although I'm still not fully healed and am still grieving, going out with my friends for a few times and having some time alone at the library definitely helped in my healing.

○ If you just got through something very hard, it's okay to take some time off, abandon your workloads to blow all the steam off. It's normal to feel distracted. Try not to be alone all the time but it's also okay to just sit with your feelings, don't ignore it. Don't forget to eat, stay hydrated and get enough sleep.

○ Call your family more often. If you have the chance to, visit your parents more often. You never know when is the last time you're going to see and talk to someone. Stop getting distracted with your phone when you're with the people you love and enjoy the time you have with them.