Nabila

Hi everyone! And Ramadan Mubarak to all my Muslim sisters and brothers. It has been so long since I last posted and I do miss writing here. I still write a lot, but most of them I kept for only me to look at. I'm at that point in my life where I don't really know which part of my thoughts should I share. I want to share both the bad and the good in my life but I'm still trying to figure out where the line is so for now, I'm just playing it safe and write everything for myself. It helps a lot!

I can't believe it's Ramadan 2021 already?! Time is passing by so fast, I'm actually genuinely scared and nervous. So far, my Ramadan has been going... great I guess? I only got to fast for the first day and the night after the first iftar, my body decided to say TADA. Really looking forward to the end of this so that I can go through with my Ramadan plan.

At the same time, my Ramadan this year is so different from the previous years, given that I'm currently living alone. My university made it obligatory for people who have labs to go back to campus for this semester and that includes me. And since my university offered the option for people to be non-resident and live off-campus, I decided to just stay at a nearby family's house that is usually empty. 

So I basically do everything on my own now, food planning for the whole Ramadan, cooking for suhoor and iftar, buying groceries et cetera et cetera, you know, the usual stuff. I'm just saying, kudos to all moms out there, BECAUSE THIS THING LOOKS SO SIMPLE BUT ACTUALLY IS SO EXHAUSTING. I'm literally just frying my chicken wings and fishes using an air fryer and cook some simple vegetable dish like 60% of the days but it's still exhausting? I don't even make dessert? How did my mom do this? How did my mom manage to cook 2 main dishes, 1 side dishes and 1 to 2 kind of desserts every day with very limited time and energy? 

I miss my family a lot this year. Last year, since we were so cramped up in the house, with my two little brothers always ALWAYS fighting with each other and the chaos in the house, I sometimes found it annoying to iftar together. Well now, if possible, I want to iftar with them every day via video call HAHA. You only miss something when you can't have it anymore.

All things aside, I'm wishing a blessed Ramadan for all my Muslim sisters and brothers and a nice month to others! May only good things happen to us and may every bad thing that happens only make our hearts grow stronger instead of the opposite. 

If you're looking for some Ramadan tips, you may read my previous Ramadan posts!

• Ramadan 2018: Simple Ramadan Tips
  
• Ramadan 2020: 7 Things To Do (It's mostly preparation things but I did include a Ramadan podcast playlist here)