Monthly Archives: December 2020

My Second Talk Invitation

Do you remember my TED Talk, ‘Do You Speak The Future?’ Well, here’s another surprise…the day right after my TED Talk, my Latin teacher invited me to give another talk at the Anagnostics Society, the school’s Classics society! I was overjoyed, of course, but not just because of the invitation. What was so ironic about this is that I had been wanting to join this society for a long time, but I wasn’t able to because it was only open to students in the upper years, and I wasn’t old enough to enter. Yet here I was, being honoured with an invitation to give a talk at that same society! The Almighty really had planned the best for me – Alhamdulillah!

The talk was an expansion of my TED Talk topic, and I included an extra crash course in linguistics and conlanging (how to make your own language), presented in a workshop-style format. I got really positive feedback from the audience, as well as the teacher who invited me – he praised me for such a great talk, and he might have to invite me again for another talk to take an in-depth look at Tolkien’s languages! And the cherry on top was that he even awarded me with a Golden Book entry, both for my TED Talk and the talk I had given at the society – how truly humbling!

Needless to say, I was more than flattered. I also enjoyed giving the talk – one of the things that gives me most pleasure is being able to share and educate others about my passions! This truly was a blessing – indeed, even being rejected from the society in the first place was a blessing in disguise! In return, I was honoured with an invitation not only to give a talk, but to conduct a workshop as well! I am truly grateful for the opportunity to further widen my audience and carry on inspiring others by sharing my own passion.

I thank my teacher for being so trusting by honouring me with the invitation in the first place. I thank my friends and schoolmates who showed their support by attending. I thank my family for being my backbone all along. And above all, I thank Allah for bestowing countless opportunities upon me! May this be the start of many more blessed occasions to come in the year ahead…

Blessed,

O. Mukhtar O. Mukhlis

#theomarmukhtar

#MySecondTalkInvitation

Dear Harry Potter…

Dear Harry Potter,

You’ve been having adventures since before I was even born, but it seems like I’ve been there every step of your 7 years in Hogwarts. I shared your awe as you looked up from your little boat at the castle of Hogwarts for the first time. I felt your thrill when you battled with Voldemort and his army. And I laughed heartily every time Hermione sighed disapprovingly at whatever you did.

The world that you introduced me to was like no other – and oh, how I wished to escape with you on the train to Hogwarts! Your games of Quidditch enthralled me; I spent hours daydreaming about trying to find the Golden Snitch. Your classes of spells and charms fascinated me; I was intent on mastering my wand-weilding techniques. Your encounters with all sorts magical creatures delighted me; I dreamt about meeting dragons and three-headed dogs myself.

Yes, although your world was filled with evil, murderous wizards, giant lurking spiders, and reckless flying Bludgers, your world was a desirable world, an escape from reality, an adventure hidden between leaves of paper and ink. I know that there’s very little chance of ever jumping into those pages, but I’ve always had a little bit of me that has believed with every bit of my heart that someday, somehow, I’ll make that jump and find myself dressed up in Hogwarts robes, wand in hand, owl on arm, ready to have my own wizarding adventure.

I thank you for being the person to bring magic into my life – it’s changed it completely, and certainly for the better. You might wonder when I’ll stop believing, but as for how long I’ll be raptured by the world of magic, my answer is “Always.”

A wannabe wizard,

O. Mukhtar O. Mukhlis

#theomarmukhtar

#ALetterToHarryPotter

p/s: This is a letter I wrote to Harry Potter, the book character – not Daniel Radcliffe, the actor! This was really fun to write – I’d definitely recommend that you all give it a try. Why not write a letter to a book character you love (or hate!) and share it with all of us? Don’t forget to tag me in your post!

The Power Of Teachers

“The voice of a teacher is so powerful that it can make or break their students!”

Look what popped in the memories today…way back from 21st December 2018, the day when I received my very first KES report! At KES, we have three terms in a school year, and this was not the end-of-year report. This was only my first term report – the Autumn 2018 term.

Reading all the comments from my previous teachers has moved me. But among all those great comments, one of them caught my attention, which was from my French teacher. She is originally from France, and to receive such feedback from not only my teacher but a native French speaker certainly gave me a boost of confidence! And I believe that it was those words of hers that motivated me to be where I am today in my French studies.

I’m currently in my third year of studying French, and I know that I have a lot more to learn, but the teachers have successfully made me fall in love even more with the language and be at the level that I am at today. And this is the same with all my other subjects as well! The words of encouragement from my teachers – not only in my report, but the feedback I received for my work – has shaped me into who I am today. I know I still have a long journey ahead of me, but for today, yesterday, and my past school years, I am grateful towards my motivational teachers and I shall be forever grateful!

That shows the sheer power that a teacher’s words have to motivate their students. Their voice is so powerful that it manages to make or break the students! And I consider myself one of the blessed ones who has the opportunity to be surrounded by such great teachers – Alhamdulillah!

As much as I value all the kind words that you put in your comments, I would like to make this post a dedication to all the noble teachers out there. For me, teachers should be at the top of the hierarchy because from just one noble teacher comes all those doctors, lawyers, engineers and whatnot! So let’s use the comments section to pray for our teachers, tutors, lecturers, professors, ustadzs, ustadzahs, and all the other noble educators around the world! May God bless all our noble teachers and reward them all abundantly…

Blessed,

O. Mukhtar O. Mukhlis

#theomarmukhtar

#ThePowerOfTeachers💪

Joyeux lundi – French VS English

Happy Monday! Don’t forget to SOURIRE – smile and make everyone around you smile. Don’t forget to RIRE – laugh and make those around you laugh. Don’t forget to ADORER – love and spread the love to everybody. Don’t forget to ÊTRE HEUREUX – be happy and spread happiness to everybody. And most importantly, don’t forget to PRIER – pray to The Almighty, for He is the one who will bestow all of the above onto you…♥️

Joyeux lundi,

O. Mukhtar O. Mukhlis

#theomarmukhtar

#YourPolyglotBuddy

#frenchVSenglish 🇫🇷🇬🇧

p/s: Special thanks to my lil’ sister #FatimahOmarMukhlis for the English translation!🎖

Fruit of Gold 🍁

As Autumn came, the trees all lost their leaves, but this year’s Autumn has by far been the most fruitful season! Though the Autumn trees became bare, they gave even more blessed fruit to me – I have been showered with countless blessings! To commemorate this very successful season, I have decided to write a poem in honour of the last day of Autumn – enjoy…

Autumn trees, they lost their leaves,

But bore more fruit than I could wish for,

Blessed drops falling from their branches

Into my outstretched hands,

The chill creeping in

Was a warm embrace to me,

Filling me with those lovely old memories

Of times already passed,

Walking across seas

Of orange and gold,

A beautiful sight to see while

Climbing up that never-ending ladder,

Yes, autumn let me climb

Higher than ever,

Brushing the tops

Of gold-laden trees,

Branches outstretched and

Pushing me along,

Edging ever closer

To the fruit bore up high.

A poem #FruitOfGold 🍁

Written by #theomarmukhtar

p/s: Head over to my Instagram @theomarmukhtar if you want to hear me recite my poem ⤵️

https://instagram.com/theomarmukhtar?igshid=by5imjwq9ctf

Zoom Along Pancakes!

Thursday was our last day of school before the Christmas holidays began! Normally, we’d have done all sorts of different activities to bring the term to a close, but since we were still in our period of self-isolation, the things we could do were pretty much very limited.

But while we were all racking our brains trying to think of a relatively fun way to round up the term, our form tutor came up with a brilliant idea: we could do a virtual cook-along over Zoom with the whole class! And the dish of choice? Pancakes!

Our form tutor organised the whole thing. Not only did she set up a Zoom call with her station ready and clear for us to see what to do, she also gave us two recipes to choose from and a full ingredients list, as well as ideas for how to put our own spin on the pancakes. I decided to cook pancakes with blueberries in the batter, and it turned out quite well!

But not everybody went with the pancakes. Other people tried a range of different dishes, from chocolate chip cookies to mince pies – very suitable for the season! But there was one creation that is personally my favourite of the whole day. One of my friends wasn’t able to cook on the day, so instead, he came up with a creative solution…he created a short animation of his cartoon self cooking a pancake! Creative, right?

The whole session was really fun to take part in, and it wielded some very tasty results! The credit should go to my form tutor for coming up with the idea and organising an enjoyable and productive class activity to bring an end to the school term. Can’t wait to be back in school in January, though – not even a virtual pancake cook-along beats seeing my friends and teachers in person!

Happy Holidays,

O. Mukhtar O. Mukhlis

#theomarmukhtar

#ZoomAlongPancakes 🥞

First Year 9 Report

Alhamdulillah…allow me to share blessed news of mine on this blessed day. The first term of my third year in KES has come to an end, and I’ve received my end-of-term report!

This term, I’m taking 16 subjects in total, including Computing, Physical Education, and Games. For each and every one of the subjects I was graded in, I managed to get outstanding results – Alhamdulillah! That feeling I got when I saw my mother’s tears of joy while she read my report was incomparable. And the beautiful moment when my father hugged me and whispered in my ear how proud he was of me was simply priceless! Honestly, I couldn’t have asked for more. All the effort I’ve been putting into my studies all this while has paid off!

And of course, my effort alone would not have been enough without the hard work of my noble teachers. They are the true superstars who successfully brought out the best in me. I can’t possibly thank them enough, not only for those amazing words that they wrote in my report, but also for all the knowledge they have endowed me with.

I am truly blessed for the endless opportunities that The Almighty has showered upon me to continue making both of my parents proud! My achievement is my token of appreciation for all of their sacrifices.

If you think that my life is so perfect and flawless, let me stop you there cos I can assure you that it’s not all rainbows and unicorns. I almost lost my mother a few years back, and I’m constantly in fear of losing her every time she’s ill. My mother has sacrificed a lot for me despite being ill. And on top of that, my father, the unsung hero, has sacrificed even more to provide us with the best life and keep us all happy, especially by filling in the role of both father and mother when Mrs Mom was ill.

Plus, both my little brother and sister, Fatimah and Ali, look up to me so much, so I want to be able to set the best example for them both. And not forgotten, my uncles, aunties, and grandparents have always been standing strong behind us! This achievement is for all of you!

All that I ask from Allah is that I can continue to make both of my parents proud…Aameen ♥️

Blessed,

O. Mukhtar O. Mukhlis

#theomarmukhtar

#FirstYear9Report

Another Dead Mouse

Alhamdulillah, another achievement unlocked! This term in English, we have been looking by the classic book ‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck. It’s a book set in 1930s America, describing the life of two friends that are farm workers. My class enjoyed reading the book together a lot, and we’ve been set multiple tasks on this book, so as a grand finale, the teacher decided to set us a big task to round it all up.

Our final task was to create a piece of writing based on the book as a whole – we were given a choice between a review, an analytical essay, a composition or story. This was a big task, so of course, I wanted to make sure that I gave it my all! Then I got to thinking, why couldn’t I write a poem instead? It wasn’t one of the options that the teacher had given us, but I really love writing poems! Presenting my work in the form of a poem would enable me to give it that extra oomph!

So I asked my teacher whether or not a poem would be OK, and surprisingly, he told me that the format would be fine. So I got to work! The scenario was based on the end of the book, and my poem told the story of the events that I imagined would happen after how the book ended. Submitting the poem to my teacher, I was feeling pretty confident about it – plus, I was the only student who submitted it in the form of a poem! And so I waited until the day we got our results back…and I found out that I had been awarded an A+ for my work!

Alhamdulillah, I was over the moon to see that all my hard work had paid off! I was really pleased, both with my poem and the acknowledgement that my teacher had given me for it. Seeing his comments on my poem gave me such a boost of encouragement – as if me already being in love with poetry was not enough, now knowing that my poetry was enough to cause others to write such words about it overwhelmed me with even more drive to continue!

All this has motivated me to share my poem with all of you. I hope that you enjoy my work, and that it gives you inspiration to write some poetry yourself – in my opinion, one of the most artistic and rewarding forms of writing there is!

Love poetry,

O. Mukhtar O. Mukhlis

#theomarmukhtar

#AnotherDeadMouse 🐁

Partial Self Portrait

Just thought I’d share my work from my last art lesson of the term with all of you! Since we’re currently having online classes, the task we were set today was a bit different from what we’ve been doing. We were supposed to be doing a painting project, but since that’s close to impossible, we were told to do a portrait instead. But not just any portrait…we had to pick a section of our face, and only draw that part of it, using a specific technique called hatching. Hatching is basically a technique of adding tone and detail to a drawing by using continuous parallel strokes.

I decided to go over my portrait with a pen to give it a more defined look, and to be honest, I’m quite pleased with how it turned out. This break from our regular art activities was quite a nice way to end the term, and it brought some pretty pleasing results as well! Can’t wait to get back to school and see what other projects our art teacher has in store for us…

Happy drawing,

O. Mukhtar O. Mukhlis

#theomarmukhtar

#PartialSelfPortrait

A Talk To Remember…

2 years ago, my beloved Mamajee was invited for his TED Talk – his topic was ‘The Green Grass Syndrome’…and 2 years later, I was destined to follow in his footsteps to the grand TED stage with my talk on ‘Do You Speak The Future?’

I have always looked up to my Mamajee, and his TED Talk was the icing on the cake for me, since the idea of being up on stage and motivating all those people was truly inspiring! So that’s why I was set on making sure that on the day of my TED Talk, he was right there with me – wearing the very same jumper meant that even though he is no longer with us, I could bring a little piece of him with me and show him just how far I’d come – and how much he inspired me! This is a poem to commemorate that…

History has repeated itself

Once again, once again,

With uncanny connections

And memories of yore,

You lived out a story,

For you to inspire,

For us to admire,

For me to relive,

Our hearts were so close,

Our threads intertwined,

Our futures entangled,

So perfectly matched,

Turning towards the past

Fills me with the pride

Of knowing that me moving on

Brought me ever closer to you,

Filling your shoes

Was once just a dream,

But each stride I take

Is a dream come true,

Your story is my

Lifelong inspiration,

I thank fate for letting

History repeat itself.

A poem #ATalkToRemember

Written by #theomarmukhtar

For #SundayWithAdam 💛

In loving memory of Muhammad Adam bin Mahamed Ismail @adamdidam الفاتحة

p/s: Our TED Talk links ⤵️