Unconditional Love

What's love meant to be?

Can it be defined?

Well, it used to be between family and the ones that I like a lot.

That's until I was introduced to this two words - unconditional love.

Though what it meant was pretty obvious but I still asked the question, 'What the hell does that mean?'

I found the answer to that which is loving someone without any conditions. But it is still not easy to be practised.

Let me share an experience of mine. The word love is a habit pattern to me for many years since young. But I only knew about unconditional love a few years back. Though I thought proudly that I'll be able to practise it, I came to understand quite a bit lately that it takes more effort to get the hang of it.

I was a little, who am I kidding, very emotional when I thought a particular close friend of mine didn't care about me. In my mind, I assumed that that person did not like me and did not want to spend time with me. I was on tears when I was expressing this to my boyfriend. I guess I was very emo at that time.

But he made me laugh by saying, "Does that mean if your friend doesn't want to spend time with you, you are going to cry?" I laughed at his question. It made me look very childish.

What he said next stunned me. "That means you don't have unconditional love for your friend."

He added, "What if your friend tells you that she is no longer interested in you and would like to end the relationship? What would you do?"

At that moment, my mind was quick to answer, 'That could never happen, I'm sure.'

But later I realised, that's a wrong way to think.

If we really love someone unconditionally, whatever choices that makes that person happy, though it is choosing someone else instead of you, should make you feel happy too.

Hours later, I text my mentor, "How can we have unconditional love if emotions exist?"

And I got a reply that got me to understand, as long as we have emotions that keeps going from one corner to the other, we can never have unconditional love.

The key to unconditional love is to be understanding and be happy for that person without attaching any emotions.

Might sound ridiculous, but the idea of reacting to love and responding to unconditional love gets you discovering lots of things about yourself. 

And aren't that the greatest discovery of all?

Opportunity is Always Knocking The Door - Part 2

It turned out to be an awesome day!

And yes, we did get approved to visit the online radio station. It was a little unexpected but I was overjoyed the moment I stepped foot into the station. 

We were greeted well by the DJ's of DurianASEAN. They did ask us the reason for our visit. I contemplated whether I should answer that question or not. But decided to be truthful and told them that ET Ideas is planning to start its own online radio station and wanted to gain some exposure through this visit to DurianASEAN.

We were first brought into their soundproof studio where they broadcast all their shows. They were really patient with us as they explained all the equipments involved throughout the process of producing a good online radio show. From the mixer, the mic, the soundproof room, laptops, softwares to other gadgets involved combined with their skills, it was indeed an experiential learning for us.

We even got the chance to do some recording using their devices, where we introduced ET Ideas and ended with "This is DurianASEAN - The Voice Of Discovery". That was the coolest thing ever because it gave me a glimpse of being spontaneous during talk shows.

Excited with this new experience, we moved on to another studio that is in the Malay medium. We got introduced to the graphic designer and photographer/videographer. They are the men behind the videos that DurianASEAN produces on any particular issue.

We then sat down with the DJ's as Q&A session took place. 

We asked so many questions about their experience as an online radio DJ that even their guest speaker for their talk show arrived. The visit ended with a photograph of us with the DJ's and we said our 'thank you's before leaving the place. 

The best part is our aim was still achieved as the DJ's themselves gave us ideas on how we can come out with our own online radio, instead of taking us as a competitor like most people do.

With that said, isn't opportunity always there? It's whether we are ready to grab it or not.

Opportunity Is Always Knocking The Door - Part 1

I had a chat with a friend of mine who said, “People think we don’t get opportunities but actually the opportunities are always out there”.

If it was a few years ago, I would have totally disagreed with that statement, saying, “People are just lucky to get good opportunities in their life”.

But with things changed over the years, meeting new people with different perspective of life and taking certain actions towards building my own career, has changed the way I think as well.

So here was I trying to figure out as an intern how I can research the task given to me about online radio when my colleague tells me, “Hey, you know what? I know someone who has an online radio station. Maybe you can drop them a visit and get to know things better”.

I was pretty excited when I heard this. ‘This could be an awesome opportunity for my research! And I’ve never been to a radio station before. This is going to be great!', I thought to myself.

Though it took me sometime to call up the founder of the online radio station (due to not feeling well), I managed to explain to him about my intern company and the reason for our visit. He seemed a bit confused with my explanation. I guess not many people calls up a company asking if they can pay them a visit to explore their field of work. Maybe that or me and my intern company are just crazy.

At the end of our conversation, the founder of the online radio station requested an email stating the purpose of our visit before he can consider our proposal. I told him I will send the email and we ended our call.

However, after that conversation, I felt that my visit to the online radio station would be harder than expected. In my mind, I thought if people were to request a lot of things before approving something, it means they do not trust us and the proposal is going to be rejected.

I spoke to my boss about this, who also happens to be my mentor, and he told me to proceed with the email under the company, ET Ideas.

So, I drafted the email and asked my colleague’s favor to look through it in case of any mistakes. (Thanks to her, the email sounded much better. :) )

And so, I sent the email to the Founder of DurianASEAN.

Was the email approved? Did we visit DurianASEAN? That’s something you are about to find out on Part 2!