Aiman Azlan's Blog

Hank Green, one of the two Vlogbrothers, talked about friendship and non-romantic love, something that many young people are struggling with. There are many interesting insights mentioned in the video, so I invite you to watch it to get the whole thing. But, I just want to focus on one sentence Hank said, "Relationships are work. Do the work!" This quote in particular resonates with me because so many times I have seen in my own personal life and in the lives of others that people expect relationships to just work out on their own. It never happens that way. Relationships work out when the people in those relationships work hard to make the relationships work. Relationships are two-way streets; you can't have one person doing all the work while the other just sits around waiting to be served. No. Relationships are born out of mutual attraction. But, they can only be maintained by mutual respect and admiration, which should be developed and strengthened over tim...

I have only been a parent for 3 years. But even in that short amount of time, sometimes I find myself feeling tired and wanting to take a break. I think that's normal, and any parent will testify to that fact. However, even that is not enough of an excuse to deny my son of my time. It is his right to have my time. We can be so busy, or we can seem so busy, until we can't even pause and look our children in the eyes. We prefer to look at their annoying tantrums and shower them with tantrums of our own. In those moments, we just want them to behave and leave us alone. But no children misbehave because they want to cause the parents pain, especially small children like my son. As far as I know, my son only has 3 desires: the desire to play, the desire to feel comfortable, and the desire to be loved. Just look them in the eyes and you will see. There's only purity and innocence.

Last week, Google invited me and 23 other influencers from South East Asia for a Google Cook Off competition in Singapore. We had to solve problems using Google apps such as Google Lens and Google Assistant. Oh, and we had to cook. When I received the invitation, I felt honoured. It didn't take long for me to accept the invitation. I didn't know who else were invited, save for a few names I got for my own team. So, the full reveal was only at Google HQ in Singapore. It wasn't long before I realized that I was the only Muslim in the gathering. From the very first day that they invited everyone for a Friday night drinking session until the cook off event where I had to ask for the halal option (only to see that I was the only one with a different dish than everyone else). Understandably, it was quite an interesting experience being the only representative of your faith. The temptation to blend in was definitely there. So, I had to force myself to be more conscious of...