Someone shared this on Facebook. It reminds me of Mitch Albom's Tuesdays With Morrie. I think everyone should read it.

An 87-Year-Old College Student Named Rose

The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn't already know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I turned round to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being.

She said, "Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I'm eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?".

I laughed and enthusiastically responded, "Of course you may!" and she gave me a giant squeeze.

"Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?", I asked.

She jokingly replied, "I'm here to meet a rich husband, get married, and have a couple of kids...".

"No seriously", I asked. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.

"I always dreamed of having a college education and now I'm getting one!", she told me.

After class we walked to the student union building and shared a chocolate milkshake. We became instant friends. Every day for the next three months, we would leave class together and talk non-stop. I was always mesmerized listening to this "time machine" as she shared her wisdom and experience with me.

Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she reveled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up.

At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I'll never forget what she taught us. She was introduced and stepped up to the podium.

As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she dropped her three by five cards on the floor. Frustrated and a little embarrassed she leaned into the microphone and simply said, "I'm sorry I'm so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent and this whiskey is killing me! I'll never get my speech back in order so let me just tell you what I know".

As we laughed she cleared her throat and began, "We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing. There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor every day.

You've got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die.

We have so many people walking around who are dead and don't even know it! There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up.

If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don't do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old.

If I am eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything I will turn eighty-eight.

Anybody can grow older. That doesn't take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change.

Have no regrets.

The elderly usually don't have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets".

She concluded her speech by courageously singing "The Rose".

She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily lives.

At the year's end Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago. One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep.

Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it's never too late to be all you can possibly be.

These words have been passed along in loving memory of ROSE.

REMEMBER, GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY. GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL.

We make a Living by what we get, We make a Life by what we give.

Right? Me too.

I can never get enough of timelapses. It's awesome to see something we've never seen before, though they are happening all around us every day. Subhana Allah. Here's a good one for you:

Went to visit my oldies (mum's) last week. Healthy and happy they were. I was so glad to see them in such a shape. I was glad that I still have the chance to talk to them. The smiles on their face, they were priceless. And while I was there, I watched this cerekarama (Malay movie) on TV3, something about a son who despised his mum without knowing the actual story of why his mother abandoned him when he was a child. I didn't really pay any attention to it because it was boring, dull and too usual. Yeah sure, all of us have our own stories, our own secrets, I got that. Then I looked at my grandma and grandpa, a struck of thought hit my head - behind those crinkly, aged faces, what were the stories behind them? 

So I had this idea to talk to them about their pasts, which I was quite unsure of, as there were bits of stories told by my mum and aunties here and there - they were disorganised and I had a hard time connecting the storyline. We sat around the dining table having our late supper, and I interviewed my grandpa hehe. This happy-go-lucky jii-chan was born on 1940s, thus he got to experience the Japanese and British invasion. He had a sight-disabled mother named Zainab, a sister named Salmah and a step-father. According to him, he experienced a struggling life back then. Both his mother and sister were deceased due to Malaria plague, which was very hard to cure during those years. Though he had a hard life, he still went to school until Standard 6 or so. He became a begger at 16, and after his mother's death, he began to live on his own. 

He said he used to walked for miles just to get a job. Along the journey before he found a job, bringing a small pot with him, he fed himself by begging for food from the villagers. He then worked as a labour at a military base, under British reign. The British officials treated him well, because my grandpa was a hard worker. After working for the military, he worked with JKR (Public Works Department), until he retired. He was an active person too. He joined body-building championship, plays, sports, and others. 

My grandma on the other hand, had her own story. She had a difficult life too. My late great grandma was a hawker - well, without a stall. She dwelt in the town selling legumes and others. My grandma helped her with that. She was a brilliant student at school. She entered an Islamic school and was able to recite and understood Quran very well, she even taught other students (she is still good at it until now). 

Now, this is the interesting part - she married my grandpa without even knowing who he was. My grandpa's uncle was the match-maker. He urged my grandpa, who originated from Kuala Lumpur, to move to Besut, Terengganu to marry my grandma. After some months being persuaded, he decided to finally move there. They got married, but both of them were still struggling to live.

My grandpa told me that he had to do so many jobs to feed his family - washing the dishes, laundry other people's clothes and iron them, rubber-tapping, etc. etc. until he got to work with JKR. My grandma rented a warong and started her own business. Her children helped her at her warong. When my mum was born (she was the third among her seven siblings), the mid-wife opted to adopt my mum, but my grandma strongly refused to do so. She said to me, even how hard her life might be, she would never ever give her children to other people. Though their life was hard, they sent all of their children to school, because they believed education was extremely important.

From left: 1) My grandpa, my grandpa's kins, & my grandma; 2) Me, aunt (6th), my mum, grandma, aunt (5th), & le cousin at my back; 3) Me & my grandma

Listening to their stories made me realised that I was living a far more comfortable life than they were as a child. Alhamdulillah. Even now, there are many more out there who don't even get a chance to go to school, what more to enter a university. They don't even get proper water and food supply, an Internet access, or a house to live in. Masya Allah, at times I valued these for nothing. Thank you for the reminders, grandpa and grandma. Thank you for your willingness to share your life experiences. Such great inspirations. I hope I can be as strong and determined to live as both of you too. Insya Allah.

An amazing flower timelapse by Katka Pruskova, a professional photographer from Czech Republic. To create this video, she took more than 7100 photos in more than 730 hours.

"The world is pretty and everyone should be quite and enjoy it" - a first grader