Here we are, almost ready to celebrate 18 years around the sun with the youngest member of Selims Raasta – our firecracker Shama turns 18 on 18th of December 2025! Keeping up with my non blogging tradition past 9 years (sorry, life engulfed us after we moved to Bangladesh from New Zealand) in 2016…and the world of travel blogging has changed and is now dominated by vlogging and travel influencers…my dinosaur tech savvy self and meandering essays don’t really fit into the world of travel blogging as its done now.. But during the last 9 years I still made the time and effort to reflect on milestone moments as did for Shama’s 10th Birthday and Shahaar’s 18th Birthday so here I am, 1st of December, trying to see what kind of writing will flow out of this perimenopausal, brain fogged, (but still wanderlusting :-p) mind of mine…and this is what I have decided to do to celebrate our baby turning 18..
I will reflect on one unique thing that Shama has brought into our lives every day for the next 18 days..and will make it like an online journal so I just add one thing everyday (ok that lasted according to plan first 5 days and then life, surgery, house moves and all else happened so remaining 13 days have been added spontaneously, nothing has been formatted correctly since I don’t have time to learn how to do it…so here it raw, just pure outpouring of rambling love for Shama!)
Dec 1: We were at Ashique’s cousins house yesterday, we love our time there with Dino and his family but what made this trip special was that Shama got to spend time with them as a young adult, something he’s not done, and how they connected on music, sharing unique music they like, this is exactly how I get exposed to cool new music these days, through Shama and his deep and diverse search for independent artists. Thanks to Shama, we discovered Scottish Band –Belle and Sebastian, American Indie Folk Band Mountain Goats, English Singer Song Writer – Cavetown, cool new music by Nxdia and many more..not to mention the fun musicals we got to experience together – Hamilton, Six, and more!
Dec 2: Ashique just bought Shama a Bluey soft toy from the Post Office. Now Bluey is not in our TV space at all, we don’t have any kid in our house under 10..but thanks to Shama we got to enjoy watching awesome shows and movies such as Nimona, Hilda, Arcane (also contribution to Shahaar), Mitchells and the Machine, Kippo and the Age of Wonderbeasts and so many other cool shows, visually beautiful with interesting characters, and meaningful messages and stories behind them.
Dec 3: I love how Shama loves creepy crawlies, all kind of bugs and unlike me who also loves all creatures but get freaked out by them sometimes :-/ Shama is way more in tune with all creatures not only great but also small and weird (he even likes rats). His love for bees is very endearing and I hope you get to have your apiary one day Shami!
Dec 4: From Shama I learnt about Loud Hands, one of the best books written by Autistic People, and you learn so much from reading it, plus Shama himself is a running encyclopedia on the world of neurodiversity, I continue to learn from him every day
Dec 5: I loved our our travels in Finland in the middle of winter, exploring Sapa, Vietnam and our Bander ban and Nepal trips together. seeing sunrise at 1130am in north FInland, clambering down hills in Sapa, enjoying nature together, can count on the youngest Selim to join me on nature walks and exploration, the other two a little less so nowadays..
Dec 6: Learning to hold back my fear as much as I love to see Shama being adventurous and enjoying climbing so much..even though he just gets higher and higher and higher over the years! I love that he has found a hobby and sport that allows him to climb as well! I hope you get to do more outdoor climbing like you did in Krabi!
I love how kind and caring Shama is, how good he is with the little ones, so patient and understanding, and it has always been that way. But now, even more so, as he is studying education and learning, how our minds develop, I see him applying this when he interacts with younger kids, you will make an amazing teacher Shami 🙂
I love how the relationship between the two siblings have evolved and changed over the years, and how they have become friends now, I have loved each phase of their childhood and now it’s nice to see them grow into young adults and become close in new ways
Okay the rest I ended up writing to you in a letter, so I hope you can decipher my terrible handwriting Shami 😀 this is also part of listening and learning from what you tell me to do…take it easy on myself, to get off this bandwagon of needing to do more, be more, putting pressure on myself..I love how mature and empathetic you are, I love that you are so fierce and independent, even if it gives me white hair sometimes! I love your strong conviction and how much energy and passion you have for all the causes you believe in…I love that you have found your tribe, and how loyal you are to them and to each one of us three in our little tribe…even though you will be an adult in two days, know that you will always be the baby in our family and we are always here for you..Happy 18th Birthday my Fiery Dragon, may you continue to shine and be happy in all that you do in life…We love you 😀 <3 <3 <3
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