Mister Asian International Malaysia 2020, Wan Muhammad Aiman.
“I seriously think that being proud of your own body does not matter how your body or physical attributes as compared to others, you should still be proud of it and for me, the meaning of beautiful, is a word that describes someone that is confident and proud of who they are and the things that they can do but always strive to be the best version of you.”-
Aiman lost his eyesight in one of his eyes due to a case of bullying in school by his seniors, when he was around 8 or 9 years old. The people he looked up to, ended up bringing him down. But did he go down along with it or did he fought through and carried on? Our courageous Aiman carried on with his head held high. His seniors were forcefully fishing out money out of him, despite his No’s and walking away from the scene, the group of seniors would not leave him alone, at least not without getting every cent out of him. Aiman was raised to stand up for what he believes in - “so I pushed my senior back and he probably tripped and fell on his own, after that the whole group just started to attack me. I did my best to protect myself and tried to fight bad as best I could and the martial arts lessons that my father taught me was very useful but only to a certain point.”
Out of nowhere, one of his seniors threw an object at Aiman and it went straight for his left eye. Despite already being seriously injured, the seniors continued to kick him and later on ran away after someone started shouting at them. Aside from this horrendous encounter, the doctor has also mentioned that there were other causes to the loss of his eyesight such as physical trauma while he was playing around with his mates and sibling. Several months after the bullying incident, Aiman noticed that he was starting to lose sight on his left eye and saw something white covering his iris. Aiman’s family brought him to a hospital and he underwent 3 surgeries, however, the doctor said that they could not do much to help regain his eyesight for his left eye and that it was too late. Despite losing his eyesight, Aiman chose to look on the bright side of things and took it as a lesson learned as well as a path opened for him to be who he is right now.
Beauty pageants are often viewed as harmful to society as it gives people the feeling of insecurity and inadequacy, however, what many may not know is those beauty pageants are often more beneficial as pageants can teach communication, confidence, foster goals and ambitions as well as discipline. This is why Aiman joined a pageant - to better himself and show people that disabilities should not hold you back and people with disabilities should not be treated any differently. “I just want to show that we are all equal and everyone can do what others can but as we know different people have their own unique traits which make them who they are.” Well said, Aiman.
After getting a taste of pageantry, Aiman is now keener in getting more involved in pageants and modelling (both photo-shoots and runways). However, his dream is to open a gym where everyone can feel like they are in a family, making them more motivated to workout. After all, a family that workouts together stays together.
When Aiman first heard of Bodsitive, he thought it was very interesting and the meaning behind the brand name was motivating. “I seriously think that being proud of your own body does not matter how your body or physical attributes as compared to others, you should still be proud of it and for me, the meaning of beautiful, is a word that describes someone that is confident and proud of who they are and the things that they can do but always strive to be the best version of you.” Looks like Google would have to change their definition of “beautiful” cause right there, is the true meaning behind it. We couldn't agree more.
Everyone has a role model they look up to and for Aiman, that is Christian Guzman, a fitness model, influencer and entrepreneur. “I really look up to him and his YouTube videos always help me keep motivated each day. I would love to someday achieve the things that he did and be at least half of what he did, is already a great achievement for me.” You are there, Aiman! You are already an inspiration to us!
A few words of advice from Aiman to us.
“To the people that are in a similar situation like me or just anything similar, the advice that I can give from someone that has been through and is still going through is to always keep on moving forward. Just focus on you and do the things that would make you feel happy. Also, always be grateful to your family and friends because they will always be the people that would stay by your side. Lastly, try and keep a smile on your face, it would always make things better, especially to the people close to you.”
I hope you feel inspired and motivated by Aiman’s strong will and determination. I will end this post with a quote.
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