She was a girl that I looked up to – a cheerful, understanding soul mate; a great friend; passionate
and the real definition of a strong woman. We’ve been together since forever. She went through a
lot of life-changing experiences before being who she is now. Just listed it, not passed in the exam,
love rejection, being isolated by friends, being hated as a leader and had been physically tortured.
However, she managed to overcome all of the predicament very well with the sweetest undoubted
smile on her face. And do you think that a smile can be a remedy to her problem? How it influenced
her emotion?
She was feeling very unhappy but –somewhat unusually- she never once cried and kept smiling.
I once asked her why. Guess what‼ She gave me a simple answer which is “Fake it till you make it.”
It made me even more inquisitive.
“When you smile the brain sees the muscle activity and assumes humour is happening and with
that physical act of smiling, it spurs a chemical reaction in the brain, releasing certain hormones
including dopamine and serotonin.” She continued explaining to me scientifically while I understood
nothing.
I stared at her for a while, confused. Then she giggled, breaking the silence of the quiet night. Silence;
the very reason she and I frequently visit this lakeside spot, with its gentle breeze and starry night sky
– one would be blind not to fall in love with this serene place.
She pointed to the brightest star on the sky and said, “Dopamine increases our feeling of happiness
meanwhile serotonin release is associated with reduced stress,” while connecting the stars into a smile.
“If you keep thinking of something that's going to make you feel bad, it will harm yourself.”
“Are you saying I need to run from it?”
“Sometimes running from a problem which came from our flaws is not a wise decision. You need to
find a solution, let it go and improve yourself.”
“What if we ran out of time to finish the run? What if a massive wall just blocks our route? What if a
deep hole covered with a garden of flowers just lies there waiting for us to fall? What if?” I tried to
tease her.
But she said I was overreacting. Then she looked at her silver watch on her left hand and seemed
very shocked. We looked at each other and were speechless. “We were running out of time. We need
to rush back to college now,” she yelled at me. Sometimes she’s quite clumsy and cannot control her
anxiety.
We live at 11th Residential College and it has curfew hours which is from midnight until 6:00 a.m. If we
cannot arrive before the gate closes, we need to find somewhere else to sleep for that night. Guess
what? She ran first and left me behind. I never saw her run as fast as that, since she got a serious leg
injury during her last softball tournament back in 2016. Yet running from a problem is the exact genius
decision for our current situation.
Shiver blood runs through my vein as I see an unknown figure through the tail of my eyes in a white
dress just sobbing under a big shady tree when I pass by the football field. For your information, this
is the only shortcut for us to go back to college. I tried to approach that figure in hesitation. As I drew
closer, I noticed there are droplets of blood around the vicinity. To my surprise, I found the face of the
figure to be familiar! It was her! And oh dear she was hurt, wounded at her knee.“What had happened?”
I asked her.
“I tried to leap over the drain but I stumbled over a rock and fell.” She answered in her groaning painful
voice. I helped her to get up and we walked the rest of the way back to our college.
As we walked in silence, the trees danced gracefully with the dewy wind. Fewer cars cruising on the
road. A few people sitting at the bus stop, waiting for their friends perhaps want to grab supper. But
my dearest friend seemed chaotic.
“Hey, what’s bugging you? You know you’re free to tell me, I’m all ears.”
“I have a little bit of a problem, nothing big, just petty things that made my mind feel fuzzy. Do you have
any plans for tomorrow? If you’re free, I kind of need your help to sub me at work.”
“Sure, no problem. I’m free after class tomorrow. But may I ask you one question?”
“Yes, what is it?”
“Why do you do this part-time job whereas you got a scholarship and came from a well-off family? I do
have a lot of questions playing in my mind since you started to work there but I can’t find any suitable
time to ask about it.”
“It may seem like self-centeredness, but it’s for yourself, not for others. The scholarship money is for
study purposes, pocket money from my family is only enough for food and necessities while my
part-time job salary is saved for emergency purposes and used to reward myself. We need to learn to
be independent by now and you will only appreciate money and manage it wisely when you know
how difficult it is to get.”
“Oh, I get it now. But, what do I need to do tomorrow?”
“Don’t worry, you accompanied me a couple of times, so maybe you caught a glimpse of my work
routine. Feel free to ask Uncle Hamid if you need anything. I’ll tell him about this later.”
As we arrived at the college, I sent her to her room first, put some iodine on her wound and wrapped
it using a bandage to reduce her movement, hoping it would be better the next day. Before I left her
room, she shared with me some random advice.
“Life is a puzzle that needs to be solved. Be bold to make the first step looking for its solution or it will
haunt you days and nights. Talking about the solution, not everything can be done in our way. We also
need people’s advice but at the end of the day, it’s our choice to decide the outcome. It depends on
yourself to set the future. Ignore what people think about you, just improvise yourself and don’t let the
negative comments drag you down.” She paused for a moment.
“Well!! Mistakes and experiences are the best teachers you won’t get in the classroom. And flourish
us to be mature.” I continued after her and we both laughed. I went back to my room and had a full
night’s sleep.
As the sun got higher in the sky, I opened the window and inhaled the fresh morning air deeply. At this
time, nature is at its best. The golden rays of the sun give a bright colour to the clouds and meadows.
A flock of colourful small birds chirping and playing hide and seek around a mango tree. A group of
students walks happily to their faculty and some of them wait at the bus stop patiently since the
weather is getting hot and they did not bring an umbrella.
“You better run faster than my bullet…” my phone on the table vibrated while playing pumped up kicks.
I saw her name and I picked it up.
“Hello! Are you awake already?”
“Yes. Morning! I'm getting dressed now. Hey, want to order, grab or wait for the bus?”
“It’s still early. Let’s walk. I want to stop by a mini shop first.”
We go to the faculty 15 minutes earlier because our lecturer loves to start her class on time. She never
waits for her late students and will continue her lecture even though there are less than ten students
in her class. You wouldn’t understand the whole lecturer if you miss the first minute of class. Durable.
Discipline. Diligent. These are three secret words that need to be applied in your daily life to success
when you are studying in university. It is not the same as high school, secondary school or primary
school.
After our class ended, she talked to me and said, “Something bothered me and I think I want to go
to the library looking for an answer.”
“Are you talking about the assignment or tutorial?”
“The assignment of course. I searched for it on the internet but I got nothing. I read lecture notes but
I still got the same result. I do get some little information but I have no idea how to connect it.”
“Maybe you need to meet the lecturer? I’m just suggesting.”
“Yes I do but after I go to the library. I think it might be somewhere there written in any books and I
need to work on it first. At least I’m not empty-handed meeting her/him (the lecturer)”
“Alright, but we still have plenty of time, right? We need to send that task on week 12. And now is still
week 3. You look so tense.”
“I’m not tense, I’m just preparing early. Don’t delay your task or it will burden you. It will be much more
stressful if you burn the midnight oil because it cannot be perfect to satisfy you. When we finish it early,
we can meet the lecturers to make corrections. Besides, I’ve got a full day lab after week 7 and I’m in
charge of handling a few projects later.”
“Okay, let me accompany you but by 4:30 p.m. I need to go to work.”
Then, both of us spent our gapped time at the main library. Looking for the books that she was talking
about, is not easy. We searched for it on every floor and asked the librarians there. But I was
disappointed. Time flies fast. She asked me to go to work first and she wants to stay back.
As I arrived at the workplace, I was welcomed with an open hand. Uncle Hamid is very polite and
warm. I turned on the money machine and started to unpack the mineral water and arranged it at
its place. The store starts to fill with an ocean of customers during peak hours. And here comes
a person who always picks up a fight with me.
“Do you work here?”
“Yes. I’m helping my friend.”
“So what makes you desperately do this work? Having financial problems?” He glared at me.
“Watch your mouth!” I smiled and took a deep breath. I need to stay calm and be professional because
he is my customer. But I think this is my responsibility to make him realize that his words hurt other
people’s feelings. So I told him, “Unlike you, I care for my friend. I don’t neglect them when they call
for help, stop being selfish. Not many people are lucky to be born with a silver spoon-fed to their
mouth yet they tend to have more manner than you spitting your words without thinking about others.”
“Do you think I care?” And he just waltzes away from the shop, maybe feeling ashamed of what he
had done. Embarrassing himself in front of people.
A job is a job, so I continue to serve the next customer, ignoring him.
Sunset comes…~
As I walk back to my college, it strikes me that in the world of work, there still some person that did
not feel blessed with their sustenance instead of pride is their spear of life. This is what I thought as a
big, life-changing lesson that will be kept for me to pursue my life.
Even though arguments rose here and there, at the end of the day everybody is just filling their
buckets, trying to feed the empty stomach to survive in this fast-paced world and changing economics.
We are obligated to chase knowledge and life. Throw away the stress, anger, pain in studies. Home is
our escape, seeing the face of our beloved one waiting for us eagerly. Make us wonder, can we
provide them with happiness? Can we protect them? Can we contribute to our family? Life struggle is
a chapter for everyone to experience. For us to decide the best is learnt from mistakes. Don’t be
afraid of making mistakes, but be the opposite; because there is no perfection in life. Perfection is the
end of the line as there is no room for imagination, no space for intelligence or ability or improvement.
Always strive to become better than anything that comes before you but not perfect. Be wise, endure
and admit every mistake and be humble.
