The City Kid (Part 1): Lunar

On the eve of lunar, the last batch of them made their way back. Already starting from a week before, people, from all walks of life, started the migration back North. This, is the time of the year, to be with your family and love one. This, is the time of the year, to be back, at home.

My journey across the much-dreaded causeway turned out to be slightly better than expected. A breeze from our side of the bridge. And then the nightmare began. The newly-built Iskandar checkpoint proved to challenging, for visitors, with the longer detour consuming every moment of our precious time.

The City Kid, returning to the countryside. Amidst the hectic lifestyle, it is easy to lose one self. The rural area, with no computer, no internet, no wi-fi, no gprs, no poking on facebook, no chatting on msn, no checking of emails. Out of contact, out of touch, from the rest of the world. Living in seclusion, self reflection to find back the true you. A state of battle errupted, within the confinements of thoughts, the self-struggle, the dilemma, the yearn, the pine for, the desire, the wish.

New year resolutions, they say, are made to have a target, a goal to work towards for the oncoming year. Tomorrow will be better, the optimistic always believed. Mine, buried deep in my heart. Like birthday wishes, it won’t come true if you say it aloud.

I was reminded of the sweet and carefree childhood. Where there was no trouble, no problem, no dilemma, no confusion, no heartaches. And only eat, sleep, study, play. What can be the worst? Failing your exams, getting scolded, and everything back to normal in the next day.

For the few precious days, living without any worries, playing with cousins, eating everything without any consideration of our friend calorie, sleeping like time will always freeze and wait for us, breathing the air freely, this is life.

Content. The seven letter word might be short, but how many people can truly say that they are contented with what they got. Not many. I always believe one should never get contented with life, since once you are satisfied with whatever you got, there will be no more push, no more desire, to improve and get a better one. Like results, if you are contented with having eighty points, you will never improve and strive for ninety. Like wealth, if you are happy with one million dollar, you will never reach your ten million mark.  

Yet, there are things that we should be contented with. Our family, our loved ones. However, more than often or not, the area where people should be stay contented, are always the one that they strayed off from. Have you not heard of your friends breaking up with their partners, simply because they got bored of each other. Yes? Have you not experienced family quarrelling for the smallest of issues? Contentment.

We shouldn’t be living like this, fretting all the problems; about what tomorrow will bring. For tomorrow will always come, and lets think about what tomorrow will bring, tomorrow. There is just so much things for us to do, remember your new year resolutions?

Alas, happiness always passed by the fastest. Cliche as it sounds, time went by in a blink of the eye. The city kid is going back to where he really belong. Reality oftens get the better of man after all.

A new year beckons, with so much at stake, with so much to do. Your family, your love ones, your friends; it is always easy to lose our focus and left out the people closest to us. Let this year bring us closer to everybody, let us help the people who are less fortunate to us. For giving is always better than receiving. Happy lunar new year!

I promise to live better.