A friend of mine told me a surprising story couple weeks ago. It's surprising because I never expected her to experience something like that before. It's either she's putting a good mask or I'm the one who is so insensitive about other people, I don't know which one.
It was starting as a casual talk over dinner. We both had after office hour meeting that day and decided to have a bowl of comforting Lamian and Dim Sum to recharge the energy. So probably, and this is just my opinion, we got so emotional cause the Lamian were so good we started to tell stories to each other. But still, this kind of story, I didn't expect to hear it coming from her.
After graduating Uni, something terrible happened to her family that she was forced to work so hard to help the family financially. By working hard I mean 2 hours sleep at night and meeting marathon during the day. She barely had time to do anything else but working 24/7. It was a inhumanly tiring period she felt like she became zombie: she's not living a 'life'. But she made it somehow. She put the family to a more balance situation and even put her brothers at one of the most prestigious Uni at Surabaya.
Later on she began to get her life back and have some space to breath in between her works. During this resting moment, another challenge came by. Life got a bit comfier after every success she earned. And it seemed that people got to cozy with that. She started to get stress and frustrated at home. Suddenly, what used to be a shelter for her turning into an endless pressure and burden in her chest. She wanted her family to be happy, but she couldn't keep sacrificing her happiness instead. She was confused and angry and lonely. She didn't tell anyone, not even a single friend. She couldn't bring herself to speak ill about her blood. She was trapped inside her head and heart. She was torn apart.
It was only a matter of time until the negativity clouds surround her. It became even more difficult to be around people and not telling a thing about her baggage. She was cornered in such an uncomfortable situation. She was tired. When you are tired, giving up and running away seem to be the easiest solution. Anywhere but home was a better option for her. She even did research and look for a place for her, so she could get a peace of mind for her own. But at the end, she couldn't make it. She told me that at the end of the road, she faced the two options: moving out of the house and getting 100% focus on herself or staying in, holding on and wish for a miracle. She choose the later.
This is starting to look like a prime time soap opera for me. First, you want to go and when you have the opportunity, you back off? What is that about? But her explanation was spot on, right through my heart. "Yes, I can get out and start a life of my own. But between those two options, my hearts always weights back to the fact that not seeing people that are so dear to me, kills me. Just the thought of it makes me sad. I guess above all, this love makes me a stronger person than I've ever known. I just need to be a bit patience and pray harder so they will come to a better understanding about this matter. Here I am today, in a better place than yesterday."
This kind of battle feels so familiar for me. I guess that's why I pretty much understand how hard it must be for her. We'll be facing a lot of crossing road in the future. Some of them, I believe will ask for a bigger sacrifice from us. Whether it is our feelings, our freedom, our understanding, or even our principles. In my friend's case, I think she manage to hold back her ego but not giving up for what she believes is her right. Even though I don't know for sure how much of ego and feelings she had to suppress. At this point today, she becomes more mature and more open minded towards hardship.
The conversation that night makes me think that turns out, I'm not the weird one to face a similar problem just like her. It's something that some of us struggle with, specially because we hit the age when we start to wonder more than ever, about who we are, what we want to be, what we should be, what we must be. I just wish me and her knew that we were facing a common problem and we could be strenght for one and another. Haha, I guess that will surely gives us more courage to face reality and hold on to our believe that the future is a better place cause we fight hard for it.
Truly, we are more similar than we think we are. We should keep spreading kindness and love cause who knows, a simple act of kindness will help the ones who are struggling a great deal.
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