We were the promising children

Old friends. People I grew up with since I was 7 years of age. The first friend that I made. An outsider to me. Innocent we were. If found guilty we were given many chances to learn from our mistakes. People from my village was the people I knew and we went through everything together. We ride bikes to other villages. We walked to the city on a hot saturday. We went fishing. We even steal to have something that we cannot afford to buy. I was a wild “kampung boy”. When I was 9 I made a mistake with my friend  going to the capital by taking the wrong direction of the bus. Dad was angry when I got back one hour later than the usual curfew.

Most people that I knew in my village are still the same. Still looking and aftering for a wild adventure. But they realise that they are all adult now. Not that they all went to clubs nor to the KTV. They prefer to loiter around like we use to be like. They meet the same bunch of people everyday. The people that they grew up with since they were very young.

We lived exactly like what our uncles used to be when they were in their 20’s. We still aftering the life of the 70’s. The so-called retro. We never look foward as much as we look at the past. They never take things so serious. They just want to live. They do not want to talk about the future. All  they want now is to  smoke everyday and feel good about what they imagined or think. 

I was shocked when one of them told me that these days people smoke whenever they want to. Not just by themselves. He told me back then he can only smoked in complete secrecy. Nowdays you can just have a joint in front of your house. Many stayed until late night. Some were quite desperate waiting for the ”runner” to  come back. And when the runner came back my desperate friend didn’t even stayed long. He took the stash and left.

About work. Not so many came out brilliant. Especially those that were brilliant between year 7 to 15. The so called genius. Those that made me jealous to succed. My inspiration to be hard working. Now, most of them became  despatch boys. Working 8 to 5 trying to make a living in this expensive country. They are all now became too insecure. They really need security and they take it too seriously with out making a plan how to overcome this challenging life. They just want get hold of money. Making their own money to pay for the petrol, to pay for their food and the most important reason is to be adult. But they did not realise that more can be made by doing other things.

I left my whole friends when I was 16. I was forced to be in a different environment. Meet people from the city and to learn that the world is so big. The fact is that the world can only be small when you know a lot of people. The mentality of a village still the same. Only few are brave enough to get out from the village alone. The person who think that friends is just friend. A person that can forget about their fond memories. A person who seeks a different environment. A person who knows that they not going to see their friend forever. Someone who does not want to be reliable. That is what we all are. We are too reliable. Not only people from my village. It is what most people are and want to be. To be the most reliable among each other until they do not want to get of their comfort zone. An error is a big mistake to them. If we do not change this attitude. We will be and always be like a heard of lambs in a barn.