The Next Decade

Here we are, welcome to the year 2009, the year of buffalo, the year of economic struggle and also the year of hopes (that’s what those optimistic fortune tellers told on a TV talk show, aired few hours before the New Year’s celebration). Before I get my feet started, I would like to inform you that there is nothing serious or whatsoever in this note. Quite frankly, there will only be a short report about what had happened last night and some old fashioned and naïve thoughts of mine about life.

It is New Year’s Eve and as a part of once a year event, I and my family usually spend the night by checking into some restaurant which opens until morning, have a meal and chat lively. However, this year is a bit different since both my mother and sister have left me and my dad for an obligatory family activity outside of the town, so on this basis, we skip this routine activity. That means I just headed straight to home after a short dinner nearby my house with my dad and that was about two hours before the midnight actually. By that time, the sound of fireworks could be heard quite clearly, even though they were not too loud and that was good actually since I was about to pour over some presentational slides related to the preparation of my final exam. Along with some music I have just downloaded from the internet, I glued my eyes to the laptop screen and read the slides. But then after 10 minutes I found it such a complete bollocks and told myself to have some self-respect, in other words how could such a man who can’t even appreciate the simplest pleasure in life, be possibly brought into existence in this world?! Eventually, instead of reading presentational slides, I watched videos of car reviews until about fifteen before twelve or so. Too weary even to consider getting out of my bed, so I preferred to drop into the welcome oblivion of sleep. On five before twelve.. Disaster!! And that partly because God only grace humans the ability to shut their eyes, not insulating the noise surrounding. Finding myself unable to fall asleep, I went upstairs to see what was happening and factually, things were about to change a bit brighter.

I figured that the noise this year is much louder than the previous year and it therefore brought some beautiful view as well. The sound was so savage and the view was utterly mind-blowing, I was served with a nearly 360 degrees sight of fireworks explosions all over the Jakarta skyline. Unlike the Olympiad event in Beijing this year where the fireworks were concentrated in the Bird Nest Stadium, fireworks in the New Year’s celebration yesterday were clearly visible even from a distance and the blistering light spread from all directions. As I sat there and enjoying the view accompanied by the mild wind, several thoughts struck into my head and some of them were quite chintzy actually.

"I could barely track back what I have accomplished in the past twenty years."

Firstly, after looking a spectacular and yet, free show of fireworks, I had the irrational thought of dropping out from my study and turn into a young entrepreneur who specialized on producing fireworks, firecrackers or any other explosives. Since it was a total stupidity, I am dropping that odd idea and decide not to explain about the mental degrading inspirations. Secondly, I happened to realize that in order to create this stage of cool show, people would have had to spend a whopping amount of money to by those explosive things, it was like setting your money on fire and blowing it away into the dark sky. In relation to this occurrence, there are two interesting facts actually: we are not in an economic crisis or people are so stressed out, in such way that they had nothing else to spare, so they blow their money into the sky for a very short period of entertainment. Which is correct? I basically didn’t give a damn since it was their money and they were completely entitled on how they want to spend it. I just know that it was a gorgeous show which gave a sheer feast to the eyes and yet polluted the sky with a strange smell and smoke. That’s all. Moving onto a more normal and acceptable thought, the fireworks was still very amusing though, I remember one thing which my mother said to me several days prior to her flight, she told me it seemed that it was just last week I made my mind to enter an international university and be a Mechatronics student, now suddenly I am in sixth semester and preparing for my internship program. I absolutely had no idea how to respond that sentence, it sounds somehow provoking and yet very delicate to hear out. Time flies so fast and nothing could stop, I could barely track back what I have accomplished in the past twenty years. As a nice kid with some short-tempered jealousy aside, I might once or twice mention that I wanted to be a grown-up since childhood was dull and uninteresting, partly because children are always under control and they always want to rule. Now, after I recall those years and no matter how challenging they were, shots of pictures when I was a boy practically become the only strong evidence that every single day of my childhood had turned into a grand history, which sadly there is no way back to experience those moments anymore. Today, as I am on my way of becoming a grown-up, I am aware that one day I will loose people I care about, my parents, friends, colleagues or anyone else; and that is extremely dull, gloomy, dark and very uninteresting. Ouch!

As people on my age are entering the next decade, it would be wise if we maximize the time as well as possible. There are many ways of how people revive from a depressing stress; some of my colleagues would go for a karaoke jam session, very few of them go to church, girls could make sushi or something appetizing to eat, or maybe fishing would be a great idea. The point is, just make sure that the time that you have invested is for something worthwhile and positive. It might sound pathetic to hear such crap coming out from a boy who preferred watching videos and fireworks instead of studying for his final exam. However, hopefully after brief refreshment you could produce something even better than what you have expected. Last but not least and in fact this is the commentary I left on my friend's note last week, enjoy and keep things around before they are gone, because not everything is eternity.