Enlightenment

The boy was sick of life. He felt so bitter - bitter at his parents, bitter at the country's education system, bitter at the political scene which he felt so strongly was a farce, bitter at the religion he never failed to question, bitter at everything. For one of his age, he was startlingly cynical, rather contrary to the idealistic young man one would expect him to be.

He hated money, the woes it (and its lack of) caused, and longed to live on some faraway island where he could have his own farm, rear his own poultry and cattle, grow his own crops, and just be far, far away from the city, which - with its fast paced life, high expectations and all the stressful facets of life living in a city entailed - he hated with a passion.

And now, it was time for reflection - another irritatingly useless yet unavoidable aspect of school life. The boy hated its whole process - how the facilitators would tell them to close their eyes and think of whatnot, of how artificial it all seemed. He hated the little forms of paper with their questions asking all sorts of useless nonsense, fruitlessly trying to evaluate his growth as a person. This was supposed to be self-reflection! Since when did reflection have a fixed and regulated format to follow?! It was all a show by the educators to pretend that they cared, a mask of faux concern over the development of the individual. Bullshit! They cared more about their pay packets and fat wallets than whatever morals and ethics they tried to preach.

But then, the boy remembered his friends - the ones who had stood by him all this while, listening to his bitter rants, comforting him in his despair, advising him in his ignorance, just being there for him. He thought of the fun and laughter he had shared with them - in outings, in OCIP, in class; He thought of all the sweat and hardships he had endured with them - the torture of mass PE, challenging the authority of the seniors, the sleep lost over project work...

And there he saw it - forget the faraway island dreams, it had been right under his nose all this while - the bittersweet beauty of life. And the boy smiled.