Friday, September 01, 2006 || Happy Birthday, Malaysia! (a partial project Happy Malaysia post)
- I didn't really wanna blog today, cause even if I did, I was gonna write about my weirdly dysfunctional family (things are funnier and even more dysfunctional at home now, cause her Royal Highness that of which happens to be my sister is home for a holiday).
Which would've been pretty boring, right? I mean, I blog about my odd-but-endearingly cute family all the time, I bet nobody would be surprised if I said my dad decided to be a professional clown.
Then I remembered - Oh hey, it's MERDEKA ya'll! :D
Which reminds me how LAME I am, cause guess where I spent countdown?!
Yep. Cause I didn't stay home the whole of last weekend, my parents barred me from going out at night today. =(
Anyhoo, speaking of Countdowns, last year's Merdeka countdown was SO fun! =D My friends and I spent it at Bangsar, where a HOT white guy flashed his ass at us. Okok, it isn't exactly funny and kinda obscenely, actually, but at least it was kinda memorable. Which is more than what I could say about this year's countdown.
Anyway, I've decided to sort of take on the Project Happy Malaysia meme.
I don't profess to be an awfully patriotic person - I don't hang flags out of my bedroom window, for sure. But I love my country to bits.
I think I loved my life and Malaysia the most when I was a kid. Unlike my dad and other elders, I don't have fascinating stories of how I'd make my dolls out of straw (my mum did this!) or how I'd climb trees everyday with my siblings, but my childhood was pretty damn amazing as well.
See, those were the days when my friends and I were totally, completely trouble-free. I had a group of friends of different races, and the one thing we had in common was that our parents were not exactly the strict type. And we all shared a love for cycling. (don't ask me why =.=)
We brought the word 'carefree' to new heights. Everyday, we'd happily go to our respective schools (we were all from different schools, ironically) and look forward to the evenings, when all of us would have our daily 'meetings'. We'd all ride our old bicycles and meet up in the park, where we'd play stupid games like hide and seek (with our bicycles. So yeah, it isn't as easy as you'd think ...) or badminton.
We'd even race on our bicycles, sometimes. =.='' And of course, we were always up to mischief. There was once when all of us armed ourselves with water guns and together, we sprayed at every other kid that we laid eyes upon.
Alright, call us kids with INsufficient parental supervisation. ;)
But between all those pointless games and ice-cream pig out fests, that bond I had with the group of friends is something I don't think I could ever feel again. Little did we know that the feeling of innocence, the hunger for adventure, and the naive belief that all of us would be friends forever would soon be kicked out of us by Life itself.
It was a time when race, religion, and our differences didn't matter. We were friends because we wanted to be friends.
Everything changed after we all enrolled in secondary school. And formed new cliques with other people. (and usually, people of the same race with us. No idea why.) We all went our separate ways, though it was inevitable.
Just yesterday in college, this photographer named David Goh came to my college to show us some slides of some pictures he took. One of the pictures was of an Merdeka ad from last year, you know, the one where three kids of different races got chased by the bees and they escaped with bicycles?
Aww ... it kinda reminded me of my younger days. Though of course, it was in my neighbourhood and we were chased by other kids with bicycles, not bees. Hahaha. It was one of the rare moments that I was reminded why I love my friends, the people, and the country so much. ;)
You know, I'm sorry that I don't have a particularly heart-warming tale to tell, except the one I wrote of my lovely childhood --- it's just that since it IS my country's birthday and all, I've decided to take some inspiration from the child-version of me. The uncomplicated version of me.
I don't think she's perfect, but I absolutely adore my country. Why? I love it just because I love it lah!
Keranamu, Malaysia! *insert tanggal 31 song here*
