Saturday, April 23, 2011

Lets get smart, smarty pants!



*credits to faithhana for the caption above :) *

Salam

So yeah its been 5 whole months of holiday since I officially finished high school. The reality bites real hard when we realize that this long vacation is finally ending.. So it means no more usual time-wasting activities after this. No more watching as many korean dramas/hollywood movies as possible in one night (m'dad: ''I cant stand it that you're such a couch potato nowadays!"). And no more searching for random silly parodies on you tube or even bother to try and make one ourselves. Or even updating facebook status on my whereabouts 24/7. Or other typical not-worth-it silly stuff..

O yeah, no more that, and O no, here comes the university life.

So lets just skip that intro part and go straight to my point.

Reminiscing back in time when I was in high school (full residential, in this case), I was always whining about how I was so busy and never had time for myself. Or even about how the tons of homeworks never seemed to become less every single day, or on how much exams we had to take that we started to call it a 'weekly' thing. And a lot more (I used to even complain every day about how the ayam masak merah was too spicy it gave me appendix, can you believe it?? I mean ayam masak merah IS supposed to taste that way duh!)

Now there, that's cliche. I never quite realised on how lucky I am to even have the chance to be able to READ, what more LEARN and HAVE A PROPER EDUCATION. Plus a comfy bed with a fluffy pillow and a cat to play with in the hostel!

To wake up every morning and worrying about nothing else but to study is the best part of being a full-time student. You earn pocket money from your parents, you receive full typed notes from your teachers, they make you play sports in the evening just so that you could be healthier, then what is there to complain about? But we still do, yeah, like everyday.

Now lets compare this to the situation in Palestine. Fellow children in Palestine have been denied the chance and right to have EDUCATION every sing
le day of their lives. They have to face the checkpoints which are fully-equipped with concrete wall and armed Israeli guards, trying to stop every single Palestinian trying to pass, especially if its for academic purpose. They dont want their enemies to be smart. No, it wont make them happy.

Pictures speak louder than words, so without further ado;;


the children starting the day going to school to
be faced with a checkpoint

the soldiers stop them from passing and give them order to go home

the children try to challenge the soldiers to pass the checkpoint

even younger ones try but in vain


they ended up having their classes in the streets by the checkpoint

the boys try a little bit harder

they got shot at

and some got arrested

yet in their eyes we see determination and dignity


Basically, thats how their days went by, over and over again. They are oppressed and abused in their own country, and nobody out of it seem to care. Where is our stand? We can handle and accept and couldnt care less about those oppressions just because we aint the victims? So are we just going to hang around until this happens to us, ONLY THEN we will start to care to take actions?

We have a full access to proper education and a one way ticket to the brighter future, yet we complain and whine over things that are insignificant and doesnt even make any sense. If we dont see this as an opportunity, I dont know what else is.

Now is the time to quote this; 'gratitude is the best attitude', yeah dude.
And Oprah's saying goes "education is an open door to freedom" and that's very very true.

You wanna be a doctor, be one because that's the way you can help save lives.
You wanna be a lawyer, be one so you can fight against crimes with justice (just as long you dont let politics take control of the system )
You wanna be an engineer, be one because you can make life easier for mankind with technology and stuff

We CAN be anything we want. We dont have to worry about gunshots in our way to school, we dont have to worry about our family at home when we're at school. So if that's the case, then we have no excuses but to study hard today to free them tomorrow. Because so far, that is how much we can do for them.

with love,
CokelatChip