A few days before new year, a female neighbor who lives in the same apartment building as me asked me a favor. She had a cold and need to go to the hospital. But because it was holiday, her flat mates and also almost everyone in the dorm went back to their family, so she had no one to take her to hospital. Because I had nothing to do anyway, I decided to take her to a nearby hospital.
Actually I'm not fond of hospital. It's not because I hate doctors or something.... it's just because the mood, the aura in a hospital always makes me feel uneasy. To be honest, I am really easily affected by the mood around me. People around me or even some strangers could make my day good or bad just by being around me. For example, one day when I was on the way to work, a young couple were fighting in the train I took. It's not something unusual, I mean, it's a normal thing and it doesn't have anything to do with me. But yeah...I couldn't help but overthink about it the whole day, and my day was successfully ruined by some strangers.
And that's why I don't like hospitals. Many things happen in a hospital everyday. Some people might have the best day of their life, but some might have the worst day. Some people have their first day of their life, but some have their last. I just couldn't stand these mood swings I might get from hospital.
So we went to the counter and then waited in a room. While waiting I saw an old man, maybe around 70 years old, on a wheel chair going to a balcony to smoke alone. He looked so lonely and sad....
Curious, I asked my friend (she's a westerner btw).
"Why do old people in Europe mostly look so lonely? I mean, why don't they go live with their children?"
"Hmm... it's hard to answer it...Maybe because of tradition? For example I heard that if a woman keeps living with her parents, she would be single for the rest of her life."
And just like that, the old man successfully made me feel melancholic that day.
What if one day I got old and lived alone just like that old man?
Life is short, really really short. Soon I will be 24 but I still remember my high school days just like yesterday. Time flies fast, and even faster when you are getting older.
They say life is like a story book. The days that inadvertently pass by are irreplaceable and will never come again. This particular page is called "today". This one scene connects with another, overlaps and turns into a story. One minute, and even one second, fills up the story book.
Some people have a thick story book full of journeys, with some good and bad days seasoning their chapters and turns out to be a beautiful story. But some people, who are unfortunate, have to suffer their whole life, and their story books are those which have gloomy covers and bad endings.
We sometimes take the life we have for granted, thinking that we will always have a "tomorrow", even though we know that everybody has the same chance of dying everyday.
If my life was a story book, what kind of cover would it have?
Hopefully it's not a gloomy one....or at least the ending is a good one...
