Me

They didn't really care, that's why I survive!

Studying in boarding school was a great privilege to most of us when we were in our teens. Food was fantastic and our daily activity was studying. My sister and I studied in the same boarding school in Kelantan while our family moved back to Ipoh. Every school holidays, we took the long train journey to Ipoh. Mind you, we weren't treated like princesses once we reached home. We still had to wake up very early in the morning, hand washed all the clothes and prepared meals for the family. Our rest was the occasional afternoon naps and watching television before bedtime.

We were required to study hard and ayah would buy any reference books that the school suggested. Mum would cook abundant food to be brought to the hostel. That's the end of the caring relationship. If we were homesick, or had problems with our friends , we have to cope by ourselves,sometimes crying our hearts out in the middle of the nights. No phone calls or even snail mails.

But we survived! Sometimes we wondered, what would become of us if they were a bit more caring. Passing on their wisdom to their teenage daughters in the time of need. How nice if they could make the trip and visit us in the school or the least they could do was gave us a big, bear hug when we reached home. None whatsoever and it left a vacuum in my heart.

There were times when we took turns telling them our stories.... but it fell on deaf ears. That was life!

Without their guiding lights, we moved on and persevered. By experience, we knew that people hate us if we were bossy and arrogant. We lose friends if we don't watch out our mouth and utter hurtful remarks. The more cheerful we are, the more friends we'll have. We needed our friends so we behaved well during our entire stay in the school !