Turn Back Time

I was tapping my foot anxiously at the small traffic jam that was getting closer as my car went forward. The tapping went faster as the car totally stopped behind the red light which was still tens of meters away, worrying that I might be late for work. To make it worse, my car was facing right off the blazing 07:45 AM sun, blinding my vision for a good few seconds. Shifting my visions away from the scorching sun, I caught a glimpse of a long row elementary school students who were making their way on the sidewalk, wearing their sports uniform, walking pair by pair, super-visioned by an adult‒teacher‒in every 2 meters of the row. It's a common thing to do here since it was Friday morning, where students from public schools or employees of government offices are obliged to do morning exercise in the form of jogging or rhythmic gymnastic.

I couldn't help myself to observe them, watching their every move and behavior. Some of the boys were yelling at the motorcyclists who stopped unwillingly due to the same traffic as I was, calling them 'hey sir,' 'hey loser' and any other childish mockery nicknames. Afterwards they would run a few feet away while giggling around, overjoyed although the teacher started to scold them. Meanwhile some of the girls were picking up dead leaves which scattered on the pathway, secretly putting them on the other girls' hair while holding their laughter. I smiled at the scenes.

The red light turned into green and my car was slowly drifting away from the kids, leaving my mind to start wondering. I used to be that careless, nonchalant kid as they are. Always happy, breaking the rules and not giving a single damn about life's problems. I sighed at the good-old memories. It's totally the opposite of the life that I'm currently living on; I need to be very careful with my action, my words, how I dress, how I handle new things, how I behave when the superior is pointing out my mistakes, how I contain my anger so it doesn't come to surface, how I should maintain my relationship with my colleagues‒whether I like it or not‒for the sake of my peacefulness during 9-hours-a-day and 5-days-a-week work life.

Well, sometimes being a grown-up sucks.