When I was sitting some metres away from the class, starring
at the Teacher teaching inside, I opened my book. I read what haven't been read
yet, imangining....
Suddenly a voice flew toward me, seemed to be whispering...
"Big brother..."
I turned my face, "Oh,,,hello...come.." I
answered.
A girl came to me
then sat beside me. "Anyways, why don't you come in to the class?" I
was trying to make a talk.
"I'm kinda tired, big brother." She answered.
"Oh,, I see."
A minute passed by…Silent...... (I was in silent, and she
was too.... I didn't know what kind of idea I was going to talk about...sort of
speechless).
A minutes later, when I was trying to talk about
something...
"Big brother, how long have you been in college?” she
asked.
“Umm…about 3 years…1 year left,,,I wish.”
“Oh…I see. And,,,do you wanna be a teacher after fininshing
your study?”
“Mmm…I,,,I’m actually not giving much hope in my goal of being
a teacher, I actually want to be more of that, you know…a lecture, could be,
and find some additional jobs. Tacher is not a promising job, I mean in terms
of earning money, salary. It’s still not equal of what the teachers do in class
and their salary. Though they have that so-called “teacher certification”,,,I
mean, to be a teacher, we still need more… We may need some additional jobs to
raise fund…
## You know,,,I spoke like a sophisticated one, but above
all, the way I think, is like capitalistic one.
“Big brother, do you think that by mastering English, being
English teacher, or knowing English can provide us much space in looking for
job?” she kept asking.
“Of course, little sister…‘cause you know, English is needed
everywhere. Beside teching English in school, you can teach English in a
course, private learning, etc. You can also use your English in serving
tourists or being interpreter…and many more”.
“So,,big brother, we will hardly find a job when we have no ability
of English, right?”
“Could be, could be not…”
Then I went on…
“Little sister, actually,,,above all…if you have an interest
of something, a hobby, just keep on developing it, give much attention to it.
It will be your power one day, your future, to live your life…”
I went on…
“But, you know, in Indonesia, it’s still hard to develop
such a thing. We have less place or space to develop or to improve our
creativity, we have less friends or people to share our creativity or to
compete with. It’s really different with what happened in the western countries.”
“That’s right big brother… By the way, I like drawing, big
brother. I have many drawings of my own. I’m also good at dancing…” (of course
you are, ‘cause I saw you dancing in the class just now..# I talked in my
mind).
She went on…
“ Yess,,,so poor in Indonesia. Tira aggres. (She changed the
“pronoun” of herself using her name, a sort of Jakarta dialect)
This girl is not originally from South Sulawesi. I could see
it through the way she talked. And yepp, I knew it by our following talks
‘cause she told me about her experience, her story. She moved to Makassar
because her father had a job here (kind of job mutation, perhaps).
Again, she went on…
“You know, big brother… In Indonesia, It’s so annoying, you
know people here sometimes do not appreciate something we do. For example, you
know sometimes when I’m dancing, people think that I’m just kind of crazy
person, doing unimportant thing…”
“Yah,,that’s it. That’s why I wanna go abroad, study there,
and enjoy life there.”
“Hmm…by the way, don’t you wanna come in to your class. I think
we’ve made a long talk here. I’m just afraid if…mmm…actually we shouldn’t do a
talk like this ‘cause you’re supposed to be in class now but, the fact, you’re
not in class now.” I went on, trying to give a little advice.
“It’s OK, big brother, it’s OK…Tira’s just kinda tired
studying in class.”
“I
see, but…mm…Oh ya, you said before that you like drawing. Anyways, you know, I
also like drawing, painting, I used to have many drawings…and the way I draw is
by imitating a picture…not so bad. I began to draw something when I was five.”
“That
must be nice… Hmm, big brother do you wanna go abroad? By the way, Kira has
relatives in Singapura, and Kira knows that it’s good to study there. When Kira
was in Elementary School, Kira almost went there with Kira’s family and lived
there, but unfortunately the plan was cancelled.” She told her experience.
“Nice…”
“Little
Sister…!” I suddenly disrupted the talk.
“Let’s
get in to the class…The class is almost over.”
We
both came in to the class…the class would be over in five minutes. She then sat
at her seat, took something from her bag…
“Big
brother, this is my drawing, look..” She showed me a piece of paper.
“Wow…beautiful…”
I said,,,looking at the Manga (anime picture from Japan)at the paper.
“Do
you like drawing Manga?” I asked
“
Yes, I do, big brother.”
“Just
keep developing your drawing, little sister. If you have time, you can join
groups of Manga lovers to share your drawings or something related to Mange. In
facebook maybe you can find such those group, Manga Lovers Makassar maybe, etc.
You can join them…”
The
bell then rang…class was over.