Today... was pure insanity but I guess it would make a very good lesson-cum-life experience. Hm, absolutely not proud of it, but what's done is done and it is time to move on with life; holding this experience dear to heart.
So, here goes.
Kudos to my much more organised sister compared to myself, the day started out fantastic tbh; improvised a little here and there but we were very much on time and even, a little ahead of time (which is trust me, pretty surprising). We were contented and even made little jokes about it while savouring our hearty little meal at one of the Korean restaurants we frequented in Gardens Mall.
However, after lunch, things got a little (or a lot) out of hand.
So as usual, on the streets of Malaysia, under the scorching sun, you will definitely see a few people claiming to be from some sort of unknown organisation either asking for some donation or pestering passersby to buy whatever they are offering. Okay, maybe it was pure bad luck today or that my sister and I looked like really nice folks; we were approached several times. The first three times, we just simply shrugged them off.
'Can you please help me? Please?'Instantly, that stopped us in our tracks because before that, they were saying what they were doing was just a petition and not a donation. So we were like ok fine, they just need a name and signature, let's just help if it's for a good cause. Blah blah, after filling out the deets and more talking; they asked for a certain sum of money to 'help' them in their ..art project? (i don't even remember what it was for). Although they claimed that we could decide how much we wanted to 'help' them with, the sum starts at a certain benchmark that is already way too high for ordinary students to dig out from their respective purses/wallets to pay an unknown organisation that's not even a charity. I hesitated a lot and almost wanted to leave but innocently and nicely, my sister handed over to them the minimum of the required sum (x3 cause there were three of them, begging for help). In return, they gave us a stupid faux rose; I am pretty sure that thing isn't even worth RM1 (but... the stalk is what's left of it now cause the flower got missing from all the travelling z goodjob joyi)
I guess this is how nice people are taken advantage of. I mean it wasn't only us; a lot of other students 'helped' them out too with sums much larger than ours. We felt really bad for being so naive to actually offer willingly to 'help' them out in the first place. We also can't stop feeling sad and angry at how evil these people are for taking advantage of other people's kindness.These people are probably one of the major reasons people are no longer nice out there, since being nice is always associated to being bullied and pressurised into doing things you don't actually want to. I personally witnessed a lot of nice people who grew to have heart of stones today, just because they hurt too much from always being the ones feeling deceived. They have had enough of imbeciles who yearn at every opportunity they can to simply take advantage of 'nice' people.
This whole episode bugged me a lot the entire day today, contemplating if it really is worth it to be nice. Here's what I came up with - being nice and naive are two very different things. My sister may have been naive today for that short moment since she has a heart of gold; always a firm believer of lending a hand and being nice to all people. Today's experience took a toll out of her as it did me, and although it hasn't been pleasant, this is also a much needed reminder. A reminder to stay firm and to say no to things we don't want to do. A reminder to stay nice, but be smart about it. A reminder that not everyone out there has your best intentions on their mind, and that there are people with ulterior motives out there who would do anything to glean something out of you, so always be vigilant. A reminder to always and freely lend a hand to those really in need. A reminder to always stay true to ourselves and to stand up against unfairness and injustice.
However, that's not the end of today's story - we had bad luck part 2. So as I said earlier, we were ahead of time, but I guess we were contented too soon. We were scheduled to head home via train at 410 pm from the central station but due to a complete standstill of traffic at our area, we didn't manage to get a cab until 410 pm which also meant that we missed the freaking train home. We were devastated and my sister was so distraught from having her plans messed up that way (plus we stood under the insane hot sun for an hour plus whilst unwillingly getting a tan). The driver kept saying 7 more mins but I guess 7 mins actually meant an hour (Malaysia's traffic and timing tsk). So what happened?
Praise the Lord. We managed to grab ourselves tickets for the next train at 700pm and here I am at 130am in the morning of the next day, nestled in my comfy bed at home; feeling a need to document this. Also, the battery on my laptop is now at 8% and I should really get to sleep now before my biological clock gets all messed up again.
'be kind and have courage, love'xx
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