Hidden Love
Once back when I was in Darjah 6, our Geo teacher, Mr. Chung concluded the lesson for that day by saying that next week we would go to Singapore. I spent the weekend agonising on how to inform my parents about it for I knew they couldn't provide me with the money needed for the trip.
Back to school on Monday and Tuesday, I noticed that everybody acted as if there wasn't anything interesting in the midst. Life was normal. Being a quiet person, I didn't ask anybody about the trip and let the turmoil stayed in my head and waited for the next period of the subject.
Only on the next lesson did I realise there wasn't going to be any trip to Singapore. Mr. Chung entered the class and immediately said, " Buka buku teks dan kita akan pergi ke Singapura, pelabuhan entrepot." Reality hit me hard and the dream I had harboured crashed into a million pieces. No trip to enjoy, just a new topic to learned. My only saving grace was I kept everything to myself and didn't breath any word to anybody. Good bye my dream.
That was the very first time I had ever entertained the idea of visiting a place abroad and only when I was in university I got the chance to let that idea to bloom again. After years of gallivanting around a quarter of the world did I realise and admitted my deep love for travelling. It is hidden no more.
Fyi, Geography was known as Ilmu Alam during my time. For the life of me, I couldn't find any photo of those precious book.