LOVE, Kloudiia

The sky was downloading millions of water droplets onto Mother Earth earlier on when I went for lunch. Looking on at the people scurrying around under their umbrellas, I was hit by some bits of nostalgia.

There were adults going for lunch, mothers sending their children to school and school children on their way to classes.

I noticed one thing in common – all of them carried umbrellas. None of them was in a raincoat.

When I was in my primary school, my mum bought me a raincoat. At that time, I hated using the raincoat because I find they looked ugly on me. Being the vain pot already, I could only admire and envy the adults who carried pretty umbrellas that came in attractive colours of green, pink, purple etc, and that had designs and pictures on them. I wished I could carry an umbrella.

I got my wish when I became a teenager. Then, I discovered the startling truth – I didn’t like to carry umbrellas because they were cumbersome, and they added unwanted weight onto the heavy load I carried over my back.

So, I became lazy to carry one. Whenever it rained, mum would be calling out to me, “Bring an umbrella! It’s going to rain!” and I would be dashing out of the house quicker before she could get hold of me and pushed the umbrella into my school bag. At times, I managed to plead with her to use a makeshift cover instead of the umbrella. When the rain was only a drizzle, she would agree. The makeshift cover ranged from newspapers to cardboards to any magazines or books that I could afford for them to get wet.

Now that I’m an adult, of course I don’t wear the raincoat anymore. And I’m no longer lazy to carry an umbrella too! The fact that I carry one to shield myself from the harsh UV rays is proof.

Hmm… the growing up days. When we were young, we tend not to heed the adults’ advice. Then when we grow older, we realise the choices we make don’t deviate much from the inital word of wisdom that our parents had repeatedly given us, but we consistently brushed it aside.

And the funny thing is, I don’t mind wearing a raincoat now, if I had one. I discovered that this is a better way to keep ourselves dry, especially when the rain is heavy and the wind is blowing strongly at me from all directions!

Hmm… the things we do as a kid versus that as a grown up. Interesting