I Used to Hate Rich Kids

I'm starting to think that I'm talking too much tonight, but I can't help it. It would be such a waste for not writing this down, because I know that I'll find it funny in the future as I reread everything.

This has been forever left as a draft.

Before you decide to start reading, I would like to stress on the words "used to." 

I'm finally taking up the challenge to write honestly about how this land of far far away has taught me to think about people and things differently.

To be honest, I never liked rich kids. 

Years ago, you will find me uttering the phrase "Huh, anak orang kaya." whenever there's a child on TV who plays piano very well. Or a teen who scored really well in exams and got a placement in a very good university. Or a group of kids joining golf tournaments, pictured in the sports section of the newspaper.

I was that negative.

I grew up thinking that if you're rich, oww yeah you're happy.

It's not that I come from a very poor family, in fact I find my life pretty funny. I don't always get what I want, but I have what I need. God has provided more than enough for my family (I believe that He provides more than enough for everyone as well), but it's my attitude which caused me to keep on seeing the things that other people have, and question myself why can't I have the same?

When I came here, I started to see even clearly the things that I have, and what other people don't have. And how balanced and fair things are as well. There is no such thing as "life is unfair." 

Again, it's not that I was a very ungrateful teen, but what I'm trying to say is that now I can mix with rich kids without having any thoughts which I had in the past. 

You play musical instruments very well as a result of music classes? That's talent.

You're good in a certain sport because you had a personal coach? That's your talent as well.

Back then, I wouldn't say that's talent. I would say "Huh, anak orang kaya."

..but last semester a friend of mine said something which still sticks in my mind.

I was surprised to see a class still receiving photocopied notes from their lecturer, so I said "Wah..senangnya..masih kena suap." (Wah, so easy, still being spoon-fed).

She answered me in a very wise way, "Kena suap pun kena kunyah sendiri jugak." (Being spoon-fed also requires you to chew everything yourself). 

*translation provided just for fun. As if I have any international readers lol.

Reality struck me.

Why did I hate these people so much in the past? Now they're the ones helping me to grow a lot in this place. 

I know why. It's the environment that I've been growing up in throughout my teen years. I come from a neighbourhood where people work as teachers, nurses, policemen etc.

Not lawyers, doctors, engineers, businessmen etc.

My school friends, some of them were from surrounding "modern villages", with parents working in the government sector. We spoke our native dialect, not English. They don't brag about how they've been to London, Paris, New York, how thick the snow was, how cold the toilet bowl was etc. We talked about normal stuffs everyday, about TV programmes (Indonesian dramas, as far as I can remember), studies, music, school's latest news etc. so I got used to these kind of stuffs.

Now that I'm here, I do find that some people love to share their stories so much, and it was annoying at first, and I did (and still) have the thoughts of proving to them for not being a budak Sarawak who doesn't know about a single thing out of this country. But I refrained myself from doing so. 

Why?

Because it's those rich kids, who didn't act like those stereotyped rich kids, who made me see that I was wrong for hating them.

I hope I don't sound like judging. It's not my intention to judge, neither I have the rights to do so. All I want to say that I've learned a lot from the people I meet in college. As I listened to their stories, I came to realise that we're pretty much the same after all. This environment that I'm in now is rather balanced and I can see myself mixing well with rich and not-so-rich people, so yeah it's fun to get to know people's backgrounds and see how their characters are shaped based on these kind of things. Humans are one bunch of interesting thing to be studied.

Haha.