That the dumb should remain free. A corrupted view of freedom based in mass ignorance of what real freedom requires.
Real freedom. Ever since the 12th election, I’ve been listening to a lot of other people’s view about freedom & independence in Malaysia. Some views smells dirty, while some view freedom is nothing more of an illusion of ignorant people. But that’s what everybody wants, right?
Considering the situation where the Malaysian people finally showed their true power of voting and not democracy, a spark of hope got everyone talking about freedom.
Nothing more than just roll?
My first love is rollerblading. It’s the best thing ever happened to me & ever picked up along the way of my so called life. Bala, Sukeats, Yeng, Fariq, Pojie & the rest of Malaysian rolling crew became lifetime comrades whenever we stomp the battleground – a skatepark or skatespot.
It has been my place of solitude & exercise as well. Keeps me fit & healthy. Plus, the injuries that came with it sucks fucking big time. Oh well…
There’s something about skating that makes you calm. It’s not about the parties, the chicks or the cool factor. If it was for those reasons, I would’ve quit skating a long, long time ago. It’s one of the real things I have in my life. It defines me every single time I skate. Every trick, every push, requires an amount of focus & creativity. Your mind starts to open the playbook & you start to create new plays, tricks, combos, etc.
Freedom of skate.
The friends I made, the experiences that brought us together, was a kind of freedom & life that came with a price to pay, which other people may view it as foolish, but for most of us, it was the best regret ever made in our entire lifetime.
It wasn’t handed over to us, we made it happen.
Enjit, enjit semut, siapa survive, naik atas…
Success has many definitions. Just look at the humongous collection of self help books that defines & guides success in every single manner possible. And it boils down to this: success is defined at any point of time based on personal preferences. You define success yourself. You know that grin.
I’m 28 this year & until today I still do think I need to go back to school to finish what I started. Thinking back, I didn’t regret quitting ITM & half-assed my way at Informatics. I kinda like actuarial science, but I hated the lectures. The only classes that actually got my ass up from my bed was math, calculus, statistics & accounting. I didn’t have a car back then, so I took the bus from Kelana Jaya to Shah Alam.
But, I never finished the course. I only lasted 3 semesters or 1.5 years in ITM.
My grades in other unattended classes wasn’t doing great at all, which forced me to repeat those subjects & honestly, that made me so much more lazy than the lazy idiot I already was.
Instead, I spent my time skating a lot, working odd jobs & took my time learning about the streets & life outside my so-called box. I went to Langkawi to help my dad out & started learning the life of entrepreneurship from there onwards. It was in Langkawi that I scored my first programming gig. I started a home-based laundry pickup service for the aparment area where I lived. My cousin operates a laundry in Langkawi, and it only made sense to startup since the market was there & cater for the residents where I lived. It was an odd place to start, but it allowed to me absorb the quiet, laid back of Langkawi & also at the same time, experience more of life.
And the parties, drugs, alcohol & sex. Oh yea, the parties in early 1999 & early 2000ish was a time of its own. Movement. Backroom. Modestos. Bangsar. Clubhouse. Those times can never happened again. Sigh.
I went back to college in 2000 & got myself finishing the full year of my diploma course. I was required to finish my advanced diploma in the 2nd year and of course, I didn’t. It was really boring. Serious. The classes was really fucking boring. Instead, I came to class for the friends I made there. They were about 1-3 years younger than me, but they were fucking cool motherfuckers. Haha. It was because of them, I discovered I was born a geek. Big time. And these guys made me learn more than any textbooks could ever teach. And work was still at hand when I got into Informatics. I still had my gig in Langkawi & was only required to work there for a month for 6 times in a year for 3 years. When I dropped the 2nd year of college, I was doing working full time in Langkawi, only returning to KL every month or so for a week in the next 2 years.
I only finished diploma.
Sad but wasn’t important to me. It only became a paper requirement for me to get a chance in getting a normal job if the freelancing didn’t make it. It was my payung for the hujan. Freelancing was a learning experience for me, and it started off pretty well for me considering other internal factors & tragedies in my life. It made me where I am today. A ninja. Wachaaa!
I didn’t regret. I was free to decide my own path. I’m thankful to have understanding parents. Of course, the understanding came after relentless battles. It was worth fighting for. I’m thankful to have been taught the basics of faith & discipline in my early life, and it definitely helped me made decisions that sometimes seems odd but rightful in its manner. And until today, I still go for journeys and experiences that’s beyond my confinement of people & other materialistic matters. People suck.
This is freedom of my expression. What’s yours?
I wish Happy Fasting in the month Ramadhan & Happy Merdeka, Malaysia :)
