Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

nothing in life is free. even if at first you thought it was, one way or another, you’ll end up paying.

i realized this when i was sitting alone in the airport, facing the prospect of having to spend a night (or two) by myself waiting for a flight home. such is the life of the perpetual chance passenger. what could be more appropriate to potentially spoil my vacation than the chance of being stranded in a foreign land surrounded by people talking in a language that is entirely incomprehensible to me (and spoken in a manner in which you’d think they were engaged in a never ending argument). there i was, having waited for a total of 10 hours already and going out of my mind! and in those 10 hours, i had a lot of time to think. so, wallowing in self-pity, i came to my realization: nothing in life is free. one way or another, you end up paying. my ticket was free, but there i was…paying… what was the price of my free ticket? anxiety, stress, boredom, the anticipation of the long wait ahead, the fear of having to wait for days, the fear of running out of money and going hungry, worrying about hygiene… safe to say, my imagination had run wild (like i said, i had lots of time to think). and in the end, i ended up paying for real too. to appease myself, i decided to buy a ticket home. high price to pay? well, it does not end there…

the ticket i bought home, i had to buy last minute. because the flights were all full, i had been asked to wait until the airline had confirmed that there were in fact tickets to be sold still. in other words, they wanted to make sure that the other passengers were sure no-shows. when i finally bought my ticket, the lady behind the check-in counter decided to play a cruel joke on me too. she told me that the boarding gate (which, by the way, was a train ride away from the check-in counter!) would close at 7pm. i looked at my watch and saw that it was already 6:50. i need to emphasize that by this time, i believed that i was already battling against fate. fate that wanted me to be stranded in the airport as punishment for my free ticket! so, i was doubly scared that i would miss the flight. i ran, and i ran, and i ran until i thought i was about to have a heart attack. and when the gate was in my line of sight, i saw that there was no one there. in my mind i thought that i had missed the flight. when i came to a halt in front of the gate, the manager of the ground staff approached me and said, "we haven’t opened the gates yet for boarding. pls take a seat". at this point, i was well aware that i must have looked like a mad woman, with a combination of fear and exhaustion in my face. so i looked to my left at the waiting area. there sat all the passengers, calmly waiting for the gate to open and staring at me in amusement. i could see their collective thought bubble, "why is this crazy woman running?" my first instinct was to run back to the check-in counter and strangle the lady behind it. but luckily for her, i was too tired.

so there, you can add embarrassment to my bill as well.

i share this as a warning. many things in life may, at the surface, appear to be for free, but be careful because there is a very big possibility that they are not. the wrong things you do and think you’ll get away with: lying, stealing, cheating, living an unhealthy lifestyle… it’ll catch up to you. things that you simply take without stopping to appreciate their true value: friendship, kindness, love… if you don’t take care of them, they’ll charge you in the end. so, learn to appreciate what you have and even what you don’t have in life. that way, when it’s paying time, you’ll know you’re life is worth, you’ll know what you’re paying for.

my feet still hurt from walking around Hong Kong this past weekend. with the distance my friends and i covered on foot, we might have just as well walked all the way to main land China. and despite the fact that i did not get to shop at all (not one single item for myself! imagine, not having shopped in Hong Kong!), i declare that i am broke!hehe…

to comfort my penniless woes, a friend of mine told me that although i might be poor in finances at the moment, i am richer in life experience! (thanks rj!) hearing that, believing that, lifts my spirit immensely. i learned that getting lost is excusable and even extremely fun if you are a tourist. i learned that laughter is energizing. i learned that if you don’t have a plan, you’ve got to be prepared for a whole lot of surprises (good and bad). i learned that if you don’t have a plan, you sacrifice your budget! hehe.. i learned that you can sleep without letting your face touch the surface of the bed. i learned that if you don’t learn to adapt quickly, you can get trampled on! i learned that fast food is extremely fattening (like i didn’t know that already, i guess i needed a reminder…) i learned that if you keep converting your pocket money, you wont end up buying anything. i learned that you can continue walking even when your feet are numb. most importantly: i learned that as long as you are with friends that are able to see the brighter side of "sticky" (or stinky) situations and come out laughing, then it’s all good. even if our trip to Hong Kong had more than its fair share of misadventures, it was entirely a most enjoyable experience.

some things i realized about Hong Kong locals:

1. Hong Kong locals cannot grasp the concept of falling in line! - if there was a line, there’s bound to be someone who will cut in front of you. even in Disneyland, the place where people should be rekindling their childlike wonder, was not exempt from having people with this most annoying habit.

2. Hong Kong locals can shove their way through anything and anyone - they walk so fast that if you don’t watch out, they’ll maul you over and wouldn’t even so much as give you a backward glance, much less say "excuse me". no exaggeration!

3. Hong Kong locals are in dire need of customer service training - vendors, receptionist, even people behind the check-in counter at the airport, none of them showed any inclination for customer service. if we met any customer-friendly people, it was so rare that it took us by surprise.

of course it is more than likely that i might be generalizing. so, i’d just like to make it clear that i am only stating what i have experienced myself. you are welcome to go to Hong Kong and judge for yourself.

I never thought myself to be a workaholic or even to have the potential to be one, but if to love one’s job is to be considered as a workaholic, then im guilty as sin. now i realize that after i write this i might go to sleep and wake up later today only to realize that it must have been sleep deprivation and a little bit of boredom that has driven me to write this latest addition to my blog and not my genuine need to express how much i enjoy going to work :). however, let me go on. as i was saying…

although some might consider me crazy, i consider myself fortunate to wake up every night looking forward to going to work (yes, i work at night) . just imagine not having to feel like your dragging yourself out of bed, or think up a believable illness to pass for an excuse to file a sick leave, or having to constantly glance at your watch to check if by some miracle, time has fast forwarded to the end of your shift…just imagine…blissful isnt it? hehe.

so, what’s my secret? why do i love my job? well, to tell you the truth, i really dont know. lately, ive been busy as a bee. i eat my lunch while working, i hardly have time for a break, i multi-task like i had multiple personalities and i run from one meeting to another (in different floors too!) like i had a marathon to win. but it’s all good… at the end of the day, i go home with a sense of achievement. hurrah! to the simple pleasures of life… afterall, you spend 5 out of 7 days of the week at work. and probably even spend the weekend thinking about work. why not learn to love it? love it and it will love you back, that’s what i say! (well, atleast that’s what the workaholic in me would say)