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Baru-baru ini aku dikirim untuk dinas ke Medan. Singkat cerita, aku punya kesempatan untuk dinas sambil balik kampung. Di kepulanganku kali ini, kebetulan bersamaan dengan kepulangan sepupu-sepupuku yang bekerja di Jakarta, dan juga kunjungan tanteku yang nomor dua yang sudah lama migrasi ke Jakarta. Selain itu, I got to experienced ngopi-ngopi tjakep setelah pulang kerja, terjebak macet dalam perjalanan ke kantor, lunch time, dan sepulang kantor dan lainnya. Yet, to be honest, I prefer my current life in my current place. Di Medan tuh, jalanan macet, suara klakson dimana-mana, banyak beca ugal-ugalan, belum lagi ditambah supir-supir angkot yang latihan audisi fast furious, dan bonus jalanan berlubang yang bertebaran. Tapi yaa walaupun begitu, Medan tetap tujuan mudiknya aku . . .

Unlike the title of this post yang terdengar menyenangkan, not lots of exciting thing happened. Sebaliknya aku lebih banyak “tersadar”, like, God! So this is what people mean by We are too busy of being adult, and we forget that they are getting old too.

Imma remind you that later of this post will be deep serious talk. 

I really see that it is happening to me and my family. I heard my aunty kept nagging about how her muscles are getting stiff, how she can’t even squad anymore, and so on. My dad did shock me too. It was bed time and when I was almost asleep, I heard my dad started to chant. He kept mentioning the chanting mantra without answering when I asked. Can you imagine how surprised and worried I was that time?? Minutes before, he was watching Youtube and out of sudden, he got out of the bed and started to chant aloud, and went on without pausing just to answer my question. I tailed him till the ground floor and waited for him while he prayed. He lit the incense stick and started to pray. I heard what he was praying for and found out that he felt uncomfortable with his heart beat. Well, I don’t know what kind of ‘uncomfortable’ was it as he refused to explain more when I asked.

I couldn’t sleep that night; I was too afraid that something might happen. I searched for nearest Emergency Unit and saved the number. I looked up on internet for heart attack first aid, and other related things. I was kinda disappointed too, just wondering why my dad didn’t even wake anyone to accompany him to pray, that he chose to chant and pray rather than to seek for help first. What if next time none saw him and he fainted and fell down the stairs??

The next day I visited my uncle and found out that he got an incident that past few days. He intended to buy something at the minimarket when he suddenly lost his balance and fell at the entrance of the store. He fell on his face, resulted in his nose bleeding and his right arm got severe bruise from knocking something. After the incident, he barely told his wife about the incident and still continued his work till close to midnight. My aunt realised something wrong when my uncle groaned in pain while taking off his shirt for shower. He then told her about the incident; only when my aunt asked him. Same, I wondered why they kept it for themselves. Ooo.. Please gentlemen, it doesn’t mean that you are weak if you tell others about your condition!

Other than that, in this three weeks time, six people of my surroundings passed away, another young two fell ill out of the blue. Life is way too unexpected this lately. Or is it me that didn’t learn how unexpected this life should be? Telling people about this may appear as attention seeking; Keeping it for myself will drag me even more in my own silence. I am just . . . having this . . . extreme indescribable fright. This, too, shall pass, shan't it?