Innocent and playful, sometimes annoying, but their gentle countenance is always accompanied by booming laughter that I don’t mind being pushed around by them. They were the little kids that I used to play with whenever I visit my grandparents’ house in the province. WHEN I think about them, I can’t help wondering what their respective tomorrows will be like.
Simple life, simple joys, simple dreams – I have often associated these kids with every little thing that’s simple. They easily get contented. Candies bring a great smile on their faces, second hand clothes are considered a blessing and basic school supplies such as pen and paper seem to be a miracle to them. It is as if they can’t wish for anything more than plain attention and appreciation. They don’t need much so they don’t ask for more. They take life as it is and has never, even once, hoped for a better tomorrow.
When I say tomorrow, I see the things that I have been dreaming when I was the same age as them – quality education at the metropolis, high-paying job at an established company, and a comfortable way of living.
But their tomorrow is different to this, very much different.
For these kids, their tomorrow is the same as their today, and so as their yesterday. They see themselves stuck in their little barangay (village), growing up, finishing the mandatory second level of education, and getting married. Work will come as the need arise, at the mercy of their parents’ friends and relatives.
I would like to say that such thinking is really unfortunate, but I guess I have to reconsider. I don’t think that I have the right to say that my perceived tomorrow is better than theirs. Because to be able to be where I am now, there were doors that have opened up for me that might be forever locked for them. And it is only after I entered those doors did I started thinking, or dreaming, about that tomorrow that still doesn’t exist for these kids.
You see, our dreams are always affected by the opportunities and new horizons that come our way because we could only see those things that are attainable. The things we cannot see clearly will only remain as blurred images of the many possibilities that might have come our way had someone unlocked the door towards it for us.
These kids’ dreams are simple because I’ve seen more than them. Their hopes are limited because they have never seen what lies behind those doors I’ve passed. It is not that they are easily contented. They just don’t have anything more to look for. If only someone could unlock the door for them from the other side.
Perhaps, rather than thinking about what their tomorrow will be when I think about them, it would be better if I could at least become that someone.
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