13

18 years of age and there were highly remarkable days that made me look forward to the days that I’m living my life here on Earth. One of those instances that changed my perception of life is when I turned 13. Because the exquisiteness of my realization made me stumble upon the thought of the ones who complicate life are the people themselves.

At the age of 13, I encountered tons of situations that made me think that life is unfair. I never thought that despite the benevolence that I showed to other people, they even have the confidence and courage to be so impudent. One of the days in my life that I never thought that I would surpass is when all of my classmates didn’t talk to me for an amount of time due to the fact that they were asked by an arrogant girlfriend of my ex. She’s the reason why I stayed up late every night just to contemplate about how weak I am in terms of fighting for myself. Each and every night that had passed, I keep on blaming myself for experiencing that such event.

If I didn’t fall for him then I won’t be in that situation. However we can’t control our affection for other people, we fall in love unexpectedly to those people who treat us the way we wanted. I knew that from the very moment that I started talking to him I will fall for him.

Months had passed and hardships became difficult for me to handle yet I still believe that true love won’t let our love for each other vanish. Indeed, as a graduating student, I would have a graduation picture. It’s something memorable for him to keep with a dedication at the back of it. Hence I was wrong, we were not destined to be together. My father saw the photograph that I was supposed to be giving him and he told me that I have to break up with him.

It’s the toughest decision that I made in the 13th year of my life. But then I realized that it’s fine to get hurt because I know that it would not be the end of my life because if I’m in pain then that’s the proof that I’m existing. The pain will make me become a stronger and better person. Thus the experience that I had been through may not be the most difficult challenge that I had gone through because I know that at some point in my life I will encounter more and harder obstacles. A number 13 may be an unlucky number but for me, I will take it as a stepping stone to reach my dreams in life because those experiences shaped me as a person I am today.

1942

He gave me an apple

I’m no Snowhite with the seven dwarfs

Leisurely, I gazed at the rounded red fruit

Hastily I consumed it like I haven’t eaten for thousand of years

Will it be the death of him or I?

Leaves had fallen to the ground

The forest is still breathing

Yet there’s no knock on the door

Winter came

The leftover apple become rotten

It’s cold as winter and it sat waiting for summer

It turned black like the night sky

Waiting for a fairytale to be a reality

It’s 1942 since I last saw his face

Raining of bullets on his rooftop is all I can envision

Does the number of bullets are the times I cross his mind?

Change will shape us

People tend to more cautious due to the experiences that they had encountered. The decisions that they had made to change the wind direction of their lives. But everyone knows that change is inevitable.

Sometimes we make a choice and there are times that our choices will make us who we are and what we are today. Indeed, it is difficult to accept the fact that we dream beautiful and tremendous life however some things didn’t go according to our plans. That’s when we decided to let the wind blow wherever it wanted to or we tried to sail our boat through the monstrous waves even if we have no idea what awaits us.

We have no vivid vision of what might come. All we know is we have to be prepared for what might change us. Be ready because it will shape us.