Ariel

Do you have a mom who likes to tell stories from your childhood or teen age that would make you blush? I do. :)

One story that she loves to tell my families and relatives is the story about me and my junior-high friend named Ariel. I was in the first year of junior high and I was a "ketua kelas" at that time. (I don't know what it was called in English. I just googled it and "ketua kelas" in English is prefect. See, blogging makes me learn something new every day). Among other things, my job was making sure that all the students lined perfectly in rows (we had to form "rows" and march into class one by one). Oh my, this is getting difficult to explain in English, really. So please bear with me.

So this one friend, Ariel, was a tall, big boy, but a bit.. too kind for a boy. :) He had light skin and beautiful eyes because -he said- his parents were of Arabic descendants. When forming rows and marching, Ariel was always not in the line and everything. Being a good (well, a little bit mean, sometimes) "ketua kelas," I was always trying to correct where and how he stood and sometimes I kicked his feet :) Yes, I was that bad and mean. He was not angry. He just smiled and did what I told him.



So came the time for the year-end report. Parents were called to the school to get the students' reports. I didn't go with my mom at the time. But my mom was outside the classroom, waiting for the teacher to come. Beside her stood a beautiful woman. That beautiful woman suddenly asked very politely, "Ibu (Ma'am), whose mother are you?" - assuming that her child was a friend of my mom's child because they were standing outside the same classroom.
My mom replied, "Oh, I'm Mel's mom. What about you, Ibu?"
And that woman looked surprised and suddenly there was a big smile on her face.
"Oh, Mel's mom!"
"Yes, why?"
"I'm Ariel's mom. Nice to meet you. Ariel often told me that Mel is very smart and she's the 'ketua kelas.' She often kicks Ariel's feet because he does not stand in the row when they get ready to march into the class."
Both of them laughed, but my mom's face became very red. She said sorry to Ariel's mom, but Ariel's mom was a very nice lady and she said, no, no, she's fine. That's her job.

And since then my mom and Ariel's mom became good friends... LOL...

I never saw Ariel again since I was in junior or senior high school. The last time I saw him, he was still the Ariel that I described to you. Several days ago, I looked at the photos of my high school friend, Prast, on Facebook. On one of his photos, Prast typed ARIEL'S FULL NAME! I was really surprised because... Ariel looked really different!! Needless to say, what I meant by "different" is all for the better :) (Ariel is the one on the right). I thought, well, I surely won't dare to kick his feet now... hahaha....



It all makes me think of how amazing if someone looks at or sees you (or me) again and they say that you have changed for the better! Now that I think about it, what's called new year resolutions are not something scary, cliché, or even useless. Every human being wants to be better every day and that is actually something good! That would be much better than people who live as though their day-to-day lives were the most boring, unattractive,and most wretched ever. Having something to cherish, vision to see, the goal line to imagine, makes lives more interesting and worth living.

Ariel, thank you for encouraging me to be a better human being. And sorry for kicking your feet those times. Oh, and I hope one day you read this blog :)

Ariel's photo is courtesy of Heru Prast.

NOTE: My friend Viliya said that "ketua kelas" in English is class leader. Thanks, V!