Touching Someone

Again and again, I am never bored with this jargon 'Life's a school and the people are its teachers'. Sometimes we are life's students, sometimes we're the teachers. Intentionally or not, we share our influence with people we get in touch with. We 'touch' them.

Last week when I was teaching in Surabaya, there was an introduction part. And then, a trainee pointed to another and she said that her friend there was going to get married soon. This trainee just smiled. I smiled and congratulated her. A trainee asked me a question about my marriage status and surprisingly, I bluntly answered it. The word 'no' just came out unstoppably. 'Oh, well. OK, now they knew something about me,' I thought. The show must go on, right?

The training days went on. Till the third day. It was lunch time and there was only me and the trainee who was said to be married soon (It's just a depiction. The real conversation took longer time. Hihihi.)

'Miss, you know I admire you a lot.'
'Oh, really?' (My mind was like spinning. Let it be something good, oh dear Lord.)
'Yeees. When I see you there, teaching. Eeeer.'
'Oh? What is it?' (Her reply was killing meeeeeeee!)
'It's just. Hmmm. It's something personal, Miss.'
(She IS killing me! Slowly but surely!)
'Mmmm. That's OK. Go on.'
'Well, you are a trainer. You told us also about your work and responsibilities. You travel a lot and you train people.'
I smiled. (Where is this goiiiiiing???)
'Mmmm, I mean you're single and yet you still can deal with the pressure of becoming single. It's hard you know, Miss. When I go to work, my life seems perfect. But when I go home? Hmm, my Mom and Dad would bombard me with questions about marriage and when I'm getting one. It's a torture, Miss. I sometimes can't stand it.'
'Oh, I see.'
'People would tell me that I am picky. But, Miss, really, it's because I haven't found the right person. Really.' She looked so sad. Her eyes had no energy to meet mine.

After a moment, I said few thing that did come from the heart.
'Well, in my life, I never say that I don't want to be married. I am sure you don't either, right?'
She nodded.
'And how do I know that I still want to be married one day? I have a dream of raising a family. I dream of preparing my husband's office shirt, making breakfast for my family, decorating the house and many others. Don't you?
'Yes, Miss. It's just the pressure, Miss. And people always say that it's the woman's fault.'
'I know.'
'They say that I am picky.'
'Hahaha. We do have to choose. But it's not like you have 100 criteria, right?' I smiled, teasing her.
'Hahaha. No, Miss. No.'
And then, we stopped right there when some more trainees came to the room.

Remember how this trainee reacted to her friend's mocking on the first day? She smiled, right? On the last day of the training, there was a moment when another trainee mocked her about the same thing.
'Miss, don't forget to come to X's wedding, OK?'

Can you guess what her reaction was?
I almost jumped off my chair when she said,
'BELUM TENTU AKU JADI KAWIN.'

Oh my God. Was it a set of words I said?
What did I do wrong?