GLITCH

Side: Rylai's Daily Life (Before)

It was during my high school days when I became one of five delegates of a certain interact Bootcamp sponsored by a great group of professionals, the Technology Club of Yellow City. We got inside an inland resort named Polaris Star Inland Resort in the same place as the Technology Club. I truly admire how this event changed my life in terms of self-esteem and leadership – I wouldn’t be this confident in leading people if it weren’t for this. The resort is spacious and has tons of stuff that will never get you bored. When we got our room for us to stay at, we were given some bath soaps, towels, and more hygiene products. The younger version of me probably would’ve asked if my odor is so repulsive for them to give me those. It turns out it’s just a part of their services. It’s a relief. I have that problem during that moment though – I got seasick. It felt like I’m still aboard a ship and my sense of balance is disrupted. I took a hold of myself and didn’t let anyone notice it…probably.

The delegates from our school, five in all (plus a teacher, so…we’re six), were amazed after seeing the setting being ornamented beautifully. It didn’t remove my anxiety though, so as I was seated there, cold sweat ran on my face. Luckily, the person in front of me is a friendly one. We talked for a while as we’re waiting for the event to get started. His name is Miles. Truth to be told, his name is the only name I still remembered out of all delegates gathered there (even during that time I forget their names; thank God name tags existed). It’s a refreshing moment; talking and befriending a total stranger has strung a joyous melody of my heart. The one that strung the sorrowful melody is that my butt hurts a lot from sitting for a long duration. It’s a trivial matter for most people, but for me it’s… never mind.

The introductory program started, formally opening the event. The next thing we knew, we were grouped according to the color being pasted on a leg of the chair. Miles and I were in the same group, as well as one of my fellow delegates from my school (I forgot her name, so I humbly apologize). Then after we all settled down, each group was given lipstick. My intuition tells me that this brew is bad news and it hit the mark. The lipstick is meant to be used as a “paintbrush” with the leader and sub-leaders faces as a canvass. The struggle is real folks; we’re pushing the positions away from us and tried to give it to one of our group members. It ended up having a lady being the leader and Miles as the sub-leader. Miles was a bit mad at me since I also ended up voting for him.

Sorry my dear, but this is war.

We were given a lot of motivational messages coming from psychologists, successful people, and more. There’s also a moment when we were given a moment of rest and we all headed outside the hall for our first co-op activity. Before we started, however, the first trainer we met is asking for our group name. After a series of flinging random names we ended up naming the group “Powerfluff”. Yeah, it’s pretty obvious that we had the kids show “Powerfluff Girls” as a reference – it's way better than “Team Barns and Friends” and “Team Spice Girls” (of course them, the boys, will rebel to that “Spice Girls”). And then the enjoyable moment began. As I stated earlier, it’s a series of co-op activities, so our coordination was tested to the maximum. It turned out that we gained the second-highest rank after those. It didn’t end yet though, since after dinner we had our one and a half-hour of rehearsals for our campfire activity. By mere luck, I happened to sing with a great singer (just thinking of it makes my heart pound). Miles and the others did the dancing, and two of our group members were in charge of the background music (one used a guitar; the other, beatbox). It was fun and exhilarating to be true.

After all of those events, phase one of the event came to a close. As we all head back to our rooms, it turned out that I need to transfer to another room and separate from my schoolmates. My new roommates gave me a warm welcome amidst the cold temperature (thanks to that air conditioner being set to 15 degrees Celsius) and there I closed my eyes with a smile on my face, and eventually sleep in the dead of the night.

The next day, we went home and that's the only moment where I enjoyed the most, the thing that I lost when I advanced a grade.

•••

There are times where I want to scream in agony when I was a child. My parents are way too strict to be true, and I faced a lot of suffrage under their tutelage to become a fine being. I experienced every common trope experience by most children of the past – corporal punishment. It may be harsh back then, but because of that, I became a firm ideal person not just in my eyes but also to my parents. I can’t tell how difficult it is to become a parent, both then and now. I hereby acknowledge my ignorance and am trying to dissolve the nonsense grudge I accumulated during my childhood days.

During my childhood days, I heard about a certain law that protects both women and children from any form of abuse towards them. Since I’m still a naïve child before, I did a sigh of relief. However, in this era, the law itself is heavily abused by some children and women. I often heard children screaming that they’re the ones that dominate the house and their parents can’t stop what they want to do or else they’ll be labeled as tyrannical parents by the public. Women domineered men – it’s totally fine actually, unless if it’s already below the ethical standards. From what I’ve seen, some children of today are already exposed to mature content that they already know what is s*x, relationships between couples, and the like. It shocked me a lot that my younger brother spouted such vulgar words and expresses his disgust towards some intimate actions of some cartoon characters. In this world, it’s undeniable that most men are abusive, but some are tormented by the opposite s*x; this happens rarely, and sadly, there’s no law commonly known for its solid defense for the sake of males. Some even thought that since they’re males, they’re sturdy enough to withstand any kind of blows brought upon them, which is false. The world doesn’t need equality; what it needs is equity.

I’m not judging everyone; this is written not to garner attention or to serve as an eye-opener. This is what I have noticed in this generation: laws are the source of peace and chaos. It has some holes easily to use abusively. The main concern of this however isn’t the law but rather the people who were protected by the law. As the law limits the actions of others, it allows some and messes around in the “law-protected nation”.

"And there. Finished."

I yawned while looking at the view through the window.

I finished writing my essay for my project on Literature. That's how I feel in this world. I hope this comes to an end.

I closed my notes, switched off the lights, and head to the head to bed to revitalize my energy by sleeping.