That child

I sometimes think about how hard it must be for people who live away from home in a different country, trying to earn better education, trying to earn more money.

You see, I have lived in another city (2000 km from home) for my college. But I was still a (comparatively) cheap flight away from home.

I miss home? Okay let me visit for the weekend. I miss mom at 10 pm? okay let me call her. But what about the people living in a different country? Having to think twice if not thrice before spending money on anything, having to look at the time difference every time while making a call back home, not wanting to call at a time not convinient for family even if they really really miss them.

I think about how lonely it must get. Having to cook in a place where you live by yourself, most of your weekends go by in buying groceries, or cleaning the house, or just at home, trying to distract yourself with a tv show or a movie. Even if you do make friends, everyone’s life must be different so making plans is hard, and youre also trying to save up to make sure you have some emergency funds.

It must be hard to talk to your friends and family back home and realise that youre missing out on a lot of important things. Your friends who are getting engaged, the new car your dad recently bought, all the festivals where your family gets together every year, and so many more events. I think about how a lot of them must cry themselves to sleep every once in a while but do not tell anyone because they want to show their family that they are strong. The amount of times things probably went wrong, the amount of times they probably got sick, but did not tell anyone back home so that no one gets worried.

I think about the times they probably wanted to leave everything and come back home and just hug their mom or their dad, but could not because of Visa issues, passport issues, or simply because ‘work did not allow it’. I think about all the birthdays they probably had to spend alone because their friends were in different cities for work, because their office colleagues did not know about their birthdays. I think about the times they probably had a breakdown right after getting off the phone call with their family or friends over how much they miss them. I think about the things that they probably want to tell their family or friends, the things they want to openly talk about with their colleagues but they cannot, to ‘look strong’.

I think about how their family must be feeling back home. How they probably always feel like catching a flight to meet that one person, how they always feel the absence of that person on important days. I think about the mothers and fathers who worry whether their child is eating enough, whether their child is actually doing okay, whether their child is happy or feeling upset.

And then…. I hope that child is happy. I hope the child is actually having fun. I hope they have someone they talk to. I hope they are not bottling everything up.