Blood Red Tears and My Thoughts.

For the past three days, sorrow poured over the gloomy land and sea of Penang. 6 bodies from the dragon boat tragedy were found one after another. ChungLingHighSchool Club teacher Chin Aik Siang, and students Jason Ch'ng, Brendon Yeoh, Goh Yi Zhang, Cheah Zi Jun and Wang Yong Xiang unfortunately never made it through the mishap safely. Although I never knew them in person, I have friends who knew them, who shared precious moments with them. Hopes and wishes were flooding Facebook as friends called them to come home. People prayed, so did I, trading my birthday wish for every single hope. To learn that our prayers and wishes did not come true, I felt (and still feel) gloomy.

That night just after the incident, I slept at 2.30 am after just surfing the net about the victims. Blur pictures of the sea and waves created chaos in my subconcious mind as I slept. I woke up with a worried heart. On Monday, in school, I looked at my watch and wondered if any of those missing were found safely yet. In my head, I felt disturbed. The usual noise in my class that I was used to was making me lose sanity. I needed peace. Finally the long school hours were over. I switched on the computer as soon as I was back home at two and visited star online. It said, two more bodies were found. My heart dropped and coldness wrapped itself around me. After lunch I stayed in front of the computer and kept on refreshing the page for the latest news. Later I had to leave at 4.20 pm to attend school's sports practice. At 6.30 pm when I was back I refreshed the page again. There it was, a statement saying all bodies were found at 4.25 pm. I didn't know what to do. I cried.

Today, I woke up. I heard the wind blowing hard and the trees swayed, creating a sad and creepy melody. It then started raining heavily at 7 in the morning for a couple of hours. The sky remained grey and dark. In class, I kept thinking of the people and the mishap. Why did it had to happen? I thought. They were so young. Four were at my age. My friend was patient enough to hear me moaning the whole morning. It was really weird because (1) I felt really sad for the victims whom I barely knew, and (2) was it normal? Normally, when we read news about tragedies in the paper, we sympathise with them, but the sadness only lasted a while. But now, mine has lasted for two days. Today, I wore black to tuition, head to toe. The day was moody and dull and so was I. I hope by writing this I feel better. Ah well.

Sadly, I have homework to do now. A lot of them. So, I'll sign off now.

-michelle

"It's not about how it ended. It's about the journey."