Tuesday, October 7, 2008
"What if you are forced to forget your true love?"
Before I met you, I wondered why all the lyrics in love songs were so exaggerated: Why do lyricists create such mushy and overemotional sentences? Why can’t they just write a good melody without those melodramatic lyrics? That is plain exaggeration.
Before I fell in love with you, I thought romance novels were just so silly: Why would a person cry for another person for hours? How could a person wait for his lover for years? That is plain silliness.
Before we became a couple, I thought romance movies were just so stupid: How could a person love another person so deeply that it became an obsession? How could one sacrifice so much, even to the extent of his own life, for his lover? That is plain stupidity.
When I realized I had fallen so deeply in love with you, I finally understood that songs, novels and movies are just reflections of life, inspired by the writers’ true stories.
Because when I decided to end our relationship, I realized our story mirrors a love song that I once heard, a novel you once read and a movie we once watched.
-- extracted from To Forget You by Low Kay Hwa
"Why are we always trying to impress everyone around us?"
Why must I always wear different masks wherever I go?I am so sick and tired of my life. Who can help me tear away these masks of mine that are lingering in my skin? Why must I play the role of a strong daughter in front of my parents, a smart student in front of my teachers and a contented girl in front of my classmates? Why must I keep on telling everyone around me that I am the best, by putting on the multiple masks of disguise for different people?
This afternoon, I looked into the mirror and realized that I could no longer recognize myself. My reflection was of a faceless girl, awaiting the next mask to be placed on.
Why are we always trying to pose for the best posture for the camera, when we know we can never change reality?
--extracted from Journey by Low Kay Hwa
"What if you overlooked what your mother had sacrificed to bring you up?"
When I was ten, my mother called me “ah girl” and I had always responded to her. When I was fifteen, my mother called me “ah girl” in front of my classmates and I scolded her. When I was twenty, my mother still called me “ah girl” aloud and I ignored her completely.
I know that, from her point of view, no matter how old I am, I will always be the “ah girl” who calls her “mama”.
From my point of view, my mother is just an old woman in the house who lives with me. Her responsibilities are to make breakfast for me in the morning, give me money to spend in the day, do the laundry in the evening and switching off the lights at night. For all those things that she did, she will have the authority to scold me or ground me.
Until one day, she calls me and says, “Ah girl, I’ve got cancer. I may die within the next six months.”
That is when I realize that my mother is more than that.
--extracted from Journey is Low Kay Hwa