While I was living in Boston, I took the T a lot. The T is what people in Boston affectionately call the subway/metro/tube system. “I’ll meet you at the T stop” is a common line to say. Or, “I’m on the T now!” if you have reception on the train. I loved taking the T because it was a place where I could think for as long as my train ride would last. I spent time listening to my iPod, reading my notes for class, thinking about what to eat for my next meal, or just, like most of us do, think of nothing.
However, I’m talking about the T because of something else right now.
Very often, when we see something in a foreign country, we always wish we could have the same back in our own hometowns. We get envious of the things we do not have in our own countries. Often times in Boston, I would look at something and ask, “why can’t we have this in Malaysia too?”
But to be honest, that was only my initial mentality. After living in Boston for a while, I began to realize just how much living abroad made me appreciate the things I have (or don’t have) back home. Yes, I was envious of many things. But I learned to take that envy and make it teach me a lesson or two about how beautiful my own hometown can really be.
This is what I mean…
When my train passes the Charles River (the most beautiful part of Boston, my favorite spot, with lovely scenery – refer to my post on the Charles), I look at the people running across the bridge to exercise. I see people walking their dogs. But what I really love to see is the water: How calm it is and how in the winter, it is completely frozen. Yet, it makes me think of how lucky I was to grow up by the coast; I grew up in a city that was just along the coast. With that, I am reminded of how fortunate I am that across the city I grew up in, there are beautiful islands just a speedboat ride away. The Charles, though fills me with envy, makes me understand that I am lucky to have the sea breeze as I walk along the coast in Kota Kinabalu.
On the T, I also see people go off to work in their fancy office wear: branded clothes, expensive shoes, matching colors and all sorts of sophisticated electronic gadgets attached to them. I wonder why Malaysia can’t be a modern country like the US. Why can’t we stop being a developing country and just be developed already. I look at the working class people on the T, they all seem happy because they are earning good money and probably working in a great company. I grow envy because they are earning US dollars, while back home our cost of living is higher and we don’t earn that much to begin with. Yet, underneath all that, I learn to appreciate how my country is slowly but steadily progressing, and while we may not be fully developed, we are working towards it and not getting lazy about it. I slowly begin to think about how 10 years ago, our country was almost nothing like what it is today. And so, I learn to be patient and understand that one day, I’ll be living in one of the world’s newest fully developed nations, and I’ll be proud of it.
Also on the T, I look at the many different kinds of people that hop on and off -
..the cross-dresser who is always waiting for the train at the same time every day, with his pink boots and pink hat, pink skirt and pink vest
..the MIT students who can’t stop talking about how the world could possibly have started with just a single blueberry (ok, not really, but they probably would have a chat along those lines on the T!)
..the black father and his white wife and their two brown children
..the blind man and his guide dog
..the woman who always appears at the same time every day yelling in the train to everyone about how her husband left her with her 3 children and how she has nothing but the clothes on her back and how her children are also out looking for money because today (everyday, actually, because she always has the same story whenever I see her) she walked into the store and couldn’t even buy a loaf of bread for her children.
I see all these people and think to myself, how diverse and how spectacular this city is to have so many interesting people. Yet, as I swallow my envy and reflect on it, I realize that diversity is actually something we truly own in Malaysia. How much more diverse can our people be? I begin to understand that my country is just as interesting, and although I have gotten used to its diversity, I should rekindle that spark and enjoy how colorful the society I grew up in actually is.
Taking the train in Boston for the whole time I was there really did help me see how much more I should appreciate where I come from.
Maybe I should start taking the LRT?
The only good picture I have of myself on the T was taken on Halloween.
Thanks Su Ann for taking this picture.
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