I Was Wrong

I have lots of friends. Whenever and wherever I go, there's a bunch of people staying beside me as if I am their boss. Simply, because I AM RICH.

I can do and have whatever I want in just a snap, obviously because this world almost works with money.

I want shoes, bags, makeups, gadgets, foods, and anything you can think of, just name it, and I'll buy it. My friends are always with me because they can also have a glimpse of what I have. I always treat them and share the things I have especially when I don't want those anymore.

My bank account always has huge balances so I can go shopping if I feels like.

But, even if I already had everything, I never do bullying for those unfortunate ones, unlike in dramas that you can watch on your television. I never stepped on someone's dignity with my money because that's what my parents taught me. I do believe that the blessings we had will never be gone, if we will remain kind-hearted even if we're reaching high.

But, I was wrong.

My dad's business faced bankruptcy when this pandemic came. My dad owned a private school and back then, the enrollees are reaching thousands because of its reputation of embracing a quality education. Everything flows perfectly, not until the dark days came.

When this pandemic started, the enrollees suddenly decreased and my dad got problematic on how can he sustain the wages of his employees. We all know that this pandemic adversely affects everyone's life and most of the people faced financial problems. Practical parents decided to transfer their children in public school because they can't afford to send their child in a private institution where high tuition fees have to be paid.

In just a span of one year, all of our wealth were gone and we decided to sell some of our things to fulfill our daily needs. My dad still has other business, but that wasn't enough to bring back our wealth.

We decided to live a simple life and think positively. We keep in our minds that even though we are not that rich anymore, we still have friends out there that can still accept us even though we can't mange to help them anymore in terms of their finances.

But, we are wrong again.

When those people we helped before knew about our situation now, they never communicate with us anymore. We tried to visit them for quite some time, but their attitude is not the same anymore unlike when we are still rich. They even closed their doors and showed rude behaviors towards my dad and mom. We felt sad with that situation, who wouldn't be?

We are not meeting them by asking to pay back, we just want to know if they are okay, and to catch-up on some life-stories that we are happy to share with each other before, but instead of welcoming us warmly, they even turned their backs on us.

Even my friends avoided me as well. They never replied on my texts and ignored my calls to them. I just want to ease this burden I'm feeling by opening up, but they never allowed me to.

I thought we're friends.

And guess what? The person I am not that closed to before, is the one who stayed beside me even if I'm in this situation. She's a nerdy girl who loves to read tons of novels and short stories. I once helped her when she don't have 1/4 sheet of paper in our quiz. She's intelligent and kind, but she doesn't have lots of friends. She's a loner maybe because she's not that rich unlike me that time. And, I can clearly understand the situation now.

I hope, I knew about this thing on the very beginning. If I could turn back time, I would rather have few genuine friends or nothing at all, than having tons of fake ones. I don't know that some people can instantly changed their behavior towards someone when they can't get benefits anymore.

And those people I am least expecting to show sympathy, are those who manage to stay with me in the gloomy days.

Maybe this is just a challenge/test for us, my family. My dad's other business started to show huge potential earnings and slowly, we managed to regain some parts of our wealth before.

But, aside from slowly regaining the loss wealth we had before, we learned very important lessons that will forever instilled in our minds.

• First, some people treat us better when they need something from us, but if they can't get anything, they can easily throw us like trash.

• Second, it's better to have few but real friends, than being in a huge circle of snakes and plastic ones.

• Third, whatever happens, let's keep our feet on the ground and always show kindness to everyone.

• And lastly, don't give up easily when things suddenly crushed. If you know to yourself that you never did something wrong then don't treat your problem as a bad karma.

God is giving us challenges that He knows we can surpass. He doesn't give it to make us suffer but, to teach us some important lessons that we should put in our minds and hearts.

Author's Note:

This is just a fictional story and it's not associated with someone's real life. This is just a product of my imagination (obviously, because we're not rich and doesn't owned a private school, hahaha). But, the lessons included in this story are what I wanted to impart in everyone's mind.

Think of it this way, the plot is fictional but, the lessons are non-fiction.

Date Published: August 9, 2021

Lead Image: Originally created by me using Canva