See you, Laurent.

iii

I wanted to become a doctor because you wanted to be one.

Other than that, we wanted to become astronauts too. But that was a fancy and faraway ambition. You said we have to pass through the hole of a needle to clutch that dream, that we need to have pockets of teeming and brimming bills and coins to deliver us to the space destination.

I still remember how I frowned when you said you wanted to become a doctor.

Because I never really had a dream. I just wanted to grow up with modesty and humility – because people like us never really had a shot at the outside world.

A world where the elites are floating in vast oceans of bills and coins, unmindful of what tomorrow has in store for them—a world where the low remains low and the high advances to higher.

But as if your drive and passion for walloping from the slums of poverty had ignited my sweet and striving self, I instantly wanted to become a doctor too.

What you do is what I do, remember? Where you go is where I go, remember?

"It would be of great help to our sitio," you said after munching on a minute biscuit, of which you just took a small bite before giving the rest to me. "You see...nobody understands us better than people who have experienced a life similar to ours."

"To be a doctor is expensive too, Laurent..."

"Dear Astrid –" you chuckled as if what I uttered was amusing, "– that's why we have to study well. We have to apply for scholarships."

You said that as if it was the simplest way to gallop toward your dream.

Hence, I have never willed myself entirely as much as I did as a grade 12 student since that day. I worked on my academics, we studied together, and we topped our classes because you said it would be necessary when they would choose applicants for their scholarships.

We did everything together. We took a handful of unrestricted examinations. We passed them all. We were so ready. We were so prepared that I had already painted our future workloads and conditions in my visionary and inventive mind.

You and I, entering college together with our reveries and hopes embedded in our pens and papers – soulfully searching for methods to survive to get that longed title.

But how come our plans did not end up well?

How come that one tragicglobal event would halt our dreams?

-----