The Box That Doesn't Fit The Trunk

the other day i went to the apartment to collect my belongings. thought of going there on tuesday, but it's been raining all the way since. then last night was ok, so i proceed with my plan. i had like 2 box full of stuff. i figured it can't fit inside my already limited trunk space of my car. thinking of putting it at the back-seat section. then i realized that it's not practical. the box for sure will not stay stationary and at the same time it'll block the rear view, whenever i glanced at the rearview mirror. i opened the box, and there were like a bunch of stuff of which i already forgot that i've had or owned. my sketchbook was there as well. that sketchbook was like my journal. the only thing that made it different from a typical journal was that it contained drawings rather than words. before this no one had ever seen or touched or turn the pages of that sketchbook. at first i felt a bit weird... mac said the content was wonderful. what he didn't know was that each one of those drawings that he saw, does have a meaning behind it. i gave him a dead smile and still having that weird feeling the whole time.

mac finally finished his 200 hours of flying and he asked me to help him out on filing up the forms and all the works that he needed to do for the license application before he leave for sarawak this saturday. we had a few drinks, and talked a lot. most of it were flashbacks. we recalled everything last night. starting from the very first day when all of us batch 10 arrived here in kota bharu. from how the principal unintentionally mistaken fadzil as a nepalese cadet, to how kelvin sleep at night with his hat on, trips and vacations that we all had during the course, ridzuan did the right decision to land in terengganu and escaped a life threatening situation... everything. not to forget about how annoying zul's voice was every morning when he knocked my door just to wake me up (he did a good job though... every morning!).

we've had a hell lot of life during this 21 months. we've bled crimson and blue. but for each of us, i think the time that we all felt very bummed and totally out of focus was when kelvin announced that he's leaving. i remembered the moment of silence, and also the facial expressions from each and every one of us (including the nepalese guys) after rodney read the letter that kelvin wrote. at that time, ashwin, mukesh, suresh, and raman were playing the monopoly game on their laptop. "he's really leaving this course?" yelled rabin from the corner of the room. everyone felt the sadness. even till now, i still can’t believe what happened, and it’s too much to talk about. kelvin is one of the greatest person i've ever met in my life. we've had spent countless hours in classes and briefing rooms. back in the days of dcat, kelvin would walk inside the class and did his job as a "penghulu". making everyone feel at home. he knows how to lead, he can talk very well, and he can tame a beast with his great leadership ability. we really do miss him. but yeah, life goes on. i sure hope one day we will see each other again.

as for the rest of us, all the laughs and jokes that we threw at fadzil, all the flu, fever and diarrheas we've had and pretend to have, the fights and arguments that sparked whenever we forgot to make someone feel important, it's all part of us already. we will never ever forget that. those are the things that made us knew more about each other. those are the colours of life. at the end of the day, after all of those gnarly circumstances, we still call ourselves the best of friends. not because we have to, but because we can, and we really are the best of friends. we're in the aviation industry. it's relatively big, yet it's still quite small. we surely will be seeing each other again in the future. if it's not in the cockpit or at the airport, we certainly will hear each other's voice embedded in the air radio frequencies.

life is short. and it's like a long colourful carpet that we continue to unroll feet by feet without knowing how long it is or what colour will come next. and all of this thoughts of mine inside this 5 paragraphed typings will keep appearing through my mind whenever i flick that blue shaded hard cover sketchbook.