IMO view: My dream

I was and still am a news addict. My father first started subscribing to newspapers and at the time I still wondered why people would spend money on reading a bundle of thin and crumpled papers (of which I was quite certain no one would be able to read in their entirety), dumping them as the next day’s prints arrived.

I was 10-years-old then. The subscription never stopped and continued even when my father admitted to me that his eye reflexes could no longer stand identifying small letters due to ageing.

By then it had become habitual to digest printed and visual news every day, in addition to being an audience to my father’s indignant commentaries over “hard issues”, such as politics and wars. I was so immersed in real stories presented by the media that there came a stage in my life that I dreamed of becoming a story maker.

Of course I did not have a thought about the discontent of receiving deadlines and scorn for writing insignificant, rubbish stories on scandals, campaign promises and hypocrites with empty talk and disgusting political maneuvers.

Another disappointment was that my dream job would not lead me to accomplishing my other dream: To live a filthy rich life. Well, so much for luxury living now, since money is worth less than toilet paper.

Purnadi Phan
Jakarta

http://imo.thejakartapost.com/purnadiphan/2012/06/04/june-4/