My Little Panda

Hey, it’s been a while since the last time you visited. Actually, not that long. This isn’t the first time you showed up in my dream again. Though I didn’t put it in writing, I still occasionally saw you in my dreams within the past five years. Especially in the past year.

But the dream this time, it’s different. Well… it’s not the sweetest. The sweetest one is the one I had before this one. That one dream felt like a real dream. It was unreal. It was too beautiful to the point that I got upset for being awake. For having to live real life again. If only I could just live in that dream forever.

The dream this time, it may not be that fantasy-like. But what makes it special is, unlike every other dream of you I’ve ever had, this time I wasn’t the one who made a move. Now that I think about it, this might be most unreal. But let’s put that thought aside for a while.

What I like about it isn’t that I didn’t have to put effort. I never mind putting in an effort. But when I wasn’t the only one who did it. That’s miraculous. If only I could stay in the dream a little longer, maybe we would have had a conversation about our situation. A real talk. A deep and genuine one.

Unfortunately, the dream was incomplete. Suddenly my mom woke me up, asking about her vaccine booster schedule that got canceled. Btw, the vaccine booster for the elderly has been available since a week ago. I wanted to write about it but haven’t got the time since one of my cats was sick.

Anyway, don’t forget to check on your parents and make sure they get their booster soon. No booster is available for us yet. But hopefully, it will be soon. I wouldn’t need any until the end of monsoon season since I got vaccinated near the end of last year.

I don’t know about you, but I supposed you shouldn’t need one anytime soon either. One of my friends who got vaccinated quite early will still get her vaccine protection until next month. So I think it wouldn’t be any different for the rest of us.

For now, let’s stay vigilant and adhere to health protocols. Not everyone has been vaccinated yet, and some people are at higher risk of getting infected. So let’s continue to do our role to protect ourselves and everyone else. Especially since the new variant continues to spread rapidly.

The pandemic has been here long enough, and some people might already be fed up with the situation. Kinda feel like we’re running in circles. Every time the situation seemed to get better, a new variant was found and messed up with the progress. And the thought that things will eventually go back to the old normal again begins to feel like a dream that’s hard to attain.

I know what it’s like to have a dream that seems impossible to come true. I haven’t reached it yet, and I don’t know if I will ever be. But I know how important it is to have the right attitude toward it. To not be reckless out of frustration. To focus on the brighter side. To see the light even on the darkest night. And to not ever lose the hope that in time, everything will be alright.

Because it’s the hope that keeps us alive. Because even though the sky will be dark at night, the sun will shine again in the morning. And since the sun never gets tired to brighten the earth every single day, it will be wrong for us not to do the same to our lives.