PARADISE - WHAT MY HEART HAD LONGED FOR

UNEDITED SAMPLE LITERARY ARTICLE
By Sheila Rose Mauhay Darantinao
IV - Madame Marie Curie


Paradise - What My Heart Had Longed For

There was this certain point in my life that I started thinking what if I never grew up? What if, all throughout, I will always be a child? A child who is innocent of the things around him or her. A child who really never cares as long as he or she will be able to buy this toy or what. A child who doesn’t mind all the pain and hurt as long as he or she had a lollipop or an ice cream. A child who always thought that this world is like a paradise.

When I was a child, I used to cry out loud when my mother would not allow me to go outside. But now, how I wish I never learned to face this kind of world.

When I was a child, all I wanted were chocolates and toys. But now, I cannot even determine what I really want.

When I was a child, all I needed was story telling to make me sleep at night. But now, even if I read hundreds of fairy tales, I find it hard to sleep well.

How I wish I could turn back the time, the time when I was still a little girl. The time when all my wounds could be healed by my mom. The time when all the pain and hurt could be replaced by happiness simply by having a chocolate or a candy. The time when all I knew was that this world is a perfect place to live on.

But, in our world today, I do not know if I could still sleep well every night hearing all those cries from the children in Mindanao. If I could go outside without burden and doubt that someone would shot me from out of nowhere. If I could still wish something for myself thinking of all those people suffering from different places.

Every time I think of those scenarios, I cannot stop my heart from breaking into pieces. But what can I do? All I can do is dream and wish that sometime, somewhere in the future, we will still have a world that we can call a “safe” place to live on. That its people will no longer suffer but will just feel the happiness within them. That my eyes would be happy seeing those children playing and laughing instead of crying and suffering all the pain and hurt from their environment.

How I wish those dreams of mine would all come true. And, I hope that my heart will be given the chance to see the paradise that had been seen by my eyes when I was still a child.