Everyday Magic, Overlooked

Recently, I found myself completely engaged in planning out my summer vacation as we packed to go to our usual annual spot when June rolled around. Quite contrary to the usual energy I radiate when I hear it’s time for us to leave the city for a month, I was actually looking forward to it this time around.

I mean my previous semester had given me very reason to do so! The stress and anxiety of doing things last minute, meeting deadlines ensuring a less than ten percent plagarism- I was frazzled by the end of it.

I had planned everything out starting the day my last exam ended-from the books I wanted to read, to the places I wanted to explore, I’d thought of every detail. Little did I know things had plans of their own…

It was stressful enough travelling with a kitten that rather enjoys exploring (even outside the windows of a moving car) but thankfully, somehow I pushed through the hours and we got there. As we neared our house, I beamed at the thought of the wonderful month ahead.

We pulled into the dark driveway.

I knew that the house remained locked for the rest of the year hence an intense cleaning session was long overdue, but other than that I hadn’t the knowledge that there would be more than one aspect to unpacking this creepy house.

We tried turning the main power switch on but it didn’t work.

My heart sank.

I had a grumpy kitten to feed and we were all exhausted from the journey. It was nearing midnight at the time. You could smell the dust. From the torches of our phones we could see the filthy floor and sofas covered exactly how we left them. The house gave off an almost eerie feeling. You could hear a pin drop.

As my confused parents and neighbours tried to figure out the issue with the electricity, I decided to begin changing the bedsheets. I was here in this dust pan but I refused to sleep on dirty sheets.

All the while, I thought about-and very rarely am I the philosophical kind-the luxury of things we take for granted everyday like basic food, shelter and electricity.

I checked the time every few minutes as I sank into the now clean bed, almost as though sinking deeper and deeper into despair. It felt like it would consume me whole. All that I had planned, all that I had looked forward to seemed to slowly be falling apart.

But truly, it is a bad habit of mine to jump to conclusions too fast, for an electrician was already on his way.

I cannot emphasize enough just how grateful I felt in that moment. Everyday these people solve problems that seem meager yet make such great impacts in a matter of mere minutes.

Just as we feared, the issue was rather technical and would take around thirty minutes, and for those thirty minutes we sat in the dark, I prayed with all my might that God put the skill in the electrician’s hand that was needed to fix this.

We spoke about our plans for the next few days, fought because everybody was at their limits and then ordered food in an effort to calm down in this situation because as a character from an anime I had watched recently said, “afterall, you can fight on an empty stomach!”

In around twenty minutes, our prayers were answered the- house lit up.

We squealed and clapped, for the night had been saved.

But we had not forgotten the efforts of the man who had shown up in the middle of the night to support a distressed and clueless family.

It is people like him that go to work everyday without realising just how essential they are to the community. To think that present day situations leave these people earning minimum wages compared to those sitting comfortably in offices truly makes me question whether we have made any significant progress toward a more just and better society.

Be it the cleaning lady who came the following day to make our space actually livable with her constant hard work and attention to detail, or the man who came to fix the gas stove so I wouldn’t have to cook overan open fire in the cold- we don’t do enough to acknowledge these individuals.

This piece is a reminder- to myself- of the conditions I walked into, and of the comfort I so easily return to.