This Is For You, Little Kid...

I used to know a girl virtually via a famous social network called Facebook™. Well this girl was so nice, friendly, a happy-go-lucky type of person, mixed (Chinese and Malay)...and obviously cute. A lot of people liked her. Most of us (in the friend list) had never met her in person. So maybe she wasn't real, maybe she was using a fake identity, maybe she was using someone else's pictures. Maybe. Who knows? I don't care. But the fact that she entertained loads of people by her status updates is something I will not forget.

But one day she decided to disappear...and she really did wiithout even saying goodbye. So this is her story before she was gone, from my point of view.

She lost her parents when she was really young. She was since raised by her brother in Australia until she reached 22. Then she was sent back to Malaysia to stay with her relatives. At first she grumbled about it, trying to get used with the weather and the 'foreign' culture. But not for long. Little did she know, she was slowly becoming 'more' Malaysian than we all were. Yes, she started to fall in love with Malaysia, the people, and the food. Especially the food. She said, "For some reasons, I love Malaysia more than Australia. Aussie is great especially for holidays, but Malaysia is a lot warmer."

It didn’t take her long to start studying about Malaysian cultures with her uncle. She learned about the history and everything. Not perfect, though, but she was getting better. Like I said, she was even better than most of us. Of course, she wanted to make some new friends other than those she knew at one of the local universities in Kuala Lumpur. So she made a Facebook™ account. She added a lot of people recommended by the website, and one fine day, she added me.

I realized that she frequently updated her status and in every single one of them she would get at least 30-50 comments (if not hundreds) from her friends. Most of them were males, of course. I even made an 'observation' one time in which I found out that the fastest comment she would get after her latest update appeared in the news feed was 11 seconds! And she responded to all of them. Her fine display of friendliness encouraged more and more people to drop by at her page.

Before I knew it, I was already 'sucked' into her little 'forum' and managed to get to know a lot more people through her. Her unusual amount of status updates and hundreds of comments gave me ideas to write, or at the very least, reasons to stay online.

She loved riddles so much. In fact, there were times when we used to play riddles every night through Yahoo™ Messenger, with me being the one who asked while she answered. It lasted for a few weeks before I finally ran out of riddles. It was fun.

She was always happy and smiling. I had never seen her in any sort of emotional states: anger, pissed and whatnot. The part that I will always remember is that she was really joyful, and I called her 'Little Kid' for that matter. She had the power to attract people to gather around her by just smiling and laughing. And that girl, her status updates and her hundreds of comments posted by her 'fans' inspired me in many ways. She amazed me.

But one day her beloved aunt (the one she stayed with) passed away and due to some promises made before she died, this girl deactivated all accounts she had and was eventually gone. Never heard of her since. Her hot cousin (she's really hot) told me that she has gone back to Australia. I'm not sure if it's for good.

There are still some features about this friend of mine I would love to describe but it would be too long. So the only thing I can say at this moment is...she was a great person to know. I mean, she was raised in another country with a totally different culture from what we have here. She could be different and could have stayed different. She could be wild. But she chose to learn about us, and become one of us. She wanted to become a real Malaysian, not by names and regulations.

Now please tell me, will you do the same if you were in her shoes? Well, you know you.

Whatever it is, I sure hope she'll be back someday. In the meantime, while August 31st is catching up really soon, just so you know, you're one true Malaysian I've luckily known and I'm so proud of you, Little Kid. Wherever you are, Happy Independence Day.

p/s: Since this story is written from my own point of view, there might be some inaccuracies that differ from the actual details or events. I only got to know her for a few months.