Friend of a friend (FOAF)

I had the chance of a free breakfast with mom and dad this morning, and Mom told me about her old friend (she always does that, even when I have the lowest chance of listening, or at least pay attention). That old friend had five kids (like mom), but all of them are boys. Incidentally, they also have the same age as us (wow, when can I meet him, mom?) and they are all the smart type (not the biker-dude-mullet-head type abundant in my hometown). The difference is…they all went to reputable uni overseas.

“One is in USA, studying computer engineering, one is your brother’s senior in local Uni, and one, the same age as your sister is already doing medic in Egypt.” And all of them are bachelors! (not the degree, silly). I immediately remembered my friend Shak, who is in Egypt doing medic. And my friend Sheezy, medic in…somewhere, overseas; and Uja, currently in Australia. I remember that I almost cried when Shak told me he’d leave for Egypt. Not because I missed him (really), but rather because that was supposed to be my dream!

As I sat there, eating my food in the shop overlooking my old high school (which was across the lake, pretty nice), I remembered my what my ex-teacher said when she found out I got Food Technology course on a Uni just across the road form school.

She said: What a waste.

No wonder I wasn’t invited to any reunions or career-day talk. Even though graduated on top of class (apart form my friend, Chen Hou; he was first and I was second straight A’s in our school), I was never invited, nor given a certificate. The last time I went there was as a family rep for the PTA meeting (and I sat there gossiping about almost everyone with my teachers—like a true housewife in a PTA meeting). That aside, I still never got a real invitation, nor did they ever referred to me as a ‘success story’, although I was also a club president, participated in every debate and quiz competition, I represented the school for N-Day celebration in the dance troupe (which was still shown on TV—few weeks ago), and even got third in a national short-story writing competition.

It’s like I was ‘erased’.

“How come I don’t get to go to Egypt?” I asked mom.

“Because we don’t have the right connections.” Dad answered, blankly (hey, I remember: was it because mom wanted me to spy on dad?).

“Were all of your friend’s sons are smart?” I asked.

“Not really, they just have the right connections.”

“Sometimes, all you need is a friend of a friend, right there in the Ministry of Education, where the scholarship is. That’s where my friends got her daughters and sons to go to overseas Unis.”

I immediately remembered all the commotion last month about a hundred or so parents of kids who got straight As but fail to get any scholarship. They all complained that their kids should get the chance to study in reputable Unis, but then again some other people just rebut back with a saying “You think you deserved it just because you got straight As.”

Well, it’s true, really. Colleges and Unis are not cheap, based from my experience. I almost cannot continue studying for next semester when the Uni wanted to block me out—since my scholarship had run out and I cannot afford to pay for sem fees!

“That’s why you’d see one member of a family getting scholarships, then the rest of the family will get one too.”

“Don’t we have any connections, mom?”

“Our connections are politicians dear, and they don’t like politicians.” Mom replied bluntly.

That’s true. We tried that connection to secure a college for my sis-it never worked out. Hahah.