9 December 2013 incident

NOTE: This story has implied meaning.

On 9 December 2013, it was the second last day of my semester 2 at Taylor's College. After my class ended on that day, I had lunch with my friends before going home. At that time, there was a newly opened restaurant in Menara Rajawali which is located near our college. One of my friend suggested that we have lunch at that restaurant and we agreed with the suggestion.

When we were walking to the restaurant, a girl in our group was carrying a stack of books with her. She said that those books were quite heavy to carry. Therefore, I offered to carry those books for her since she is my close friend. She happily agreed and she said to me "Good! You are a gentleman." I felt quite happy about that.

Then, at the restaurant, one boy in our group realised that the owner of the restaurant was actually his relative. As a result, he felt very awkward there. He wanted to acknowledge them, but he felt shy to do so. So, he kept asking us whether or not he should acknowledge them. We told him that he should do so, but he still hesitated.

Then, the same girl (who earlier said that I was a gentleman) said to him "Why are you so shy? By behaving like this you are not a gentleman." Still, he did not acknowledge his relative. At last, after quite some time, he finally had the courage to go forward and acknowledge them. They were happy to see him.

After lunch, I went home. At home, I thought back of the incident. The boy's behaviour at the restaurant on that day was actually quite unusual. All the while, he is never afraid to talk to others, whether he knows them or not. However, on that day he was so shy when he met his relatives. I was quite surprised about that.

The boy is also well known for being a gentleman. However, on that day the girl said that he is not a gentleman because he was so shy when he met his relatives. Shortly before that, the same girl also said that I am a gentleman because I helped her to carry her books. I felt very happy thinking about this, because I was considered by the girl to be more gentleman than someone who is well known to be a gentleman. That was also the first time where a girl said that I am a gentleman.

For several months after I entered Taylor's College, I was not close to my college friends and I was quite antisocial. I only started to be close to them in August 2013, thanks to the 31 July 2013 incident. Even though I was quite close to them since then, I felt that I had given my college friends a negative impression about myself because I was antisocial earlier.

So, all the while I thought that it would be quite difficult for me to improve their impression about me. However, the incident on 9 December 2013 proved otherwise. The fact that I was considered by the girl as a gentleman just because I helped her to carry her books showed that I still had the opportunity to improve my college friends' impression about me, as long as I make an effort in this.

Therefore, I told myself that from that day onwards whenever there is opportunity I would do something that could impress my college friends. This incident also caused me to consider my college friends to be much more important than before. Consequently, I also enjoyed and treasured my every moment with them much more. This is why I felt so sad having to separate with them after entering university.

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