"A meaningful parting gift"

He was in love, he was generous. He helped people the best he could. He is a good friend, indeed. Everyday he spent his money, he will bring back a fifty cent for his collection in his Pringles. It was just for the sake of fun. One day, he found out that his account is shrinking and will only be enough for a month or so to survive. He’s worried but couldn’t ask anyone to help. His dad will be furious if he found out about how he spent his money. He remembered the coins he hid in his closet. He opened them and found a basketful of 50 cents coins in his Pringles. Everyday, he used that to buy food. He survived for a month with those 50 cents.

We wouldn’t know small packages can come in handy during rainy days. We may think that “nahh, it’s just some stupid coins I collected for fun.” Life is unpredictable, you will never know. Maybe it’s nothing much but for me small details can be a keystone for the most critical agenda. I have been keeping coins in my Nat Sherman wooden box since I was here. The last time I counted the 20 cents I collected since November 2005, it was more than a hundred, it should be more but I used it sometimes to pay the bus. Then I started collecting the 50 cents, it was also for fun.

T left for UTM this morning for his master studies. I had been thinking what parting gift I should give him before he leaves. I want something that’s simple yet meaningful. I looked around my room, and I saw something on my study table. It was the Nat Sherman wooden box full with coins. Some of the coins were scattered around the box because the size of them exceeded its capacity. I was like “hmm, this could be a nice parting gift.”

So I filtered out the 50 cents and after a brief of calculation, I found out I had about 116 pieces of 50 cents which equivalent to RM58. It was an odd number. I need another 4 pieces of 50 cents, so I asked my friend if he has a change of 50 cents, he got 2 pieces of it, another 2 pieces of 50cent to make up to RM60. I searched around my room, my pants, the drawers and all the bags in my room. I found the last two. I was so grateful and I kept all the coins in a blue bag to make it look like a treasure bag.

The next day, he came to my house and I went like,

“I know I have done nothing much to make you happy. But I have something for you which is really meaningful.” And I handed him the bag and he was surprised that the bag was full of coins.

“50 cents? Why are you giving me all these coins? What is it for?”

“Remember how you survived with those 50 cents you’d been collecting in your early uni life? Now you’re going away to pursue your studies. This is for rainy days when I can’t be there. It’s nothing much, but I will feel happy to know that you’re always okay. Take it as a symbol, hmm, you understand what I mean.”

“You know what? Remember the Santa mug you gave me last year? I’ll use that to keep this bag. Santa is the children’s miracles during Christmas, and you are my miracles in my every day.”

Well, like I said, it’s not much but it’s just the thought that counts.