Like a Corella

He hated this feeling so much… once again he was envious!
 

The morning was a bit chilly, but the sky was clear and the sun had been shining for more than a couple of hours now.  While walking away from the parking lot, he took a glance on his rusty Timex Expedition; it was twenty past eight.  It had been eight days since he started his clinical placement on this equine health centre.  Not very long… but he’d been through a lot of challenging situations.  He knew he was fortunate to have experienced a very competent standard of veterinary education—had been undergoing training with the supervision of highly-qualified equine specialists under the roof of this multi-million dollar worth horse hospital. 

But this experience wasn’t just pure elegance, appeal or modernity because behind the flashy walls of this newly built facility, there laid the tests and trials that, in his disbelief, far beyond the hardships every student could imagine!  Learning the complexities of every disease progression or regression and understanding the intricacies of case management and treatment—whether medical or surgical, were inevitable for a veterinary student like him.  Unfortunately for him, the most challenging task of all was on how to stay obedient and respectful amidst the arrogance of those highly-qualified professionals he was working with for more than a week now.  When drowned in humiliation, it wasn’t very easy to show humility, indeed!  

“It was all part of the package,” he thought.  He knew he had dreams to fulfil so he had to set aside defiance to successfully cross the unstable bridge of apprenticeship.  After all, neither of these was due to his personal volition nor a reflection of the birth lines deeply engraved on the palms of his hands.  All these, he believed, had been happening for a good reason—all authored by the only mighty One up there.               

Suddenly, his thoughts were distracted by the squawking flock of corellas.  He looked up and saw those lovely white birds perching on the edge of the corrugated roof of the hospital building.  He took his Galaxay S4 out of his pocket and aimed the camera to capture a photograph but these cockatoos flew off and settled on the ground nearby.  These joyful birds started pecking on the ground as if taking up some grains, vocalised, and eventually flew away! 

He envied those corellas.  “They are in the society where ambition and achievement don’t exist.  They don’t have clinical supervisors and pressures to deal with.  They don’t earn degrees or qualifications but they could obviously soar high—not trampled down and crushed but being looked up to.  They are not educated but they understand the virtue of setting their feet on the ground to enjoy what life had to offer down there.”     

Nightfall

The crisp autumn breeze blowing from the south seemed to have been pricking deeper and deeper into his cheek as he was gazing across the western horizon.  Amidst the chilly gust of wind that had been filtering through his hooded jumper, the scene in front of him was, at that moment—priceless!  On the left, the Henley Beach Jetty was gradually turning into a mere silhouette as the lower brim of the perfectly rounded, orange-tinted, early evening sun started to touch the surface and eventually melted down the Gulf St. Vincent.

A small group of kids next to him was tossing and passing a colourful inflatable beach ball.  Then suddenly, they giggled with excitement.  Their noise had frightened a massive flock of hungry seagulls nearby—prompting them to fly off squawking until their discordant vocalisation muffled, overpowered by the sound of surf rushing on the shore. 

He was ‘alone’—sitting on a carpet of a relatively vast, well-maintained lawn next to the beach, while his friend was away for a short jog.  The blades of the grass were stabbing through his beach trousers but he had managed to ignore it while focusing to enjoy the 4D movie around him. 

There were fishermen on the jetty, and there was a couple sitting on one of the wooden benches… a busy Japanese photographer aiming at his subjects… a young family pushing an infant stroller… a group of sexy ladies finishing up their volleyball match…  Others were sipping coffee at the café across the road, while the rest had opted to start dining— undeliberately overlooking the beautiful sunset from the cozy restaurant by the street.

By the looks of it, it was, indeed, a piece of paradise!  But he was not convinced, for him it was temporary.  After sunset, he knew that it’d get darker and darker… and the lamp posts wouldn’t be enough to illuminate the beauty of this place.  The cafés and the restaurants would soon shut off, then each of these characters would finally head home. 

A huge volume of his lecture notes was waiting on his study desk... and he was certain that everybody on the beach, even the children, would have his or her own challenges to face soon after that lovely weekend would be over.