My Life in Sri Lanka

Commended Entry: "My Life in Sri Lanka" by Hiranga Bandara Suraweera from Sri Lanka (Trinity College Kandy)

This article was submitted in the Kids World Travel Guide Essay Competition 2022 in the Junior Category 8 - 11 years.

My Life

I was at a TEDx event a few months ago. One speaker mentioned the phrase ‘carpe diem’ during her speech. Filled with curiosity, the first thing I did after coming home from the event was to search what it meant. A voice inside my head told me that this phrase, meaning ‘seize the day’, will come in handy sometime soon.

No one expected my country – Sri Lanka, to spiral down into an economic crisis. It was as if everyone in the country was sitting on a volcano, not knowing that it will erupt at any given moment. Right now, there are shortages of medical supplies, food and fuel. My mother keeps telling me not to unnecessarily fall sick or get myself injured because hospitals may not have the required medicines to treat me. We experience scheduled power interruptions every day and have to queue for petrol and diesel for hours, if not days. Schools are closed right now because there is no fuel for both public and private transport. It feels miserable to think that things will not be the same as they used to be for a long time to come.

Somehow or the other, I started thinking of ‘carpe diem’ because I did not want to be sad anymore. The future will be good only if the present moment is used wisely. I thought of spending at least a few hours every day trying to help my family as well as others survive these bad times.

My parents have started growing vegetables (such as eggplant, capsicum and bitter melon) and spices (such as red chili) in our garden. I water the produce, add manure, and help them harvest the produce whenever I can. My mother is involved in collecting funds for the kidney patients at the hospital located in our district. I help her with coordinating the messages she gets from donors and keeping track of the funds. I have been maintaining a registry containing all this information.

With the help of my friends in my neighbourhood, we have gone around and made collections of food, school supplies and clothes which can be donated to the poor people and children who are seen begging on the streets.

‘Carpe diem’ has helped me see the silver lining in the dark cloud which has brought so much darkness into my life and my country over the past few months. I do not know when I will be able to go to school and lead a normal life again. However, I have courage now, thanks to ‘carpe diem’, and to see that making others happy will make me happy too. As for my country, I hope that this economic crisis will resolve soon, because I can see there are many like me who are seizing the moment to help others. It has become part of my lifestyle now and part of everyone else’s that I know as well. It is something I hope to continue even after the crisis is over.

Congratulations on your essay "My Life", Hiranga. Such a powerful essay! Well composed and skillfully written. Thank you! Well done!

Hiranga Bandara Suraweera is Trinity College Kandy/ Sri Lanka. English as Second Language - Home language Sinhala