Crashing Down Before Taking Off

How about having your big dreams screwed up even before you started it, must be terrible and heart breaking. But what could be worst? It’s when you almost had it all and suddenly it vanished and taken away without any warnings. Life is really full of unexpected. Sometimes, the grandest of plan or ambition would be gone in a snap of finger or sometimes, in gradual more painful kind of ordeal. Either way, it’s a sad ending after all. In events like these, the least we could do is to be optimistic and believes nothing happens for no reasons and that God’s plan is always the best and perfectly timed.

It might be the height of disappointment and frustrations, just when you thought that it’s going to be there, she’s going to be there, you’re going to be there, and unfortunately it wouldn’t be realized anymore or at least at the moment. Gone! The excitement, the anticipation, the hope, the future, what we’ve founded in years, the eagerness that we’ve accumulated, has crashed down to our feet all at once.

Atlantis: Lost, Found and Almost Lost
The Lost City of Atlantis, according to Plato’s account, is an ancient, now-submerged, highly evolved civilization which had ships and aircraft powered by a mysterious form of energy crystal. It was believed to have existed 9,600 years B.C. and after a failed attempt to invade Athens, Atlantis sank into the ocean in a single day and night of misfortune. Nobody really knows whether the account of Atlantis is based on facts or fiction, but who cares. Come September 24, 2008, where there was nothing but sea five years ago, a three-mile-long island with fronds radiating from the centre and right at the crest, in prime position, the 395 feet towers of the Dubai Atlantis Hotel emerge slowly through the heat haze.

It was touted to be the emirate's most extravagant hotel to date, built at a cost of 750 million pounds. It covers an area of 114 acres or roughly the size of 64 Wembley football pitches and features 1,539 rooms with prices starting at £228 per night for a standard double and rising to £15,000 for the Bridge Suite. It also boasts a tremendous volume of water, 60 million liters, including the rides and aquariums – enough to fill 24 Olympic-size pools. Its resort facilities brag 8 rides, including the 1½ mile river ride. It has 17 restaurants, three from Michelin-starred chefs and lastly a marine park boasting of a 65,000 specimens of aquatic animals, twice as many as the London Aquarium.

But even before the public take a glimpse of Dubai’s newest superlative offering, a mega resort based on the Lost City of Atlantis, a fire broke out in the lobby of the mammoth Dubai Atlantis Hotel. Glad the fire was contained early so that no further damage was sustained by the hotel aside from the damage in the lobby’s exterior ceiling. Management guarantees that the hotel will open as scheduled.

The Essence of a Woman
The origin of a child is a woman...”, that statement of Miss India Sushmita Sen warranted her Miss Universe crown in 1994. It was her eloquent response when asked what for her the essence of being a woman was. Truly it was applaud able, a restatement of an undeniable fact that we all came from our mothers, after feeding and developing inside her womb for nine months. During that period, she took full care of herself knowing someone else, a young life, was depending on her for everything. For nine months, she carried us through her every where, her every time and through all her emotions. At some point, she abandoned her job so that she could prepare herself well for our imminent dawn outside her womb. Then her most painful shrieks marked the instant we breathed on our own, as a life separate from her. It was probably the most blissful moment of her life. Seeing her newborn see the world.


Unfortunately, not all pregnancies will come to fruition. In some cases, pregnancies will have to be halted if will jeopardize the life of the mother for some health reasons. A discontinued pregnancy resulting from miscarriage is one big frustration to absorb especially if the cause is due to some carelessness or accident. Not all women are blessed with the opportunity to bear a child, depending on age and health conditions. So if chances for conception come and those chances are wasted without any justifiable reasons, it becomes a heart wrenching grief for parents and sometimes requiring the couple, especially the mother to even go through some psychological and counseling programs. Giving birth is not just about meeting expectations but looking forward to something that completes a man and a woman. To lose it by any way unnecessary, is something I hope, never happens to anyone.

Beloved
Losing a loved one is probably one of the most painful ordeals one has to go through. What makes it more excruciating is when we have almost bonded with that person like we are one. But what if the person who’s supposed to promise you to stay with you through thick and thin, through joys and hardships was taken away from you even before he has made the promise to do so, would you feel sorry or rather be thankful? Sorry because you won’t be able to start a life together just as you have envisioned or thankful that he was gone even before you have invested more profound emotions, at which point the pain and sorrow is much deeper and lasting.

I have an officemate before and she had a boyfriend for years. After the guy graduated from college, they planned of settling down. But just when they thought they were heading to a blissful life together, with promising careers ahead, the guy was diagnosed with cancer. He had undergone medical treatment but to no avail. Months after the diagnosis, the guy gave up to the big C. It was a heartbreaking event for my friend and I believe to everyone who knew what they had gone through. It is just so sad to know that sometimes ill fate comes to those who are good and loving. There are so many bad guys out there who roam freely in all their glory and they are not even seem to be punished for their committed crimes. Then this young soul who could have offered so much for this rotten society was taken away without any just and visible cause. Not only that it is unfair, but to my friend who had lost almost half her life in loving him, it just came too drastic and too soon.

Graduation
I was watching news last night via TFC, a high school graduating student was killed in a frat initiation ceremony. His body was found lifeless in an abandoned area, together with his family’s hope and dream that someday he would salvage his family from the poverty they are in. Many cases of unjust and untimely demise have swept people who almost had it, those graduating from studies, those getting ready to marry, those preparing for their first job, those who are going abroad and many others.

Either by accident or intentional causes, the drama in abruptly losing someone you are counting on is like a little bird learning to take flight and suddenly was cut off his wings and died. Things like these solicit so much from questioning minds and wishful thinkers. Why does this need to happen right to them right now and if only I could turn back the hands of time. Just when things are going slowly towards success, suddenly it’s would never get done.

From Gold to Gone
August 18, 2008, It was a heartbreaking moment for over 90,000 Chinese spectators in the Bird’s Nest. Liu Xiang, the first Chinese man to win an Olympic track and field gold medal in Athens in 2004 was again back on track and billions of avid Chinese were eager to witness Liu Xiang bring the country more honor at the Olympic Games. It’s the moment Liu Xiang and the entire nation of China have looked forward for years.

But even before he got into his starting position, a painful expression in his face had raised an ominous feeling. His next move shocked the huge crowd at the stadium into silence as he tore the paper with his number off his leg and walked gingerly towards the tunnel, he dropped out of the race after a severe right foot injury, leaving the Summer Games' host country without one of its biggest stars — and far and away its biggest star in track and field. Though initial reactions of the Chinese were swift and supportive, many were still disappointed because the olympic chances four years in the making had just been wasted by excessive pressure and training.