Jaded Optimism

Optimism.

A friend of mine mentioned the other day that I was fairly optimistic about the future. I quipped back that it was because I was still young. I could use this excuse because he was a family man and several years older than me. However, the truth is that my optimism does not come from my youthful exuberance, but rather my grim outlook on life.

When I was 19, I was told by someone many years older, that I was too jaded with life and that at 19, I should not be jaded at all. The truth is that I have been jaded with life, since a very young age and I am optimistic, because I am jaded. When I see things, I tend to see the worst possible outcome of any scenario. After seeing the worst possible outcome, every other possibility becomes a much better prospect.

However, convincing oneself that a better scenario will ultimately emerge over the worst possible outcome, is quite another matter altogether.

Anyway, enough of the morbid talk.

I had recently gone to a very modern kopitiam in KL called Oldtown Whitecoffee, which should be familiar to people from Ipoh. It is an odd establishment. It is styled and priced like an up-market coffee place, sells low-end food and beverages, and is frequented by the kind of people that you would find at any mamak stall at 4am in the morning.

We had a mixed coffee (i.e. neslo), enhanced chocolate (i.e milo kau) and two slices of butter and kaya toast for a whopping RM12! That’s a whopping RM6 for what is essentially two slices of bread and water each. My friend decided to pick up the tab, which was awfully nice of him. It was surprisingly packed, even at 4am in the morning.

Too bad I did not have my camera with me at the time.