Dreaming Under A Roof Full of Holes

He still must wear a graduation cap, clutch his degree, he was waiting for, a wait of four long years, filled with merciless struggle for good grades and paying tuition fees. All the struggle was for embarking on a journey to crack the toughest exam in the country. But cruel twists of fate begin.

When ruthless problems of life stormed the life of Leslie, a young boy with a fire of hope in his eyes, dreams buried deep in the chest. Dreams that have yet to be realised. He just completed his final year examinations, waiting for his degree, as a magical token for realising his dreams. But the real world has other plans, and the truth was nothing like the dreams.

When Leslie walked into the life beyond campus (graduated), the brutal realities and merciless struggles of life were waiting at the door. When he arrived home, what he saw was totally opposite to what he imagined. Household turmoil and cracks behind closed doors welcomed him. That was the first time, his hopes trembled and his bright eyes flickered.

Leslie, haunted by the urge to stop, take a break and then stepping into the future he dared to dream, could he really afford to stop, even for a moment? For three long years, his father hadn’t left the bed—paralysis had turned motion into memory.

How painful it would be for Leslie seeing his hero pinned to the bed by a weight-no one else could see or feel, a hero to shield him from a world that showed no mercy, offering shade to his little Leslie, when life burned too hot to bear.

Leslie has a mother, isn’t he lucky to have a mother. But unfortunately, she is a living corpse, alive in body, dead in spirit. She is living a life like an existence lost in fog, where nothing like happiness stayed still for long, while the echoes of sadness clung to every corner that never fade.

Leslie’s family are living in a rent house; as each rent receipts a reminder that permanence (home) was just a stranger’s promise.

Buried beneath the crushing weight of endless darkness, where light dared not to reach. But what if light does not dare to reach, the just graduated fragile light (Leslie) dared to become light himself and light his darkened world forever.

It was soul-draining to see this fragile light burn through the darkness and heat for eleven long months without a pause…

Stumbled, bled, and rose again…he walked through the fire, the world didn’t see, just to stand where his dream begins to breath…

He held his silence, heavy, crushing, the kind that threatened to shatter him from the inside out if he dared not speak. Yet through it all, he never cursed his fate. He wore gratitude like armour and carried his pain without a sound.

Today is a glorious day in the life of Leslie, today his own made light arrived in the darkness where light dared not to reach. A light that's gentle but relentless, erasing every trace of darkness, as if it never existed before.

As the result of Leslie’s toughest exam in the country is out and he has been nominated for his dream job, a job once he dreamed of under a roof full of holes. The struggle of years paid its price. He built a home, a home of his own, a home he always dreamed of while walking to his rented house through the silent street where every other resident owns a house.

The fog of darkness and sadness disappeared, and smiles appeared everywhere. Every family member of Leslie starts doing what they always wished to do; their true-life journeys begin here.

What Leslie came to understand through the brutal odyssey of shattered hopes and silent endurance was that life never offers the perfect moment to begin, begin doing something. The undeniable truth is you must start and continue without a pause. Nothing is more valuable than health, if you are healthy, you can build dawn from the ruins of night through one relentless step at a time.

This is how Leslie dreamed under a roof full of holes (troubles, struggles, sadness and turmoil) and transformed his world into a happy and peaceful world. Would you dare?