Entry: 5

Date:unknown

“ A man travels the world in search of what he needs and returns home to find it”. Discuss this with reference to Si Tenggang’s Homecoming”.

Travel and journey are two very good teachers to gain knowledge. They can teach human anything not just theoretically but practically. With experience, human learns mistakes and take advantages from it. Sometimes there are people who travels around thinking that they know what they are looking for but end up unsure when they have it. Or worse, they sometimes thought they cannot find the thing that they are looking but when they look back, they know they just missed it.

Tenggang is a lucky man. Not everyone who travels out of their hometown coming back satisfied and proud with what they have. In my opinion, the statement cannot be related to this Tenggang because he had came home with what he gained and found during his journey. He had gained so much that his brothers who chose to stay have less than him, in terms of material and also maturity.

Maybe this (the statement) had happened to someone else, or was referring to some other version of Si Tenggang, but not to this one. This version of Si Tenggang had gained a lot, seen so much than just his own land and had gone through a lot hardship in life. Maybe he didn’t find what he seek in foreign places and came back to find it at home, but from the poem, he seems contented, accomplished and happy enough with what he brought back to his hometown.

He tried to stress that he still is the same person before he went away, but also said that he had found himself during the journey. So it can be for two reasons. First, he gained experience and along that he found himself, or, second, during his travel he found out, the real him is the one from the hometown, that does not need any changes upon to be better.

If it was me, I would like to travel too. I always said to my mom how much I want to see what other countries look like. I want to know how to feel the real snow (not the fake one in Genting Theme park) in my own hand, to hold beautiful tulips that I’ve seen my friend who studied in Russia took picture of, how does it feels to actually be there, to feel the four seasons changing…but then, when my friends came back for summer holiday, they always tell me, they like Malaysia more than the snowy dirt places and sometimes when they gets too used to eat fish and chips, they cannot smell real fish anymore…honestly, they made me wondered more…