Lunchbox Happiness

I remember as a kid when I was living with an aunt, she prepared a lunchbox for me everyday so that I wouldn’t have to spend money on unhealthy canteen food. When I was around 9, I thought it was most uncool to bring a lunchbox because that meant you were “poor” and couldn’t “afford” the canteen food. I still let my Aunt prepare sandwiches for me, but I’d sell it to my classmate who thought I had really good sandwiches. I sold it to her for 50 cents apiece. Then, demand for my sandwiches grew, so I had to ask my Aunt to prepare more.

Why, she’d ask.

Because I get really hungry nowadays, I must be growing, I’d reply.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t increase supply without raising suspicion (there is only so much a 9- year-old girl could eat), and soon, I felt bad about taking advantage of my aunt’s kindness and stopped. The lunchbox habit also stopped, and I was very happy about that as that meant I could buy food from the Malay lady e.g. Nasi Lemak, Mee Rebus, Mee Siam; and buy Kickapoo or 100plus for $1.10 each, shake it till it’s all gas, open it in the garden and spray it on my friends.

I haven’t had a lunchbox ever since.

Today, I made a lunchbox for Kokopops, and I was really excited about it. I was excited at the thought of deciding what to include, individually wrapping the items, packing them into the box so that the layout would make sense, the food would stay fresh for as long as possible and the space be best utilized. As I watched Kokopops place the lunchbox into his bag like a school kid, it secretly made me happy and I imagined how it’d be like for him to open the box at lunch and hopefully enjoy every item that I had prepared. He told me a little while ago that he thoroughly enjoyed it, and successfully made his colleagues envious (so much so that one of his colleagues took a picture of it and sent it to his wife). I find that quite funny.

The items in the lunchbox for Kokopops  included:

- Cucumber sticks

- Carrot sticks

- Shaved ham

- Cheese

- Wholemeal Bread

- Yakult

- Cookies

- Kinder Bueno

- Green Apple

I can’t help think back to my childhood, when moms and my Aunt did so many things for me, with so much love in their hearts; which I had, no doubt, taken for granted as a child. Unfortunately, one of the contradictions in life, is hindsight. Fortunately, it’s not too late for me to reciprocate today for their generosity and kindness.

Lunchbox happiness. A box full of nutrition, love, good thoughts and positive energy (and a little secret message!).