Sweet and Sour

 I always wonder who on earth made those sweet and sour sweets that so many people i know like. Well guaranteed, I see how that tingling feeling you get when they start to melt in your mouth can be fascinating to some people but I can’t help wondering what is the point of making them sour when they r going to be sweet anyway, like seriously, can’t we have sour sweets separately? But i guess there would be no fun in that right? I admit i am one person who often sees things in black and white. I mean, you either like that girl or not ? You either like playing tennis or you don’t? However, over the years I have come to the realization that this view is rather narrow minded and in practice not realistic though it might be strictly applicable to other situations.

Personally I can relate to many of these sweet and sour moments. Going back to school at any age was one such time for me. Since I was in boarding school for the greater part of my school going phase, going back to school meant getting lots of snacks, cereals, lollipops and other things all at once. It also meant getting new stockings, shoes etc, definitely sweet if you ask me. The sour part undeniably was saying goodbye to family members and friends for a good three to four months. Another example is each time I travel the 7 hour journey, usually overnight, to visit my boyfriend. I dread the journey as much as the next person but it’s definitely a sweet moment when I get there to find him waiting, smiling from ear to ear and knowing that it was worth it, the sour moment returns without fail when I get back on that bus to head back.  To other people I guess it translates to bigger things in life such as accidentally getting pregnant when you and your spouse are not ready for a baby, yet overjoyed at the prospect of being parents. Feeling blessed to have a job at a time when unemployment is rife but hating the sound of the alarm each time you have to wake you up to prepare to go there. That awesome moment when you get together with your whole family before the fights and grudges start to surface again. In the end they are all just sweet and sour moments.

I say this because often times life is full of sweet and sour experiences and much as we would prefer to have only the sweet there is no escaping the reality that comes with the sour experiences accompanied with them and similar to those sweet and sour sweets aforementioned the sour parts are often short lived leaving us to enjoy the sweetness of life. From experience, the sour parts normally feel longer than you expect and seem to go on forever. Sometimes however, the sour parts are dominant because we choose to focus more on them meanwhile missing all the good stuff.  If however this is not the case, well, hang on because like one unknown author once said, “Everything will be alright in the end, if it’s not alright then it’s not the end.” Right?