PULANG SEKOLAH

Going home from school

Kemaren aku pulang kantor naik bis. Bis impian pasti. Sebelahku seorang gadis kecil, umurnya sekitar 10 tahunan. Kayanya pulang sekolah. Baju batiknya bertulis SD ISLAM SULTAN AGUNG. Waktu aku baru naik dia sedang membaca buku IPA. Sekarang lagi musim tes. Anakku juga lagi tes midsemester.
Yesterday I went home by bus, my dream bus of course. Sat next to me a girl around 10 years old. It seemed like she was going home from school. I could read what was written on her batik shirt: SD ISLAM SULTAN AGUNG. When I got in the bus, she was reading science book. This is exam season. My daughter is having mid semester test too.
Tidak lama dia ketiduran, bukunya terjatuh dari tangganya, dia tergagap lalu menutup dan meletakkan bukunya, lalu tidur beneran. Kayanya capek baget... Setelah perjalanan separo lebih aku pengin bangunin, takutnya dia kebablasan. Tapi gak tega, tidurnya enak banget. Untungnya dia sudah bangun sendiri sesaat sebelum dia sampai di halte tempat dia harus turun.
Not so long, she fell asleep. Her book fell. She hawed and put her book in her bag, and continued sleeping. Sleeping so sound. After few minutes, I wanted to wake her up, just to remind her where she would stop, but I couldn’t, she slept too sound. Alhamdulillah she woke up just few seconds before the bus stop she had to drop.
Jadi inget diriku jaman dulu. Waktu SD, aku berangkat dan pulang sekolah jalan kaki, sekitar 2 km. Setelah SMP - SMA naik bis. Sekarang, aku gak tahu apa aku tega nyuruh anakku berangkat dan pulang sekolah sendiri naik kendaraan umum. Kalau harus nyeberang jalan ngeri, lalu lintas gila-gilaan. Jadi anak-anak tak titipin mobil antar jemput sekolah. Insya Allah aman. Mungkin nanti kalau mereka sudah agak besar... biar pada naik angkutan...
She reminded me of how I was. When in Elementary School, I went school on foot, walked about 2 km. In high school I went by bus. Now I don’t know if I can tell my children to go to school that way. Traffic’s just too crazy; they have to walk across a crowded road. So I let them go and home with school car that pick them up every morning and drive them home in the afternoon. Insya Allah they will be safe. May be later, when they grow a little bigger, I’ll let them go by bus...