I woke up this morning feeling awful. My head was pounding so hard I could barely open my eyes, and all I wanted was to stay in bed and forget the world existed. But of course, reality doesn’t work that way. At 9 AM, I had an online class, and by 2 PM, I had to be on campus for a Student Council meeting. As the secretary of the event committee, I was responsible for keeping things on track. So I pushed myself through the day, dragging my body along with that awful headache.
When the meeting finally ended around 4 PM, I was done. My body was tired, my head still spinning, and then my stomach reminded me that I hadn’t eaten anything. Not a single proper meal. I stopped by a minimarket, grabbed some medicine, bread, and milk, and started walking home. On the way, I ate the bread and drank the milk, just trying to keep myself alive. When I was done, I held onto the empty wrappers. I thought, “I’ll throw this away once I find a trash bin.” Simple, right? But apparently, even that small thing is too much for some people.
Near Azra Hospital Bogor, I spotted a street vendor with a cart. He had a trash bag hanging there, so I walked up and asked politely if I could throw my wrappers in. What he said next completely ruined my mood. With the most casual smile, he pointed to the drainage canal next to him and said, “Just throw it in the water. We all do it here.”
I swear, I felt my blood pressure skyrocket. Without even thinking, I snapped back, “You can't just do that, You'll destroy the environment! What’s wrong with you?” I wasn’t only just annoyed but I was disgusted too. He had his own trash bag, right there, yet he told me to dump it into the canal. That kind of carelessness makes me sick.
I'm so damn sure people like him will be the first to complain when floods happen. They’ll blame the government, they’ll act like victims, they’ll cry about how unfair life is. But let’s be real, how can you scream about being neglected when you’re literally choking your own city with trash? You want sympathy? Earn it. Respect the environment you live in.
I suddenly remembered Pak Ahok, back when he was the governor of Jakarta, clearing vendors off the sidewalks. People hated him for it, called him cruel, heartless. But today, I get it. Sidewalks are for walking, not for stalls, not for garbage. Sometimes tough love is the only way to wake people up from their ignorance.
The truth is, this isn’t just about one vendor, one canal, or even one city. It’s about the mindset we’ve allowed to grow. The idea that “a little trash doesn’t matter”, that’s a freaking poison. That’s the reason our rivers stink, our streets flood, and our kids grow up thinking this is normal. It’s not normal. It’s pathetic. I don’t care if you only finished elementary school or you have ten degrees on the wall, you don’t need education to know that throwing trash into the water is wrong. In this case, what we lack isn’t intelligence. It’s awareness. It’s empathy. It’s basic common sense. And the worst part is, if we keep treating this planet like a trash can, it’s not just “the environment” that will suffer, it’s all of us.
So yeah, today started with a headache. But by the end of the day, I realized the bigger headache isn’t the one pounding in my skull, it’s the one caused by people who still don’t give a damn about the world we live in.
