I wasn’t going to tell you the story of my friend with the tattoos until much later. But, the other day, White and two of his friends were beaten up by twenty students from a rival technical college. Luckily, some policemen came by and stopped the fight before any bones were broken. But still, one of them was unconscious because he had been kicked in the throat.

That made me think about the tattoo story I wrote last week. White had told me that the tattoos he had on his body protected him from being hurt. It shows me now that the tattoo thing is not 100 percent foolproof and it doesn’t have any supernatural powers. But, most technical students who have tattoos still think that they can help them from being seriously injured.

Myself, I don’t really believe much in this kind of thing. I believe in karma. If you do good, you receive good. If you do bad, you receive bad. Whatever happens is the result, or consequence, of something you did before. I understand this much better now which is why I don’t fight as much as I did in the past.

Technical students treat fighting as a part of their life. It is like some kind of tradition that is passed on from the older students. I don’t think anyone knows when and why this tradition started. Really, they don’t care about whether you are a good or bad guy. If you come from a school that is listed as the enemy, then they will fight you. In Paknam market, there are often fights near the bus stop.

I did talk to White about this and I think I understand a little why he fights so much. At school he was just an average student. He didn’t shine in the class and the teachers treated him as invisible. No teenagers want to be treated like that. The only students that get noticed by the teachers are the grade A students and the students that make trouble. So, if they cannot get good grades, the only way they can get noticed is by fighting!

Really, I was shocked when I first heard that White was beaten up the other day. Usually it is the other way round. When it comes to fighting, he is a crazy monster fighter. None of us would dare to mess with him. I feel sorry for him that he got hurt so much, but I cannot really do anything to help him with what happened.

If this was last year, I would be joining my friends tonight to pay back for this attack. I would be sharpening my long knife now and discussing with my friends where and when we would attack them. But, things are different for me now. I no longer have the long knife and things like this don’t seem to be so important. I am now more concerned about which is the best brand of pampers to buy and finding out why my baby doesn’t like breast feeding.

I am not saying I don’t understand or never get into trouble any more. I still do bad things but not so often. I think the difference is that I now understand about consequences of my actions. Fighting and stealing are only short term answers to problems. It is like my friends are trapped in this kind of life. Everything they do just makes things worse. It will just continue like this for them until they either end up in prison or dead.

I wish I could help my friends but really sometimes you have to find your own path and purpose in life. Maybe one day in the future, if I am ever rich and famous, I will use my power to create jobs for teenagers. I will also set up youth clubs and basketball courts so that there are healthy activities for them to do in their free time. Maybe this is just a dream, but I think someone should do something.