The following is the most personal public post I have ever written. It is a story I hold dear in my heart, something I do not tell even my closest friends. I have been reserving it for until I was successful in order to inspire people. Despite the fact that I still am not, I’ve decided to finally keep it on record because lately, I have almost irreversibly lost my vision and purpose. Hopefully, this will be something to look back to, a reminder of why I chose to run this race. Hopefully, this may somehow inspire you also.
My mother cooks and washes the dishes for underweight elementary school kids. It’s the same elementary school I went to. Weekly, she gets a meager salary in 5-peso denominations from the proceeds of canteen earnings. She has been working there for the past 14 years. However, due to a change in our city administration last 2010, she was removed from the government payroll and is jobless by paper.
Last 2006 she had spinal chord surgery and has since then lost the ability to stand up straight and walk normally. Whenever she washes the dishes, she has to put her upper-body weight upon her two elbows. Whenever she cooks, she almost always gets burnt because she has to lean on the stove.
My father drives for the House of Representatives particularly for a prominent family up North. He works 12-14 hours a day, 6 1/2 days a week. Although he has been working for such family for more than 2 decades, he gets a salary lower than that of entry-level college graduates. He was a former OCW and a former soldier from Camp Crame who went on AWOL to settle down.
My parents are smart and hardworking people who never had the educational and financial opportunities, but have somehow, managed to create the best of opportunities for their only daughter.
My deepest grief is that I might have been becoming a monster of an ingrate for the reason that I desire something far different from that which I have unconsciously prepared for, that which is clearly what’s best for me.
Here’s to hoping these thoughts would sustain me for the next 1 year and 8 months. In the meantime, I shall be opening more books.
2:41 am
February 18, 2012