2 - My Inspiration

My dad once told me that you can't buy true friends with happiness, well he was right, you really cant. I am beyond blessed to have everything I want, to be able to afford everything that I want. I mean like, what more can you ask for?

When my parents were young, they were really poor. My dad had 5 siblings and my mom had 4 siblings, and they were living an unwealthy life. My mom told me her allowance was only 5 pesos, and she had to travel from their house going to UST, but the most touching part is, despite her low allowance, she was still able to save money so she and my dad could go on a date, i know right my mom pays for their date cause dad had nothing to give. So basically when I went to college, I had to leave my dad in the province and study in manila and stay with my mom. We're a broken family now, by the way. It's really sad and I still cant get over it but that's life, you know. Moving on, me and my mom live in a condominium in Makati City, and I study all the way in manila. Every month I would go to my province and visit my dad, and he'd give me my allowance and extra money. Every time I would visit me, there would always be a father - daughter time. He would always tell, more like sermon, me about how his life was when he was a kid, it goes like this:

"You and your brother are very lucky, when I was a kid I never had this life that you have. I never had my own room, never had my own computer, never had television, never experienced an air conditioned house, never had everything that you have. When I was young, I really loved the tv show called "POPEYE THE SAILOR MAN" since we didn't have a TV, I would always go to my neighbors house and watch outside, I always did that for quite a while but when my neighbor saw me, he shut the windows and door so I couldn't watch and I cried so much because I really wanted to watch that cartoon. From then on I told myself that when I will have kids, I would never want them to experience this." it's a simple story but it made me cry a lot to find out that happened to my dad. he then added "When I was finally going to college, I wanted to be a lawyer, but we're too poor to afford it. There was also no colleges or universities in our province so I was forced to study in Manila. I took the cheapest course I could find, just to finish college. My life in Manila was really hard, every month my mother would give me P300 pesos a month, my dorm costs P200 pesos, so I only had P100 left and that was my allowance for the whole month. My dad was a farmer and my mom is only a house wife so we didn't earn much. My dad would always sell his cows just so I could finish. There was one time when I was in fourth year college and I only had 1 semester left to take before I could graduate, unfortunately, we had no more money. See how tragic that is? one more semester before I graduate but we had no more money left to give. I told my mom it was okay to stop, but she insisted for me to keep going on, my mom borrowed money from relatives, neighbors and to everyone that she knew. I was able to graduate and finish college, I worked as soon as I graduated because my family was in debt, we has so many debts to pay so I could finish college, what more with my 5 siblings? I never thought we would survive, but we did. I told myself that I never want to experience this, I dont want to be poor for the rest of my life. so I worked really hard to give you, my children and family, a life that you deserve, and you don't 



deserve that kind of life. So be thankful for everything that you have because this was all from hard work. I love you, your brother and your mom very much. Even though we're a broken family, I hope you will still appreciate the the things in life because we are blessed to have this life. I never want you to worry about money, all I want you to do is to study hard, never mind about me, I am always here for you and I'll be okay. I love you so much" so writing this is making me cry, my dad is my inspiration. And i love him to death, he gave everything that he could so me and my brother would have a beautiful life. I love you daddy, thank you for everything.