LOVES DAISIES

So I was reading this article on the NY Times this morning and I don't know if my parents were aware that telling me and my sisters stories of our family's roots, trials and victories would equip us to handle challenges more effectively but you know what, I'd like to say it worked.

"The bottom line: if you want a happier family, create, refine and retell the story of your family’s positive moments and your ability to bounce back from the difficult ones. That act alone may increase the odds that your family will thrive for many generations to come."

Now that I'm a parent, I have challenges of my own and I find myself being inspired by how my Lola would wake up early everyday to either go to Baclaran or go from office to office to sell her Baclaran finds just to earn money.  Or how my lolo grew his fleet of jeepneys. Or how my mom managed to work 2 positions (she had a full-time job and a business) for how many years.  Or how my dad had to sell the Rolex my Angkong gave him because we really needed the money.

Papa, being the funny guy, always told us the good stories, the stories of how he was like as a kid, how he and Mama met, where they went on their first date, how Mama was like when she was younger. My mom, on the other hand, was the storyteller of our hardships and what they had to do to go around it. I was the eldest and my mom always kept me abreast with the good, the bad and the ugly.  This was something I didn't appreciate very much when I was younger because like any teenager, I just wanted to have fun. But now that I think about it, I learned so much from them.

We grew up with a family driver but my parents forced me to learn how to commute in highschool.  Every summer, my mom would make me go with our store clerk to our boutique in Greenhills (commute again!) and make me stay there the entire day to help man the store and sell clothes.  My sisters and my cousins (who lived with us then) would take turns washing dishes every night. Papa would also bring me to different restaurants, from the fanciest to the hole-in-the-wall-carinderia type. Later on, he would explain that they want to make sure that no matter what happens in the future, we will survive.  And the reason why they have given us a taste of expensive cuisine, nice vacations and luxurious things is so that we can decide what kind of lifestyle we want to live and how hard we should work to maintain it.  Most importantly, they wanted us to simply be happy and appreciative of our life, whether we end up commuting everyday or living in a mansion.

My parents weren't perfect and we didn't exactly have a picturesque family life but I am utterly grateful that they have raised me and my sisters to be so grounded. And of course, I'll be raising Joaquin the same way.