Parents.

My parents are pretty good driving forces in my life. They always taught me to earn everything, do things the right way, be respectful to others, and to work hard. They always keep me grounded whenever my head gets too high, always making me feel fortunate for my position in life, just by being an American born.

Just a while ago my father was talking about his upcoming trip to the Philippines, speaking about how my cousin is doing. He told me that he's 27 going on 28 years old, and has become a farmer. This is the same cousin I saw when I took a visit to the Philippines at 24 years old, aspiring to come overseas and try a life in the United States. It seems his fortunes has changed since then, and when I heard the news I thought of how he must've felt, trying to put his hopes on hold and swallow reality in front of him.

Actually, that feeling does feel like shit. But the big thing is to never give up hope, no matter how dark or bleak things seem. Time heals everything, and opens many doors. I dont give up hope on my cousin's dreams of coming to the US, I'll pray for it in the meantime.

My parents keep me down to earth and on the right track. They always raised me to be a better person. I will never admit that they are perfect, but the high character man that my father is, combined with my studious, imaginative mother make a good team. And from personal experience they are far from the most harmonious marriage, but looking at the grander scale I think its obvious they are a good match, whether it was known to them or not at the time they got married. They make me the person I am today, and they always motivate me to be the best person I can be and to study as hard as I can.

It's kind of funny, saying all of this high praise about how good my parents are at being "parents". If you asked me at ages 10-16, I would probably have said otherwise. And looking back at it all, it's not like they worked wonders on me, or ever seemed like they were putting an emphasis on parent skills. I just think its a combination of me coming of age and understanding where they are coming from, and also just knowing that parenting is not about how much you force your kid, its more about just focusing about setting the best examples and values for your kid. Because in all actuality, that's all you can do as a parent, and hope that they realize things one day.

Kind of like what happened with me. =]



PS. I think this entry sparks new thought in future blog entries, such as how everything in life "depends", and other stuff