Their Story...

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A couple of days ago, my flatmate got the shock of her life when her parents told her they'd be visiting her, out of the blue. She was supposed to go to Dubai for the weekend to have some fun with her friends when all of a sudden, boom! Her parents got a ticket to Doha, arriving today. She was so mad and shaky with anxiety upon hearing the news, and I can't help but wonder how can one person be so uptight about having her parents visit? Then I figure maybe they're not as close to each other as I am with my family. My mom got pregnant at age 22, and had to marry my dad because of that. It was 1982, and a year later, I was born. A year after that came my sister, and another sister, and a brother. Overall, my mom had four kids before she turned 28. It was tough. Both of them had just finished university, and although they both had jobs, the most affordable place for us to live was in the suburbs, a good two and a half hour commute from their current jobs in the city. There was a point in time that my dad had to spend every other night sleeping on a cot in the lobby of Company B, for whom he secretly audited while being employed in Company A, which, for a CPA, was clearly not allowed. He had to do these to make ends meet, and as he said to me, I had no idea how much he missed my mom during those days. It was great, living a comfortable life, although not seeing much of my dad growing up, and my mom only being home with us for about three hours a day (she had to work too and came home at around 7pm, while we had to go to bed by 10pm for school the next day). In the end it all went well, all their hard work and struggle put all four of us through university (my youngest siblings are graduating this year), and all of us went to prestigious universities in Manila. Thinking about this story makes me realize that even though there are times when they irritate me so much by thinking they know all there is to know about how I should live my life, etc (typical teen angst), deep down inside me I know that I'd always be very proud of my parents. Whatever they do, no matter how much they fight or annoy us kids. Just wanted to share this with you guys, maybe it'll be an inspiration to some of you, as it was, and still is, for me. Have a pleasant day, everyone!