THE THINGS MY MOM TAUGHT ME (Part 2 of 4) GRATITUDE. My mom was a working student, and so was my dad. Both worked hard to finish school. In college, both of them were working students at the College of Maasin. They would wake up earlier than the rest of the students, and go to bed later. They cleaned the campus, weeded gardens, organized school files and records, and did every other chore assigned to them. It was a hard life, and when my mom finally received her college diploma, you would expect her to be proud and say I did it on my own! Because she did, right? Nobody sent her to school. She worked her way through it. But I never heard her say that. Instead, whenever we talked about her college days, she would always say, Sus, kung dili pa tungod ni Dr. Espina, dili ko makahuman ug eskwela. [Trans: If not for Dr. Espina, I would never have gotten a degree.] That was a line she repeated over and over, with utmost gratitude and sincerity. This was how my mom saw it: when she went to the College of Maasin to enroll, she asked if she could be admitted as a working student. Allegedly, Dr. Espina, the owner of the school at that time, told her that the slots for working students were all filled up. There was no more room for one more. Allegedly, my mom hung her head and said, So that means I cannot go to school. Dr. Espina allegedly took pity on her and told her he would take her in, but only on HALF a scholarship. That was enough for her. Without thinking that it would have been near-impossible for her to find the money to pay for the other half of her tuition, she happily agreed and thanked her benefactor. The following day, probably after seeing how diligent my mom was with her chores, Dr. Espina called her back and said, Placida, full na lamang ka. [Trans: Placida, I am giving you a full scholarship.] To my mom, that was the core of everything. To her, without Dr. Espinas kindness and generosity, she would never have finished college. That is why she was eternally grateful even if it meant that she also had to work her ass off to keep the scholarship. I have seen many people go through their own life experiences, and I am surprised that when they talk about it, they talk as if NOONE was there to help them at all. They talk as if everything they have today was made and acquired by them soley by their own efforts. But noone is ever entirely alone. We live in a world where we interact with people, and if we are true to ourselves, we will admit that everybody that we interacted with contributed somehow to what we have become, in big ways or small. To say that we did everything all on our own, and that we owe noone for who we are today, is not only pride, but a delusion. My mother could have seen it differently. So what if Dr. Espina gave her a scholarship? It was not like she did not work for it. But no. Despite her difficult circumstances, my mother chose to see the good. She saw the blessing of the generosity instead of the curse of her poverty. Sometimes, I feel like I say THANK YOU too much. But I am not surprised. Thats just my mother talking. (To be continued....)
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 03:50:34 +0000
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