Feel Blessed for What You're Not Blessed With

It takes courage to grow up and become

who you really are ~E.E. Cummings

I woke up early this morning to do some errands. I've been doing this for a couple of weeks now, taking long trips from Papa's place to Camp Crame to do the papers for the family business back at Cebu. Last night I've been drinking too much Heineken and despite the slurry speech and shaking knees I still managed to wake up at 4am and do all these tasks.

See, we pay almost half a million Pesos every year just to renew our business' License. Knowing the current status of this industry and having been able to work with all the billings and payrolls myself, I sometimes doubt if we have really managed to break even.

I need to take a long 45-minute walk to be at Recto's station at 7:00am. There are jeepneys, kuligligs and tri-cycles, but I prefer to do the long walk. It takes almost an hour before a jeepney would leave its favorite loading station and it would cost me 40 pesos to get to the LRT station in 15 minutes with the kuligligs. Pretty fast, but not worth my PHP40.00.

My friends would complain about me being cheap and frugal. Yes we own a 20-year-old business, in fact I have somehow assisted my sole-proprietor mom to manage some parts of it. I've known some who are sons and daughters of ordinary employees who own those gadgets that I can afford yet won't buy for myself.

If I were fashionable, I won't be taking that long walk. If I own expensive gadgets, I don't think I would take a risk drinking barako drinks at Barako Bars. If my parents weren't cheap, I don't think they would allow me to do all these errands. If I was one of the really fortunate, then I don't think I'd be the person that I am now. I don't think I'd learn something out of life.

I always think that trying to look good limits my life.

I can afford signature clothing, but will I be confident enough to mix with the average crowd without getting noticed? Will I be able to eat at pungko-pungko stalls without looking so awkward? That's the point. Sometimes you have to feel blessed because you aren't blessed with things that some people consider essential in life.

Some people might be deliciously sexy but they haven't experienced life to its fullest. If I did not dropout my college subjects, I wouldn't be this mature. If I wasn't left by my real mom when I was an infant, I wouldn't meet the less fortunate crowd and learn from them. If me and my ex went on until now, then it would have taken long before we realize the value of time we both have wasted. If I was so rich I could buy a soul, I wouldn't have learned how to appreciate and be satisfied.

See, I can afford things but I don't buy them just because I can. I'm blessed. Too blessed that God did not allow me to touch the things that only the billionaires can touch; to experience drinking the most expensive beverage with a Golden Cup and be vain for life.

Think about it. Misfortunes were placed perfectly in order to give you the character you have now. Shouldn't you be thankful enough? :)