The gift

I wrote my dad a card with a sum of money attached to it. I can't exactly remember everything I wrote, but it went something along these lines:

"Dad, hope you'll forgive this small amount of help I could give. It's a far cry from the $1000 US some other son sends his family monthly. I wasn't fortunate enough to have the same opportunity as them. Had that been the case, I would have probably been away from you as well, toiling just to be able to put BETTER food on the table. But the good thing is - we are already enjoying something that they still have to grow old and gray to be enjoying."

I think I needed to say that since I was really picking a good time to tell him that I was really getting pissed off at being compared to my other batchmates who are rich or have migrated to other countries. Truly it makes me curse my being born in this country. However I realize that no matter how much you try to be change your identity when you're a foreigner in another country - you will and always will be - a native of your own country.

For example:
"So if you're chinese, it doesn't matter if you're in the Philippines - you're still Chinese, and with it, every trait, every habit"

- You don't necessarily have to be in the most industrialized country to be this. No matter how high or far you go, you'll die one day, Your consolation is that more successful people in life will die more painfully, because they have much much more to lose. Be thankful for the gift of death. Like a famous CEO said - it is nature's cleansing agent.

- Having realized this early in life, it all comes down into being all you can be - within your means. Be thankful for the gift of realization.

- Most importantly - all you have to do to realize you're lucky - is to look at other's misfortune, then look back at your so-called misfortune. Everything will be much much easier. Be thankful for the gift of life.

God, no matter how crazy we think He is sometimes, still manages to make these gifts felt - not always in the way we expect, but in a way that we'll feel it.