My heart is pounding against my little chest as I remember my past. It has been three years now since my sweetheart mom left my siblings and me. It seemed hard to live my life without her.
I was afraid that I would not go further in my studies since my older sister was far from us. There was nobody’s shoulder to cry on during that hard period. To me it was unusual to live without even a single parent. On the other hand I felt discouraged when I heard some of my friends discussing how their parents are and how they bring stuff whenever they go for a picnic or an outing. It was hard for me to reserve the pain and the problems I encountered. I stayed by myself and encouraged myself to face things no matter what they were.
I woke up early in the morning and prepared myself and my little brother for school. We would sometimes go without taking our breakfast whenever it was not there. Since we attended a public school, everyone was supposed to bring his/her lunch. The lunch hour we stayed hungry in the sun watching other pupils as they swallowed their food and drinks. The only thing we had was a bottle of water. We would drink and proceed to class.
The amazing thing was that in class I was ever attentive while other pupils dozed due to their fullness. In the evening, when the classes were over I would rush home to do the chores. I would always finish the chores so late in the night that sometimes I would not do my homework. I believe in God and prayed hard to relieve my burden. After a few months I started performing well in my studies. This also happened to my brother as well. The other pupils now started realizing that although we were orphans, we could make it. We made friends and the loneliness tended to disappear. My teachers encouraged me to be even more hardworking than I was. After a few weeks I recognized that I was not alone. Not only with my friends, but many people wanted to be associated with me.
Once I did not attend school for about three days due to more work that I had to do at home. When I went to school one of the teachers who was a young lady called me aside and asked me what had happened to me and why did I not attend to school. Since I was unfamiliar with talking to older people, I did not utter any word to her. She was so worried that it may be a bad thing that had happened to me since I did not respond. She did not stop approaching me until one day she told me about her story and how she lived. I found that she had passed difficulties even worse than mine. The worst thing is that her mom and father had passed away when she was in high school and she had to drop out of school due to lack of money and also her brother dropped out of university due to the same problem. She stayed home for about two years when a good Samaritan came to her and she was taken back to school and that’s when she was able to achieve her goals of being a teacher as well as a counselor. The important thing I learned from her is that everybody has problem and has to pass through so many. And also she inspired me to work hard so as to achieve my goals.
