before heading to Canada.THE MODERN HIDALGO: Entry_033
Written: Thursday. August 22, 2019.
Now I know I didn’t write anything yesterday for the journal, but I kind of thought that I’m not really obligated to write in this journal everyday anymore, because it’s not really a “daily” journal anymore. It’s more of just a “journal” now.
But there’s a perfectly good reason as to why I felt like not writing anything yesterday.
We were at my grand-folks from the mother side of the family’s house, in Tondo. One of my Uncles was about to migrate to Canada. Migrating meant that they were going to live there now. Buy a house, establish a home, learn a different language, a different culture, discover other parts of the world, the kids would grow up, they would enroll in the schools available in town, and then go back to the Philippines every time there’s a special holiday.
This is something, especially when it comes to Filipinos, that is a very important milestone to reach in one’s career.
We Filipinos have a culture of wanting to go to other countries in order to work there for our relatives left in the Philippines. Since the country itself isn’t an ideal place to rack up some greens in order to build a future (just stating a fact here), us Pinoys have to look for outside jobs. Even if it means not living in the same roof with your family.
This is a recurring thing to Filipino families. If you want to reach a level of stability, then one of your parents has to go and work in other countries.
Well, there are some cases, and by that I mean jobs, that provide a decent amount of money for work. But that’s rare to even consider these days, since it takes up a whole lot of time just to graduate from a course like engineering, or law, or med school, or architecture, or whatever else.
Not just because of the amount of years students have to spend studying, but the uncertainty of even passing the course as well. Most of the time, students don’t even get to finish college, and go straight into a family business.
Here in the Philippines, that’s a more reliable source of income, rather than having a stable job in the country, where they pay you with just mere transportation and food allowance, and not a lot of money for other stuff.
My uncle was a diamond among chunks of coal. Not saying that my mother didn’t also end up being that way with us, her own family, but when it comes to my uncle, he was really pushed to face the hardships of life at his younger years. He didn’t finish college until like 11 years, if I got that correctly from the stories my mother tells me.
All I know is that he was about 30 or so, when he graduated. But even then, he was already experiencing having to work a part-time job in several places. Jobs that required specific sets of skills blue-collared workers had to have.
He acquired all of these skills because he had no other choice at the time, because my mother’s family came from humble beginnings. That’s just a polite way of saying that their parents were poor. So they were poor, and had to really compensate for a lot of things on their own.
Not saying that their financial status is beneath those that earn a lot more, and could spend a lot more. No.
They were still able to work things out, and are still able to maintain a happy lifestyle. It’s like playing a game on Hard mode, but they’re loving it anyway, since they acquire all of these experiences a normal life wouldn’t ever provide.
So going back to yesterday, we had spent the afternoon, until dinner time, celebrating my uncle’s last days in the country.
It’s weird to actually say goodbye yesterday, because it’s not really goodbye. They were gonna go back and visit in the holidays anyway. But still, it was sort of melancholic to see them off.
This uncle of mine is one relative that is closest to me and to my brother. He is a very funny uncle. Showing us cheap magic tricks that, at the time, blew our minds because we didn’t really know better yet, cause we were kids. He gave me my first instrument, an acoustic guitar. Sadly, I don’t play with it anymore, cause it’s old and was ill-treated.
He was always the optimistic, playful uncle we would get to enjoy spending time with on family reunions. He was the youngest of their bunch, maybe that’s why he was the one who could relate closest to us kids.
A few years ago, he got married, had some kids of his own. Now, from the lone young dude he was when I had first met him, he is now this very well established man, with a family he’s taking care of, while still able to provide to his relatives. His older brothers look up to him now.
There was this one thing my other uncle had said, when he was the topic at hand. This other uncle of mine had said to his kids, “What life do you want to have when you grow up? My life, your other uncle’s life, or this other uncle of yours’s life, or your Tito Eugene’s life?”. Eugene was the name of that favorite uncle of mine.
The other three uncles that were being mentioned didn’t really end up having well-balanced lives. That’s why what that uncle of mine had said really stuck with me. Cause the message was very clear.
Tito Eugene was able to escape where he came from, metaphorically speaking, or course. But also literal, since he’s going to another country and all, I just realized…
He was able to achieve getting a good life. That’s why people, even my mother, look up to him. Cause he was able to do it, unlike how they weren’t able to do it.
And, in all honesty, I got busy fiddling with the new camera set my Uncle Eugene had passed on to me last night, that’s why I didn’t write anything yesterday.
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It’s an old Canon model. I had the EOS 1200d model. And he gave me an EOS 500d model, with an 18–55mm kit lense, and an 18–200mm lense.
A bit difficult to work on, since it has some minor problems. Like the button for taking pictures is a bit over-used. The battery only lasts a while. The mirrors inside the DSLR body are a bit dirty. And the LCD monitor has this Bokeh effect going on. I mean, this is a 2009 model camera bought in 2011, and it’s now 2019.
It’s a second hand camera, so there’s definitely gonna be some mileage in it.
But a camera is a camera.
Thank you, Tito Eugene.
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