When I was a small kid my parents would ask me, “Son, what do you want to be when you grow up?” This seems to be the favorite question of most parents from the moment the child starts to talk. And they keep on repeating this even if they know that children, who barely remember what was said, do not give responsible answers yet.
As a child, I say what comes to my mind at the instant the question was asked. Or what I saw on TV few moments back. So at one time I’ll say, “I want to be a doctor..” The next time around I would say “I want to be a teacher, policeman, superman, batman or even wonderwoman..” Much worse, I would just want to be Chipmunks and be among the Sesame Street stars and fool around Big Bird and tell him “Ernie and Bert has some kinda relationship!”.. hehehe..!Not once in my life did I plan what I would be in the future, near or distant. I was just a laid back guy, so I thought. That’s it. I felt that it’s hard to imagine things especially if they don’t really happen the way you wanted them to be. It could be very frustrating! Sometimes, I would just want to challenge myself to a duel in the dark.. me and myself fighting and hope that the best man wins.. or, hang myself at the back of the house using the thread that Mama used to patch up the peepholes in my short.
“Son, what do you want to be when you grow up?” Ooh, here goes this million dollar question again. I felt that if irritability can be measured, it is directly proportional to the number of times the question is asked! At one time, I just wished that I wouldn’t grow up so they would stop asking that question. But can I refuse to grow up or violate the laws of nature? At another time, I would asked, “When will science be able to make a ‘bonsai’ of man?”
Can you imagine It was imposed upon me to study multiplication, division, square root at the tender age of grade one?!! It was so annoyingly boring.. Grrrrrhh! And to think that I was not a Promil wonder kid. I was just fed Liberty condensed milk alternated with Alaska, for almost ten years and sometimes water mixed with sugar when they run out of money or when the suking tindahan (variety store) would deny them credit.Sometimes, if not always, parents wouldn’t mind that you are forced into something you don’t want or enjoy doing. Is it because they want you to be good at what they were not before! Ok, they were the ones paying for my tuition but are they the one who would make use of what I had learned or have to learn?? Or worse, they would say: “Son, I want you to be like that son of our neighbor.. he’s the brightest in his class.. did you see him?” Sometimes, I got apprehensive that next time around they would ask me to be like Jose Rizal or Albert Einstein or Mahatma Gandhi.
Yeah, I had my chance to be counted among the honor pupils from the primary grades to high school. And so they thought that I can be what they wanted because I was doing fine in school. What they didn’t know was my high grades had been the product of my silent protests before. I hate to do errands. In short, I was lazy, and until now. So I would read and read my textbooks pretending to be studious. It was better to read and sit down idly than run errands for them. Good riddance, it was a creative way to cover up for laziness!
I do believe that life should not be planned at the very early stage. So many things happened that were not in the books, so many events unfold that were not planned. Changes and events go side by side with growing up and I would imagine that if one got the pluck, he can just lunge into the place for him amidst those running episodes of life and events. Just like the fish ‘tuna,’ their lives depended on the water currents and when they get somewhere near General Santos City, they would end up inside those tin cans with the appropriate labels. They taught us good values and how to love our neighbors, but not once did they taught us self defense when these neighbors make a fool out of us or when we get busted out of love!
“Son, what do you want to be when you grow up?” I don’t want to grow up anymore..! It’s so 
nice to just be a small child.. play in the neighborhood, go to the malls sometimes and eat at your favorite fastfood lane.. or go camping. That’s all.
nice to just be a small child.. play in the neighborhood, go to the malls sometimes and eat at your favorite fastfood lane.. or go camping. That’s all.Now, I am a man, a real grown-up man. Now, I know what I wanted to be. With a basketful of experiences and what I went through all my life, as my adam’s apple become more and more distinct, as my waist shapes up and muscles start to build up like small cysts, I know for sure that I just wanted one thing. If I had known what LIFE was all about when I was a small child, I would have readily given them just one consistent answer. And when they ask me that question again, I would tell them.. “I just want to be HAPPY when I grow up.”
And when they tell me I did not understand the question then, I will tell them now that they did not understand me and my life too.
And when they tell me I did not understand the question then, I will tell them now that they did not understand me and my life too.
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