SIN OF A CITY BOY

Summer has kicked in! And an end to that academic routine and the begninning of the summer freedom had led me to see myself in a new disturbing light. Now, I wake up around 10-11 am and sleep around 2-3 in the morning. When I wake up around that time, I feel that there is a sense of loss. I feel wasted and unproductive. I just wake up, fix the bed and eat breakfast which is typically a Milo drink and some bread and also freshen myself up . After that, I proceed to my study table to check my different online accounts, read some online information and most of the time chat in facebook. I just sit there until my mom or cousin calls me for lunch. After lunch, I would go back to the room and watch some news (ANC,CNN and FOX). After around mid afternoon, that is the time I would just sit around, watch tv or read a book. When evening comes, I again would spend most of my time surfing – doing the social networking stuff. I would end up sleeping around 2 am.

This is not quite a detailed picture of a typical in-house day, but I guess you see the picture. I am a sloth in terms of house chores. I do not prepare my own food, I do not clean after the plates, I do not throw the trash, and I do not clean the house. I am simply consuming oxygen, money, and energy if you put it that way. I feel like a parasite, a dependent dog who waits for the master’s food, or a spoiled brat who just points at things and gets it. I guess I just realized these very disturbing yet exaggerated feelings because school is over. I now spend most of my time in the house. Analyzing this disturbing realization, I believe this is one thing that you get when you grow up in the very heart of the city. You can’t really go outside because of the potential danger, so I grew up literally sheltered and pampered. I grew up having a yaya and a very caring household so house chores is not in the top of the family’s code. I can’t blame my parents though because they keep on reminding me on certain “tasks of common sense”. I simply blame myself for being so passive regarding the value of helping around the house. When I see my friends doing all the hard labour, I can’t help it but feel ashamed about it. I even recalled the farmers in Sumilao who I met during the immersion. I admire them because they toil hard. I can’t do what they do and I know that I can never do what they do – waking super early tilling an unforgiving land for us to have food in our table.

I may be so committed to volunteer work in school but I guess I missed out a lot in my own home. I would like to give a massage to all of us who feels that we haven’t done our best as labourers in our very own home. So now that I jotted this feeling down, I hope to grab every opportunity to help around the house and toughen my muscles in the process. So being a house boy for me now is a great title of privilege because it can slap me right in the face about the basic things I need to work on. This is being honest and being human. I could start by waking early in the morning, helping my mother prepare breakfast and the house and more. I should also start thinking about a work out (exercise). Amdg