On Being Independent

Today my brothers and I had the whole house to ourselves. Mother and Father left early this morning to inhabit that little house on the hill we have in Antipolo. Us three, left here in our humble home of Kamias, were left to fend for ourselves. Sweep the yard? check. Sweep the house? check. Rug the floor? check. Cook breakfast? check. Wash the dishes? check. Do the laundry? check. Cook lunch? check. Feed the pets? check. Wash the dishes again? check. Study for Theo orals? NO CHECK.

Although tiring, I admit that this is good practice. As young as we all are, we siblings need to learn how to stand up on our own feet. And we're doing quite okay, thank you very much. We're all helping each other out. Mom says this is preparation. For the States she says. There's no Ate Ana there. True. But when exactly are we going to move there anyway?

Earlier on today, while rinsing and wringing the clothes out from the machine by hand, I could feel tiredness and irritation creeping up my spine. Doing the laundry here at home is pretty much a hassle - procedure and location wise. It started raining while we were in the middle of doing laundry. If you know my home, you'll feel my pain. Then I remembered something. While I was staying with my relatives in San Mateo, I told my aunt that I liked doing the laundry. At that time, I think I meant to say that I liked doing the laundry over there. The machines there are definitely more efficient. Plus they have a dryer. No need to wring water off clothes by hand, then hang clothes up to dry. Over there, there's a machine that washes your clothes for you, wrings your clothes for you, and dries your clothes for you. The clothes come out warm and fluffy too. If you wear them straight from the dryer, you get a pretty much wonderful warm fuzzy feeling. No need to hang out the clothes to dry. No need to rely on the sunny weather for fast-clothes-drying action. All that is left is folding. And I admit, the folding part can be fun too. Besides that, you hardly have to iron. But here, because you have to hang them out to dry on hangers, not all clothes come off dry and smooth looking. More often than not, you have to iron them out. So yes, I like doing the laundry. I like doing the laundry over there. Not here. But hey, I need my clothes clean and dry. Therefore, I will do the laundry.

We will learn what we need to learn when we need to learn. Either in good habit and preparation for the "big world out there" or in the effect of survival instinct. What needs to be done will always get done, one way or another. And when the time comes that I'm living on my own, I think I can survive. One way or another.