[BC] Loyalty

As a child, I was raised within a busy yet loving family. Despite my parents leaving me in a day care while they work, I knew their motivation to persevere through their hard work was to grant me a better future. What I didn’t know is that their marriage was falling apart, yet they continue to live together in effort of raising me. Whenever I come across one of their arguments, I would blame one or the other and accuse of them to have an unloving family. I realize that I was completely wrong as I grew up in this fragile family life.

When I entered middle school, I noticed the tensions growing by each day. Once I knew how most other families grew apart due to divorce or separation, I wake up every day, fearing for my parents’ decision to divorce or separate.  Little did I know did my parents continue to live together despite their differences in order to provide me a safe environment. After one of their usual arguments, I asked both my parents their reason for staying despite their threats to leave the household. They more or less stated “other than for you, loyalty is essential for this relationship to continue on”.

Once we moved to Alameda in 2007, their arguments were so rare that I thought they either had a compromise or were on an affair. One night as they were in a heated argument, the police arrived and I was certain that this family won’t last afterwards; however, my mother supported and defended my father as the police continued to question my father as if he committed a crime. I questioned my mother why she defended my father despite how she continuously stated how much she abhors my father. She stated that no matter how much negative comments she brings upon my father, he never did anything to spite her and supported her actions no matter how much he disagreed with her.

As I talked to my aunt and uncle-in law about my parents’ odd relationship, I also questioned whether either would leave one another for someone else. My aunt and uncle stated that if they were ever to separate, whether due to their relationship issues or economic situations, they would never remarry. I knew their answers were honest because they had been together for 30 years.  I always thought loyalty is easy to break apart whenever I see couples breaking up in schools.

Despite my parents’ unusual relationship, both my parents and my aunt and uncle-in law demonstrate a strong-willed loyalty that never broke, not even their empty threats reached each other. One day, I want to learn the true value of loyalty and hope to entrust both it and trust with someone in the future. I know that loyalty is a common trait that anyone can interpret as to apply only in relationships, but I as of now, interpret it as friendship. My loyalty and trust to my few most trusted friends helped me develop a true meaning of best friends.   

[BC] Draft (of Horror)

      Throughout my childhood, I constantly earned praises from my mother for every little accomplishment, from reading a difficult chapter book to award certificates from good behavior in school. Her warm smile and joyful eyes were always worthwhile whenever I worked hard on accomplishing my goal. Although I knew that I would need to work harder after elementary school, I wasn’t fully aware that one day, my efforts were not enough to lose her smile.
      At the beginning of middle school, her praises were still frequent, but she continuously warned not the “let down my guard” and work harder. When I received my first failing grade on a test, my mother and I had a conversation and she suddenly recalled how difficult her life back in her home country, Vietnam. As she tells her tale of her perseverance in effort to take care of her siblings and getting an education, she motivated me to work harder. She was my role model, no matter how unsuccessful the life she now lives, as she continues to work in a business she knew wouldn’t earned a lot of money, living with my father who doesn’t take part of any household duties other than working and picking me up from the day care.
      My mother’s characteristics were part of my goal, my future. She was a role model to her younger siblings, despite how little success she gained over the past twenty years. She sacrificed her education in effort to take care of me, took up a job she knew that the money that was earned will be towards the bills, but made effort to save up for my college funds. She also was independent; never did she asked anyone for help in paperwork unless necessary or asked her family or friends for money. She never stray her path to a life under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The scars on her arms, the strain on her muscles, and the bags under her eyes are all what remain for the rest of her life. However, after all these years, she still maintains her warm smile whenever she praises me.
        As I was growing up, I became involved with school clubs that motivated me to more active community services and interacted with other teachers for career advice. I immersed myself with volunteer work by tutoring elementary kids in order to improve my efforts to become a role model for my younger brother. I sacrificed my effort in getting a summer job in order to take care of my brother while my parents work. I endured one of my most emotional moments of my life that could’ve changed my life: losing my mother.
        Whatever it may be for her future, I want to continue her efforts. I want to improve both my and her lifestyles and give her something she deserved to have after all these years. I may gave a career that is different from what she wanted me to have, or a lifestyle she may disapprove at first, but I know she’ll be proud of my efforts. Although my goals aren’t fully determined, but I want to live my life knowing that I can do anything on my own.