Feelings
I wannabe
By Immanuelle
Take this story. A little boy cuddles up to his grandfather. The grandfather, who is also the town’s mayor, plays with the child’s hair. Idly, the grandfather asks: “What would you like to be when you grow up?”
“I wanna sit on your chair.”
The grandfather is touched, and feels more than a little proud. None among his children ever showed the inclination or expressed the ambition to follow in his footsteps, except for this dear child of his child. He tips the boy’s chin to him that they may talk into each other’s eyes. “You mean – be a mayor like me? Be a leader and at the same time, a servant to the people of the community?”
“No, Lolo!” the child’s eyes go wide. “I just wanna sit on your chair. And feel rich, and important, and powerful!” Shocked, Lolo almost drops the child from his lap.
Then take this. A girl, on her first-year of pre-med, lies on her hospital bed. In fact, the hospital is like a second home to her; she had been in-and-out of hospitals since birth for a debilitating life-threatening ailment. This time, she had been confined for a month. Her mother does not leave her bedside. She prays the novena to the Blessed Mother every now and then – for her daughter’s recovery, for strength for the both of them.
The daughter whispers, “Mom, I will be well soon.” “Yes, you will.”
“Mom, don’t worry. I will be a doctor, you’ll see.” The mother’s eyes sting with held-back tears.
The nurse, who was checking the daughter’s pulse, smiles. “Would it be better if you be a nurse instead? You’ll learn to take care of yourself, your Mom, and others too.”
The daughter knots her brows, then politely whispers, “It’s good to be a nurse like you; but I want to do more than care for patients. I wish to heal them.” This daughter is now on her last years of medicine internship.
Take these too. Regine wannabe a singer; she has a voice range that spans three octaves. From childhood to her teens, her father would devote most of his time training that voice. One of his now-famous techniques was to let her stand chest-deep in water, salty or fresh, then to let her sing her lungs out. During her steady climb to the top from teens to her twenties, Tatang would always be by her side as chaperon; then in her thirties, as the loving doting father he really was from the start.
Lea wannabe a star; she had the classical voice and the theatrical flair. Aside from taking charge of the family’s finances to cover the expenses of an aspiring child, then teen actress, her father took over the care of the only other sibling; her mother managed Lea’s career from child star to the international celebrity that she would be.
Jolina wannabe a popsinger and popstar. Both her parents, both lawyers, would give up their lucrative careers for this daughter whose success is considered one of the most phenomenal among her batch
Oh, don’t forget to take this too. This girl is the daughter of a Filipina and an American billionaire. She can be whoever, whatever she wishes to be. She wished to be a teacher teaching English to a strictly nationalistic Asian nation whose people are known for their strong refutation of anything made in or anyone from decadent USA. Of course, the parents were afraid for her, but they did not discourage her from pursuing her wish. They just made sure she would be in constant touch.
Listen to your heart, I read this once somewhere, and I have felt and seen it hence oftentimes. There is no escape from your heart; it throbs and pulses within and through you, as long as there is a breath of life in you. Sometimes, the words from your heart may seem traitorous, and you may be fearful that, in the pursuit of your dreams, you might lose everything that you have gained, or that you will be unable to achieve the dream in the end.
So, why listen to your heart? Because there is no way you may be able to keep it quiet.
As your heart speaks, your child’s heart speaks too. Listen to the dream in your heart; then listen to the dream in your child’s heart.
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