Tough Lives

I went for a radio ad production today. While waiting for the voicing artist to come, I was just sitting in the reception area with my creative guy lazily sipping a yummy cup of tea while being engaged in conversation with him.

An old guy came, about 65 or so years in age and sat next to me. When he met whoever he came to meet, I heard the conversation they had. Old uncle was a broker of sorts. He had come with a deal and was discussing it.

He was drenched in sweat, very polite and spoke well. He didn’t seem to be the greedy terrible type of broker that you generally tend to come across. Then again, we can never judge a book by its cover so I’m just saying what I feel.

Somehow something about him just broke whatever was left of my heart. I mean, at his age he still has to work so hard to earn a living. He’s the sort where when you look at him, you can say he’s genuine and has it tough.

I just wish the world was different.

I also hate being so soft and so emotional. I hate this… It brings my world down when I see things like this and makes me feel jaded and helpless.

Then it made me remember stories that my parents used to tell me about their childhood and growing years. How tough it was for them. I know my dad had it really tough coz he came from a family of 5 kids and his dad died when he was schooling if I’m not mistaken. He was the 3^rd child of the family and his mother had to support 6 people including herself with her salary.

But out of 5 kids, only 2 are well educated. The eldest and my dad. It was 4 boys and 1 girl. Listening to what they had to go through to get to where they are/were now is an amazing story. Makes us realize how lucky we’re and how thankful we really need to be. My dad did have a way of teaching my bro and me about valuing things in life. The fact that nothing comes easy and we didn’t have it that easy either coz we were taught that way. We always had to work hard to get what we want and my dad had a way of teaching and getting us used to it from our younger days, which I hated at that time and now am thankful for the lessons learnt.

My dad's dad was a school principal and his kids were monsters when they were young. Just listening to the punishments they got as kids are so frightening that one can get goosebumps and have traumatizing thoughts running in the head.

My mum didn’t really have it that easy either. But when comparing the two, my dad’s life has been the more difficult one.

So yes, we all have a story to tell. Some nice, some not so. Many lessons are learnt and life goes on.

I need to get out of this mood!