TRANSITIONS:TJ'S FIRST DAY ON THE JOB

Today,April 1...April Fool's Day...TJ, my eldest son, starts work at Solutions Exchange as a Quality Assurance trainee.

I hope it's not a joke!

I can't get over the "real"-ness of the situation and can't help be amazed at how TJ has morphed... from a squeaky clean toddler who used to play hide and seek games with me...to a now mature-looking-though-still nerdish member of today's working class.

As the lyrics in the song "Sunrise Sunset" goes:

"Sunrise, sunset...swiftly flow the days
seedlings turn overnight to sunflowr's
blossoming even as we gaze"

Admittedly, I wasn't always around to witness everything that happened to him or share all his ups and downs. I guess that was never meant to be,because I was "busy" building a life of my own so that they...my kids... would have a good start in life.

The fact is ... that TJ now has a job and will experience what it's like to earn money which is a good thing...and maybe that is proof enough that somehow I may have done a pretty good job as a Dad.

You don't know the day nor the hour

While going through the email titles that accumulated over the weekend I noticed one from the SBC egroup entitled: Julius Cordero and Butch Roxas. Usually when the names of members are posted that way,it can only mean they've passed away.

Sure enough these were notices to all members that these 2 batchmates had gone. What seems to have shaken those who exchanged notes was that the deaths happened within a week of each other.

I didn't know Dr. Butch Roxas save for some of his postings before when Vic Barreiro had a heart attack and bypass operation. He seem to have entered SBC during High School. Some of the other batch mates don't have recollections of him either.

The details of his death (from a heart attack) were a bit gruesome. He had gone to the washroom and never went out. They found his lifeless body on the floor,water running all over the place.

Julius Cordero was a classmate of mine when I was in Grade 6-14 under Mr. Balagtas. I wasn't in his circle of friends because he was more of the "astig" types then. I did see him when I attended one of the get togethers of the batch mates (maybe at Gilligan's.)

The suddenness of their deaths and the lack of logic of the timing of their deaths brought to mind the passage in Scripture that precisely says we "don't know the day..nor the hour."

If so, I can only hope really that all my efforts at keeping myself healthy do extend my life some more so I can see my kids succeed in their dreams, get married and have kids of their own. But other than that I guess, I have to leave everything in God's hands...and let Him figure out when He would like me to join Him.

Meanwhile,I will live life to the fullest...love a lot...laugh even more...and drink glasses of good wine to everybody's health!

BANGKOK PICTORIAL

TJ'S GRADUATION: A MAJOR MILESTONE

My eldest son, TJ graduated last February 9 during the Graduation rites of De La Salle University held at the PICC. He was one among 700 plus graduates who received their diplomas that day and, as we jokingly say in our family, joined the growing ranks of the unemployed.

For TJ, it must have really been a BIG event,considering that he had to struggle through several personal crises and hurdle the seemingly unpassable gauntlet of Maths and Physics subjects. When I recall the times he was in tears...almost in despair because he feared he would never pass...I can understand the great big (silly) smile on his face (almost like a sigh of relief) when he posed for a photo after the ceremonies!

For me, it was a moment I was really proud of. Not because I managed to see my son through college...but because TJ, in spite of his trials, stuck to his guns and completed something he started! I was indeed proud of my son's achievement!

For Jaja, who never had the chance to march during her own graduation(because she couldn't afford then to pay for a toga and gown,)this was a moment of triumph she experienced vicariously with her firstborn. We had wear TJ's cap just to give her a feel of what it was like. Her photo with TJ says it all.