projekt draco

I just did something I wouldn’t have the patience to do so in the past — sat here right infront of the computer to help my father adjust his OpenOffice file formatting right before him while he looked and learned. If it was before, I would just show him some rough ideas with some clicks here and there, and dump him right there to figure out more like I couldn’t care less.

But no, I didn’t do so today though I wanted to initially. Instead, I sat there patiently going through his requests whole-heartedly and seeing if there’s anything more that can be done to address his concerns, and make them better if it’s possible. Eventually, after some 5-minutes of dragging and clicking, formatting of boxes in what you would probably call “Microsoft Excel”, he got to enjoy his desired formats.

That 5-minutes long of requests would have made the impatient me rolled my eyes in the past. You see, to my friends I can be quite tolerant, but I couldn’t care enough to be bothered by my parents. Granted, I gave the neccessary respects I could as a minor but not enough to really go through their things with the kind of patience I would my friends’. I can’t be called unfilial but filial piety wasn’t my style.

But not today, not until today. Given the recent upheavals in life, I realised that in times of troubles they’re the real gems who are and will be there for me, no matter what. In a way, they deserve every single bit of my time more than anyone else for they make me who I am today. And to the most basic, if I still don’t care enough to be bothered, I would be termed an “ingrate”.

So right at the moment when I decided to pull off the usual “show-him-the-trick-and-get-over-with-it” stunt, I was suddenly reminded of the past. The mornings when I would be surprised by the toys that I was dying to play with nicely arranged the way they should be beside me, the afternoons we spent playing everything we could out of nothing, the nights that we would just sit in the living room and watch television programmes together. There wasn’t any need to talk, we just happened to enjoy each other’s silence and that was good enough, at least in my book that was.. and that moulded my childhood — the most important part of anyone’s life everyone will agree.

Finally it was all completed and there he was, with his contented look on the face and then I was, amazingly elated too, instead of feeling restless about not being able to do my own things with the computer. Right then, I figured that was probably how he could have felt when I would examine my new arrivals gleefully.

That was when I realised I’ve grown up. :) And lucky for me, it isn’t too late to realise all these for both of us are still very much alive and there’re still times to make amendments to how I should really treat him, and my mom.

And I will. I promise.

(PS: In case you wonder, my mother deserves the same treatment, if not better, for the unconditional cares she had given me and is still giving.. and a whole lot more of things.)