Life's Lessons (By My Mother)

There is a saying that goes, "Never stop learning because life never stops teaching." And yes, we learn every minute of our lives through different experiences and through different people, but most especially, through our mothers.

I can still vividly remember this one particular moment when my parents and I went to this tourist attraction in Singapore last April, 2014. It was called Cloud Forest. It is a huge dome where there is a huge waterfalls surrounded by all sorts of plants. You can enjoy a lot of different things inside but one of the main activities there was the Cloud Walk, wherein you can have a feel of walking through makeshift clouds several feet above the ground in a bridge that they made. I heard some people say that it looks exciting and fun and that they hurriedly climbed up to experience it. But as for me, it's no fun! As an acrophobic, anything that involves heights is a no-no! But since we already paid for the whole Cloud Forest experience, I have to go through the Cloud Walk.

While climbing up, I felt nothing. At the back of my mind, I was thinking, "Pssh. The bridge has hundreds of metal support attached to the walls of the dome. What could possibly go wrong? Everything is just going to be fine." But when I reached the start of the bridge, my body began to freeze, especially when I saw the heavy mist that welcomes you at the edge. I sat for a while on one corner and my parents can already see the fear in my eyes. I was waiting for them to say, "Ayaw mo na? Di mo na kaya? Sige, let's go back na." But what I heard was nothing close to it. I heard my mother said, "Let's go, Anak! Kaya mo 'to!" Upon hearing that, I started screaming inside, "No ma! Hindi mo ko naiintindihan. Hindi ko kaya." But as I stared at the starting point of the Cloud Walk, I saw no one coming back and upon looking right back at Mama, I saw the firmness in her eyes. So I stood up and started to walk. Papa went ahead of me and Mama, trying to show me that nothing could go wrong. When I saw that Papa was already enjoying and was starting to take pictures, I gathered enough courage.

As I took a few steps, some things prevented me once again from continuing. Even though the bridge was made from metal, there were still times when it's shaking and when you look down, the only part that was covered was the middle part of the bridge, so from the sides, you can still see the ground and you can see how small the people were from where you're standing. Upon that moment, I literally started crying. I didn't care what people would think and say but I immediately turned back and decided not to push through with the walk anymore. But before I could go back to the starting point, Mama pulled me back. She saw that I was already crying, but instead of comforting me and treating me like a baby, she said, "No turning back, Anak! Listen to me! Andito ka na. Hindi ka babalik dun. You can hold onto me. Let's walk together. Tatapusin mo 'to!" I don't know if she's angry or was just really firm, but I was pretty convinced to finish the walk.

I held onto my mother's shoulder and I was still crying a bit. She was laughing at me. We walked slowly and I just tried to keep my eyes closed, but maybe she realized that my eyes were shut because the next thing I heard from her was, "Open your eyes anak, and see how beautiful the view is." (Pertaining to the surroundings of Singapore) And true enough, the view was breath-taking! It was still a long walk so Mama told me to just divert my attention by looking far away at eye level or just sing in my head. I did as I was told and before we knew it, Mama and I have already reached the end of the Cloud Walk.

I was extremely happy and was just letting things sink in because for a person who seriously has fear of heights, this was a big deal. I sat on one corner once again and while I was staring at my hands (which were still quite shaking), Mama started to have a short lecture: "O, see? Natapos mo rin! Ganyan lang, Anak! There's no easy way out. Hindi ka basta-basta pwedeng mag-quit na lang dahil lang bigla mong naisip na ayaw mo na. Pag nasimulan mo, tapusin mo! Worth it yung experience diba? Ganyan ang buhay! You'll never know until you give it a try!" Upon hearing that, I was supposed to look at Mama with my "Ma-you-are-such-a-drama-queen" face, but then I realized that everything she said was true. So I looked at Mama and Papa, smiled, and jumped like a 5-year old toddler who received a lot of gifts and said, "Ang saya ko! I did it!"

The words that Mama told me one year ago at the Cloud Walk made a great impact on me, since I was able to use them just recently in my life:

1. Sometimes, we are afraid to try things out and we are left with no choice but to try them.

2. Once we started something, there is no turning back. There is no easy way out. We have to finish it and do our best.

3. We can cry all we want, but life won't treat us like a baby. So we can divert our attention from time to time, or sing our hearts out in times of difficulties, but we have to keep on walking no matter what happens. And as they say, when we try something that's not in our comfort zone, that's when we learn a lot and end up enjoying a lot.

4. We must keep our eyes open. Life offers us a lot of wonderful things. Even though there are times when we seem to give up, life still gives us something to hold on to.

5. We might not know it and others might not say it but there are a lot of people who believes in us! We just have to believe in ourselves as well! God put us in this world because He knows that we will be able to surpass anything that may come our way.

And most importantly...

6. We won't have to walk through life alone. When Mama told me, "Hold onto me. Let's walk together.", I knew she wasn't just pertaining at our walk that time. She was also pertaining about life!

Thank you so much for everything, Mama! I Love You so much!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!