I came back, and I survived. I won’t tell stories anymore, about what really happened. But I came back, and I lay in bed, thinking that I could get up easily. Instead, I fell asleep.
When I woke up, it was an hour till class, and I found myself steeped in thought. I was thinking about mom and dad, and the money it took for me to get here.
Don’t get me wrong. I have no regrets at all about coming to the States. This is something I’ve been dreaming about, something I’ve wanted for the longest time. All this hardship is my adaptation, my way to cope with a lot of changes. The weather is extremely dry, it gets really cold, the snow can pile up to seven feet high, and I’m learning a whole new field of study. Goodbye, molecular biology and biotechnology, hello science communication.
So many necessary steps to the finish, so many paths to take – and so long a time before I can get mommy and daddy things that I’d really like them to have.
I want to get daddy a new car. He loves cars, I think. He loves tinkering with things, so I’m going to get him a new car, a new drill set, lots of things from the hardware store. Better yet, I’m going to get him gift certificates to his favorite hardware! And I want to buy him a plane, maybe a little Lear or Cessna. I don’t know if he’s qualified to fly; I don’t think he is, but we could always get a pilot.
Mommy needs a lot of stuff for her health. She’s going to get them. She’s going to get all the beauty products she wants. Mommy really takes care of her skin, so it would be nice to get her things that she likes. I’m going to give her gift certificates to all the nice places in the US where she can buy her favorite beauty products.
And then I’m going to give Mommy and Daddy tickets to run all over Europe, this time without me and Paz. We always travel as a family, but I want her and dad to go on a big, long date. I’ve set it up already: the islands of Greece, the north of Italy, Switzerland, Portugal, the south of Spain, the northwest grape-growing regions of France, and a castle tour through the Dalmatian coast.
And a house! I’ve planned this for the longest time. They’ll have a house in California, another in Boracay, and another in Italy. The one in California is for them to travel through the US whenever they want; the one in Boracay is for vacations; and the one in Italy is for whenever I want to visit (hehe). I’m putting that one on one of Florence’s hills.
It was nice to do a bit of thinking for them. It provides a good perspective of all the work I still have to do. One day, this will all pay off, and I can pay off my debts to them, and then some.
In the meantime, class beckons – oh, make that, “Class forces me out of bed, and forward.”
