Engineering life

My little brother is currently confounded about what he wants to be. We enrolled him at a private university in Manila as an engineering student. At first, everybody was excited and satisfied about his career choice, with Papa as the one in the apex level of both feelings. But just the other day, we were all rattled by my little brother’s admission that he’s having a hard time coping with math lessons. Math used to be his forte back in high school but for reasons like his professor being a bore and the subjects really mind-exhausting, he wanted to give up.

As expected, this shattered Papa’s dreams. He has always wanted to be an engineer and because he didn’t persevere in his studies, he lived with the hope that one of his children would end up pursuing his frustration. But apparently, he again ended up in frustration.

Had I wished to follow Papa’s whim, would he end up being disappointed too? I don’t know. I have followed my heart in choosing my career path. Communications has always been my first and true love. My parents and the whole clan know about that, and mine is the type of personality that can’t be dictated.

Not that my siblings’ were easily bendable either. Mama and Papa had certain expectations for us but never did they force upon us those expectations.

This made life somewhat like a huge puzzle that’s left for us to discover on our own. Our parents guide us with our decisions but mostly, everything progresses out of our independence. In a way, Mama and Papa entrusted us with values that serve as pennies we bring with us to survive the different stations of this world. They got us insured of these values grounded on their faith in God.

Maybe, right now, my parents are having difficulty stopping the urge to steer my brother’s life. I would understand if they get mad once in a while. Eventually, as they’ve done to me, they’d yield to my brother’s own destiny, again in full surrender.

Last night, I heard Ma instruct brother to bring our youngest sister to school. She told him to wake up early and make sure that Miles is clean and all made up by 11:30 in the morning. Before I left for work this morning, brother woke up and looked for Miles.

I wanted to hug him and tell him that things will be much clearer for him. And that no matter what he turns out to be, we’ll always love him.