Hate Late

One of the attributes I can be proud of myself I think is being punctual. In short, I hate being late.

Late what does it mean? If you look into any word reference about the meaning of late, you will notice that it is always about dealing with time.

How did I gain such an attitude to always be on time? I think it has something to do with my parents that they were disciplinarian or I should say my mother is a real disciplinarian.

A person’s attitude and character are molded right at the beginning of his childhood. The place where he lives and the people around him have some influence on his personality. Family greatly affects every person’s personal being.

Corporal Punishment

As a child I was used to extreme disciplinary action by my parents, it was my mother who was the ruler of the house. She was the one in charge of disciplining us. Actually her act of discipline was more like a punishment for me and to the rest of my siblings. You could literally be beaten by firewood for a single mistake.

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So what does it have to do with my punctuality? Being a son of “one scratch one peck”, I learned to value time. Because if you do not do your household task at the given time, expect chaos. I was the one who did the fetching of water for drinking and other water consumption. I have to do the task two times daily. One in the morning at 6AM and in the afternoon at 5PM. So, if for any chance that I went home late due to excessive fun  with my playmates . I will receive my punishment and those pails and water jars will fly outside.

Life is tough being born less fortunate. You will learn hard labor at a young age. You will not have more freedom as rich kids do. You cannot just play with other kids unless you are not done with your duty. The hardest part was that the kids are done playing just as you are done helping your mother on household tasks. So I will just play alone by myself.

The Religious Disciplinarian

My mother was kind of a religious woman. She always wants us to attend holy mass. So every Sunday morning you will see us, the whole family walking to a nearby Catholic church to hear the gospel. She also wanted to pray the holy rosary every morning. I was the one who always fell asleep during the prayer. But my mother assigned me to do the recitation of The Mysteries of the Rosary. It is more likely that I will not fall asleep this way.

Mother also tried switching religion. Perhaps because she wanted life to become easier by means of believing in something different. But either way our way of living never changes. She was still strict with her house rules.

Eventually, I got used to always doing things in accordance with time. I am not sure with my siblings if they get to be punctual on their own. All I remember was that my older sister was the one who always woke up late on weekends and during school break. She was used to waking up at 10AM.

I Get Used To It

Being punctual or always adhering to the right time has a lot of advantages. When I was still studying I never wanted to go to school late. I never remember that I had issues with my teachers and professors for coming to class late.

Even in projects or any subject requirements, I always wanted to submit before the deadline. I don’t like cramming and I freak out if the deadline is near and I still don’t have something to figure out for a certain project.

In one of my posts, I talked about something like I was once a stubborn employee in my previous career. Yes, but being such doesn’t mean that I always go to work late. I just make absences without notifying my boss that I am not reporting for work. I have reason to do so, you know something like being a fair square. So they gave me a favor and I refrain from making an absence.

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When I switched careers I never had issues with going to work late, unless there was something that could hinder me from going to work early because of traffic conditions. I think I only have one issue submitting a report on time which was completely out of my senses. There was one incident where I submitted a report five days after the deadline. I really forgot about it. I thought I did but when I checked my mail, there was no report submitted in the sent items. I could not find any reason to deny it but just told my boss that I was completely out of my mind.

Time is gold as they say it. Maybe because time is so precious, so valuable that we don't have to waste every second of it. You will never know the value of time until you realize that you miss an opportunity. 

Thanks for reading. Ciao!

See related post by @zolabundance2 The D word

Lead image source credits to Srikanta H. U

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