Laziness Is Like A Disease

The word lazy has no room in our home when I and my siblings were just kids.

Maybe because my parents did not inherit some wealth, just a small piece of land that was sold to his relatives then live and find fortune in the city.

Mostly likely my parents worked their asses off just to feed us five kids and to have a decent education. So the word lazy has never been used in our home even to use it as a joke.

It doesn’t mean that even if my parents work hard we became rich. No, at least they make our lives a little better.

This week’s writing prompt is about “Laziness”. I guess the topic is not really hard to make an article of this. So let’s get started.

Upon seeing the title post, I immediately thought of “Juan Tamad”. I know for sure all Pinoys here knew about the story of him.

Let me tell a brief story about it so that some of you from other countries will know.

Juan Tamad

Juan Tamad (Lazy John ) is a story about a boy or young man who’s been too lazy. One famous story about him that has been told to every grade school student by some teacher was about the guava tree. Because he has been that way, he was even so lazy enough to climb the guava tree and get the fruit even if the tree was not that tall.

So he just lies down underneath the tree then he opens his mouth wide and waits for the fruit to fall off naturally. He keeps waiting until the fruit falls into his mouth.

So if a person in PH has been acting lazy, he will be regarded as “Juan Tamad”.

Contrary to the story, Filipinos are not lazy by nature. In fact some employers in other countries wanted Pinoys to work with them because they know how hard working Pinoys are.

Looking Back At Me

I don’t remember that I became lazy in my childhood until I became an adult. I think the right word to describe it for me is procrastination. But if there is, I think it was when we have to wake up every 4AM to pray the Holy Rosary. Yes I was so sleepy that I felt so lazy to pray with my family (forgive me I was innocent back then).

Then during the first grade I was the only student in the third section to receive special honorable mention. See, I was not lazy at grade school. But by nature I was a foolish kid (laughs).

When I went to high school it was the time that my grades were falling. Did I become lazy? I guess so but I think it was then that I was just getting interested in playing music with my band mates that it became my priority. Procrastination rules.  I felt like my subjects were just easy but when it comes to examinations I always get a passing score.

But when I went to college it was kind of different. I needed to graduate because the future will depend on my education. No more rooms for laziness and procrastination.

Today I already have my own family with two kids and as they grew up I can see who among them is kind of lazy with their studies and who is not. So I always remind them how important education is. But if they want to follow their dreams when they are old enough to decide for themselves, I will not hinder them.

There are times that I don’t feel like doing anything during my rest days. But when I just sit and do nothing or play with mobile games, I can’t stay longer than 10 minutes. So I will grab my tools and look for anything that can be done within the day.

Laziness when tolerated becomes a habit. When it becomes a habit then eventually it will become a character. Remember that character begins at home so it is best to observe those traits in our kids when they are young. That way, we can stop laziness which becomes their personality when they get old like us. 

Thanks for reading. Ciao!

This is my participation in Writing prompt #19 by Jonica Bradley entitled Laziness.

The rules are simple.

1. Write anything about Laziness

2. Write 100% original content

3. Write at least 600 words

4. Submit to the PromptlyJonica community (please join if you haven't already)

5. Tag  @JonicaBradley

6. Have fun!

Lead image source credits to Ludemeula Fernandes

━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦

To all those who support, Thank you!

━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦