Motivation

I just saw this morning that @Bjorn tagged me for the @JonicaBradley 's Writing Prompt #2: Motivation.

And it brought me back memories on the reasons why I persevere and do what I have achieved and to reach the life I have now. I may not be the most successful person but I am in a happy state and I am proud of that.

We are not born rich, we are 7 siblings. My father is a government employee and my mother chose to be a plain housewife to focus on us all. We live in a small house and you can just imagine us 9 sleeping in one room and you cannot roll over so as not to hurt a sibling. And a child cannot eat a whole banana, it was divided into two or three. But we never thought that it was a hard life, as if it was a normal even to other families.

When we go to school, our allowance that time was 10 pesos, and it will be divided into 3. So someone or the youngest will get 4 pesos and the other 2 gets 3 pesos each. At that time you can buy a corn but if you want to buy soda you will need to save your today's allowance so tomorrow you can already afford to buy one. To have an extra peso to our daily allowance, we were motivated to get a perfect score in every quiz because when we got home, we will give it to our parents and each perfect score is an additional peso. Plus we will have a night presentation either we sing, recite a poem, a declamation piece or even a set of multiplication table to have another peso.

Our parents also challenged us that if we do good in school, we will be rewarded with balloons, or they will bring us in the market or in Vigan, or they will buy us new toy or clothes. So we study hard, get high grades and aim to be the class valedictorian.

When my sister studied in private school in Vigan for highschool, I also aimed to be on the same school with her. I worked hard to keep up my good grades so they will also enrol me there. Our parents constantly reminded us to study well and graduate so we could have a better life. And that one day, we can stay in a bigger house, eat whatever food we want, buy nice clothes and would not worry what to eat the next day.

Moving forward, all 7 of us are all college graduate and found our own career. We are now able to give back to our mother and slowly building a dream house for our parents. It's just sad that my father could no longer experience living in a comfortable house and enjoy their own room. I am sure wherever he is now, he is happy and proud of us and maybe smiling.

My greatest motivation why I strive hard, try different jobs, add skills and more is because I experience the hardship of life. My parents instill in us the value of education, perseverance and determination. And the feeling of achieving goals after goals is amazing. I also don't want my child to experience the same but I will use those memories to be her guide and motivation as well.

What also motivates me aside my aspiration for a good future for my daughter is my dream to fill my savings account now not just the maintaining balance, continue with my daughter's $1 BCH challenge and to soon have our own car. I have been eyeing for that Subaru Forester but since my other siblings already have their own cars, a Ford Focus is not bad for a goal right? It may take time or years but I will start saving for that after my loan😊.

Each of us have different sources and causes of motivation. But what I like most about it is that we somehow are interconnected with one another. We inspire and motivate each other with our life experiences, challenges and successes. I am more than happy to share mine too hoping that in my simple way, I can inspire you.

...^•°...

Thanks for reading and God bless you my friend.

Keep inspiring. Keep smiling.

Lead image is from unsplash.
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