When I was in Grade 2

I was browsing my phone gallery when I saw this drawing of my 5-year old daughter,Yuri, this morning. It is a garden with a princess and lots of butterflies flying around. And it was her first time really draw a butterfly on her own, she usually draw castle, dresses and nature but no butterfly ever, just this morning. And I find it really pretty, colorful, full of positivity and good vibes.

She keeps on improving day by day. Sorry for being bias but I really love all her art works, it gives me some kind of joy every time she finishes one. I filed and keep everything that she draws and plan to have it book binded so that I could show all these when she grows older.

When I was her age, I was busy playing outdoor games like softball, hide and seek, climbing trees, etc. Drawing was never really our talent. When we have projects back then, my mother would just go to our neighbor and just pay him some amount. Out of 7 siblings, only one was really gifted of this talent and that was my brother who is in the air force. My sister (4th of the 7) who is a nurse now, has a creative side but more on arranging flowers. Me (2nd) was a late bloomer in photography and it was just developed and improved not really a talent but for me it's an acquired skill.

So why 'When I was in Grade 2'? It's because I have a personal story that I want to share with you all. This is about me and my 4th sister who was also a four-years old back then. We are the closest ever since we were kids. I am her babysitter, I fix and braid her hair, play with her and all. And because of that closeness, one time when I told her we need to stop playing because it's time for me to go to school. She asked what do you do in school? I told her that before class we do play bubbles using hibiscus flowers with my friends. And she loves playing bubbles at that time. Then she said, can I come with you and you will just bring me home before the classes starts? I agreed and brought her with me in school and played there. We enjoyed playing that I forgot to bring her home and just brought her inside the classroom instead and told her to keep quiet and she did.

In the middle of our class discussion, my uncle went to the school to fetch me because my sister was missing. But when he saw me, he was shocked that the missing sister that they were looking for was the one I brought at school. He immediately excused me from class and brought me and my sister home. When we reached home, I saw my mother and my grandmother crying and some relatives were also there trying to calm them and help them find my sister.

When mother saw me and my sister, immediately hugged my sister and checking if she's okay or not. Since I was so naive back then, I was not that affected because I thought that I did not do something wrong until my mother started scolding me, telling me that they have been searching all over. That they even went to the beach and was so scared that my sister went there alone and got drowned. One of my uncles even went down inside the well to check if my sister was there. You scared all of us and I almost got crazy searching and please don't ever do that again! mother said.

Yeah, what I did was really bad. If my uncle would have not come fo school to see us then I don't know what would have happened to my mother and whole family. I cannot imagine my daughter being lost and away from my sight, I might really got crazy sick not knowing where to find her.

I think that made me extra protective of my daughter. We also live near the highway and before the pandemic, the white van scare also get sensationalized here in our province. So it's really hard to let them play outside and leave them there for just a while without someone to look after them.

Thanks for reading and God bless us all.

Keep inspiring. Keep smiling.

Lead image is from Unsplash and the rest are mine.
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