random thought on a tuesday.

random thought: why do we always reminisce our childhood?

i was walking on my way home tonight and random childhood memories came flashing in my mind - jumping and dancing in the rain in my pink umbrella, weekends at the beach, my brother teaching me how to ride a bike... - oh the best times of my life! :)

my earliest childhood memory was patiently waiting in the front yard with my brother for my mom to come home from her weekend trip in the city. i remember my perennial pasalubong requests were a big pack of Chippy and jelly ace --- so simple yet they meant the WORLD to me.

my first encounter with guilt was breaking my mom's glass pitcher. i remember i was so frightened i didn't know how and what to tell her. my brother helped me put away the pieces of broken glass. we managed to "clean" the mess. but i was still guilty. i ended up telling her anyway. and she wasn't even mad. :)

the idea of marriage first came to me when i was five years old. i remember one rainy night when my dad was answering the call of nature in the loo, i knocked hard on the door and screamed that i wanted to get married!! i figured i must have gotten that from listening to too much radio programs with our house-help. i wish i had a camera to capture the look on his face! that moment earned me the spot as his most "protected" child. haha.

when my brother finished grade school, he had to move to the city and lived with my aunt. finally, i was an ONLY child!! *grin* finally, i had my parents wrapped around my little finger! NAH, not really. my mom was a bit of a tightwad - i remember i once caused a scene at the mall because she wouldn't buy me that pretty barbie doll. my dad was the spoiler, though. but there was always a price to every wish he granted - either pulling his gray hair, giving him a back walk massage (yes! literally walking on his back barefoot!), or tagging along with him to his office so he can introduce me to his co-workers -- all of these i despised so much as a child that i hardly asked any favors from my dad. :(

summers were heaven to me. no school, just pure fun! i was usually left at home with our house-help and i got to watch all of my favorite TV shows. and i've always looked forward to my big brother's homecoming. but my brother was always the sociable one and there were a few summers when he didn't come home and went out camping and enrolled in summer school. but the best summers were those when he was home. i looked up to my brother, even up to now. whatever he said, i follow -- and i still kinda do up to now. he would plan activities for the day - like cooking (just him of course), i remember he would always spice something up like putting whatnots in an ordinary omelet or putting anchovies in pancakes and champorado. haha. he would create a story or a movie and my dolls were the characters in it - he even named all of my dolls (see photo below for the proof! he tagged my dolls on facebook. haha.)!

he would tell me bedtime stories, not the fairy tale kinds, but made-up funny stories and i would laugh myself to sleep. my brother was (and is) the sweetest! :) he tried his best to teach me how to ride a bike but he failed. i remember all the other kids in the neighborhood learned how to ride using our bike but ironically, i didn't. i guess i was just really scared that i wouldn't let my brother let go and let me ride on my own. i was contented being his passenger. :)

but my brother and i didn't always get along, like any other siblings. one time, he made me cry and recorded the entire crying episode. yes, half an hour recording of me crying and whining. haha. i think we still have the tape back home. we listened to it a few years ago and couldn't stop laughing. seriously i was so maarte i wanted to slap myself. i was such a crybaby! haha.

another instance i will never forget was when my brother punched me in the stomach. we were watching TV one night and were fighting over which show to watch. i couldn't remember what i did that made my brother punch me. the blow was so hard that i couldn't speak for a while, literally no sound came out of my mouth - my brother panicked and called my mom. my mom was furious! but this i can still vividly remember - my brother said this while crying, "kung mamatay siya, magpakamatay na lang sad ko... (if she dies, i might as well die too)". this happened when he was still in grade school and i was in kindergarten. awww.... :)

this was my typical my-brother-pissed-me-off look captured on camera! classic! :)

there are still a lot of good memories i'd like to share but i'm never going to finish this post. to sum it all up, i think most of us will agree that our childhood years are indeed the golden years of our lives.

why do we always reminisce our childhood??

i think because it's one of those few times when we were genuinely happy. when heaven was just a pack of Chippy. when guilt was just breaking a glass pitcher. when happiness didn't cost a thing.