Inside a Nerd's Mind

After Party

The party is almost over. Uncle Rodrick and our other relatives have said that they will already be going. It was already midnight and they already needed to go home. Their home was distant and it would take them hours to drive on the road. I wished them safe travels and hoped that Uncle Rodrick isn’t drunk to drive.

“Goooodbye Uncle Rodrick.” I politely bid farewell. “I hoped you didn’t drink that much beer.” I added.

“Kid, back in my days I used to finish five bottles of the finest beer alone and still be able to stand up straight.” Uncle Rodrick proudly stated.

I trusted Uncle Rodrick as he was known as the family’s drunk. He had the highest tolerance in alcohol in the family and you wouldn’t even know the difference of him being sober and him being intoxicated without a breathalyzer.

“Hey little sister,” he said as he smirked at my mother. “You’ve raised a good son. I’m proud of you and what Ethan has become.” He chuckled with a wink.

“And you’re still the drunk big brother that I remember.” My mother said grinning.

Uncle and I chuckled and he waved goodbye with the rest of the family.

Not long after that, only me, mother, Zack, Kim, Jeremy, and the Santos family remained.

All hands were on deck and all of our time and efforts were needed to clean the place up. The restaurant still opens at 8 am and we wouldn’t want to repay their generosity with dirtiness.

Kim and Jeremy were on decorations duty. They took down every decoration or design that they’ve put up from the cloth, to the balloons, down to the ribbons that were tied on the chairs.

Zack and the Santos family were on utensils duty. They took all the plates, cups, bowls, spoons, forks… y’know the gist. They brought it to the kitchen and washed it so that it still can be used tomorrow.

Me and mom were on floor duty. Mom broomed the floor as I mopped it afterwards. We volunteered for this job because we were good at it. We’ve had a lot of practice and tag teamed on cleaning at home.

With just the right amount of people for the work, it took an hour to nearly clean the place.

We were all exhausted and sluggish.

I was taking out the trash as I saw Zachary, Jeremy, and Kim all in a corner whispering to each other even glancing a look or two at me and mother. Not after a while, they approached mother.

“Hey.. uhh.. Mrs. Hunter… we were all talking about it… and we’re pretty tired… y’know… we’re just wondering if… uhmm… it’s possible… that… we were to… spend a night at your place… we’re pretty tired to go home… we can lay down our own mats and tomorrow morning we’ll be gone like dust.” Zachary stuttered.

My mom looked surprised.

“Of course! You’re always welcome at our home.” My mom smiled.

Zachary looked back at Kim and Jeremy and they all smiled at each other.

“Yaaaaay! Thank you thank you thank youuu so much Mrs. Ethan!” cheered Kim as she hugged my mother.

Mother was surprised at first but hugged her back after a while.

Zach and Jeremy looked at each other.

I stared with my jaw dropped at my mother who also looked back at me confused.

It was sweet but the mood immediately became awkward because this is the first time any one of my friends actually hugged my mother.

“There, there.” My mother said as she patted her back.

It was a solid 10 second hug.

Kim probably missed the way a mother’s hug felt. You see, Kim’s mother died when she was 13. It was over three years ago. Starting then, Kim’s father taught her how to become independent inside their home and especially outside in this hatred world. With her father working every day to sustain their financial needs, Kim is essentially the woman of the house caring for her two younger brothers as she is the oldest one. She’s the one who cooks, who cleans, who does the laundry, who irons their clothes, and many more - with her brothers’ help - of course. She’s quite an impressive girl. She does all the thing a mother does and still devotes her luxury or extra time into studying or going on study sessions with her friends. I’m proud to be considered as one of her friends. I wish my daughter in the future would end up like her.

Isn’t it weird that before you learn an important lesson in life or experience something great, you first have to encounter traumas, hardships, or a roadblock in your life? It’s why I treat every experience that happens, whether good or bad, to be an important part of a human life. Each experience offers something that will greatly affect an aspect of ourself in the future. It just depends on us if we would turn that darkness into light. My science teacher used to tell us that darkness is the absence of light. There is dark in our midst because we simply don’t shine the light towards it. I remember back when I was in elementary school – this isn’t as serious as death, but I think there’s still something to learn in this story – on where I always peed on my bed when sleeping at night. This went on and on and on even until I reached the 8th grade. Every time I peed on my bed, I would change the bed covers, the pillow covers, my shorts, and my underwear – each time. One day, I peed again, so I did what I always have done. But this time, I saw my mother hand-washing it afterwards. I saw her face; tired, groggy, sleepy, and there she was washing the cloth that I peed on. She just finished preparing lunch, brooming the house, and ironing my uniform for tomorrow. That moment struck me in my heart. I felt like that I was a disappointment, that my mother was carrying me all the time on her back, that I can’t stand up to my own two feet, and that I was the cause of every problem my mother had. I told myself that I needed to stop and change. Starting then, I lessened drinking water before I sleep and that I made sure that my bladder is empty before sleeping. After that, I rarely or never peed my bed anymore. What a fascinating story, right?

I wonder how Kim was able to endure all the responsibilities of her mother. It must be agonizing to wake up one day and then just realizing that your mother has left this world forever and that you wouldn’t be able to see or talk to her ever again. Parents fear that they would not be able to give their children a good life and be disappointed with their own self if they see their children sad, crying, or stuck in a difficult situation. But they don’t know that what will break their heart the most would be seeing their children leave this world before them, knowing that they have prepared most of their life to be a parent, caring for their children their whole parental life, but seeing all of those effort wash away, would definitely be the breaking point of a parent’s life. I hope my mother will never have to experience that.

It’s kind of the reverse for a child. They think that the most heartbreaking thing would be to see their parents die. Yes, it would definitely be heartbreaking and will a hundred percent affect your future but offspring would always see their parents die in the future no matter what. The most heartbreaking thing a child can see would be to see their parents, especially the mother, cry in front of them. There’s something extraordinary about seeing your mother cry. Just seeing the person who gave all his life, time, and effort to care for you and make sure you have a good life, cry, would give you a trauma that you can almost never recover from. I hope I will never have to experience that.

There’s always something that we can learn from bad experiences. I’ve learned to never neglect any kind of experience at all. Similarly, Master Oogway from Kung Fu Panda once said that “there is no good news or bad news, only news.” There are no good or bad experiences, we only have experiences in our life. It just depends on us on how we will let that news affect our life.

Remember, for everything you have lost, you have gained something else. Without the dark, you would never see the stars.