It was a rather captivating sunny day during the summer of 2006 when I departed my beloved family and home for this new work I found, and moved to another metropolitan city. A new journey began. Like any other whippersnapper, I was full of dreams ahead with an immense amount of enthusiasm to accomplish them, with boundless energy and burning desire to change the world and make it a better place for every human being, but I most importantly wanted that for my family. I wouldn’t flinch for a moment to state that I’m blessed and fortunate enough for having such extremely supportive parents whose proper guidance, affection and care helped me achieving impossible.
A few years later, I had to leave my parents for Sweden to pursue my Masters degree which eventually helped me landing multiple amazing tech-jobs later on and to keep pursuing my career within software industry until today.
However, I soon realised, the bigger the dreams are, the more price you have to pay to accomplish them!
Meaning that, I had to miss one of the most valuable assets of my life and that was to have the quality time together with family. Nothing comes for free, huh!
The time passed by the speed of light, up until one day, the reality struck me with a shock, when I heard the news from my brother about our father got a stroke. My family took a while to properly deliver this news to me since they didn’t want to create a situation which may cause me to go panic, stressed out, to intervene or take over my work or health by any mean. My father was immediately hospitalised and admitted into emergency ward and taken under high observation.
This didn’t stop here as the incident led to affect my mother too. Due to the depression, she started getting stomach issues. Myself, thousands miles away, completely unaware of the situation, the pain and circumstances of my parents’ condition were shattering me silently. I was instantly hit by a flashback right after hearing this catastrophic news.
The parents who fed me, clothed me, raised me well, provided high quality life, financed my education, took care of me by all mean, saved me from bitterness and harshness of life, made me stronger… weren’t just getting older by also losing their health significantly. Indeed it was such an obnoxious moment to experience but it taught me a great lesson of importance of parents.
Family has always been and will always be an integral part of my life. During our childhood, every single day – and I literally mean every single day, whenever me and my brother left for school, we used to look back over and over again until the corner of our street and knew that our mother would still be looking at both of us. That precious moment would give us a very powerful message of care and protectiveness. Besides general hardships of life, she raised all of her children with a very high quality lifestyle and a resilient character to adapt any situation in life. Our father, on the other hand, regardless of bad weather, weekends or holidays, tirelessly invested tremendous amount of time and energy to make a good living for us. He scarified the joy of free time for all of us. And now I was really stressing the hell out.
The single most realisation of missing the opportunity to be with them was eating me up inside.
I honestly love my work, but the precedence of being with them outweighed everything. I purchased an urgent itinerary for the next possible flight back home. The next thing which I experienced, is priceless and said so much without saying words. As soon as I saw my mother and father, I ran to them and we hugged for minutes like never before. That moment left it’s footprints forever. They’d never say that for me to pay a visit, but they have been waiting for my arrival. Outcome of my visit was so beneficial as they both started recovering at a rapid pace. Now they are in better health and I joined back my office.
Lastly, I must say, words fall short to express parents’ unconditional love for their children. It is imperative to realise and acknowledge the family knitted-ness, bonding and the positive impact it could have on one’s life. Most importantly, taking care of parents specially when they need you the most, wouldn’t just keep them happier but also make you feel fulfilled. Be with them as much as you can. Talk to them and share your insecurities, they won’t judge you. Listen to their life’s stories. Undeniably, there is so much to learn from their life long experiences.
