daddy

I was so happy to be home. At supper, I sat across daddy. I could not help but notice he was growing old; he had started to have hairfall and the veins in his arms seemed more oblivious than they had ever been all these years. I reminisce of the exact time I received the letter of offer from the National University of Singapore. I was thrilled! However, I could not secure a scholarship. After daddy and I did the calculations, we realized he could not possibly afford to send me there. Daddy told me, “It is okay, I will sell my car off and get a cheaper one. With the proceeds, I will buy the Sing Dollars when it is cheapest”. I paused. My dream was to read law abroad, but I was only offered a place to do Economics. I told daddy I would stay and read law in UKM though I knew he would have prefered me doing Economics in Singapore.

“Whether or not you go to NUS, it does not matter. Because I have heard my colleagues boast of their nieces and nephews going there, but it was never their own children. Now I can tell them my kid had been accepted! If you read law at UKM, it would be just as good. You are the first in the family to go to university and you are studying to become a lawyer! I could not possibly ask for a better daughter than you. Whatever you do, my support of your decision never wavers.”

Daddy was an orphan adopted by grandpa and grandma at the tender age of six. He had never seen his biological father, let alone be loved by him. And his foster father died before he was twenty. Yet, he loves me more than any other father could ever love his child. He was ready to pay if I wanted to go and was in full support when I chose to stay. I went to UKM, carrying the hope of my daddy's. And though I miss him so much I would rather stay in Penang, it is that same figure who gives me strength to go back and carry on. It may be tough out there, but as the cliche goes, 'what does not kill you makes you stronger'.