year of the golden dragon

I just walked upstairs for the last time tonight with a brownie/gren tea in hand and yelled over the banister “Goodnight Dad”. He stops talking on the phone to shout “Goodnight Daughter”. I do this every single night without fail. And not just to my Dad but to everyone in my family. I think it’s important to tell your loved ones Goodnight and Good Morning. What may seem like a trivial thing to most is actually an important thing to others. And I always call Alex to have our Goodnight Moon phone calls. It usually ends with a “Call you in the morning” or an “I miss you”. I tweet Goodnight Moon every night as well without fail because you might never who holds those two special words near and dear to their hearts. I believe I went on a tangent but what I am seriously saying is the most simple, little things adds up to an entire lifetime of unconditional love. 

For instance, the weekend before Chinese New Year, my father took it upon himself to renovate our dining room. It now has a bright shade of butternut squash. He then worked on the living room and painted it the same color as our dining room. He climbed the roof to fix the holes in our roof so that my sister can have a comfortable space to sleep in. He’s afraid of heights and shakily went up to the roof anyway to fix it. All because he loves my sister a whole lot so he’d face his fear of heights to make her happy. We cheered him on and thanked him as he laid on the dining room floor. Overcome with fear and letting his nerves take over. He is the best. He has just finished painting my sisters room and will be painting my room next. Now I know you are probably asking “Why are you telling us this?” Well because my Dad’s been fixing up this house since CNY and he works on the house for 8-10 hours a day. Also because he taught me to have patience for things I really, really want. (ie. a new job) And will be upfront and honest with me if/when he needs to. I see how easy it is for him to cross things off his to-do list. He doesn’t sit there and thinks about it. He just does it. Thank you Dad for teaching me a life lesson and not even knowing you are doing so. 

Also for the last month, my mother has been working 12 hour shifts at work. She owns a staffing agency and doesn’t really need to work at all. But she does. She is a firm believer that if you show your employees (by example) how a job should be done. It gets done in the most efficient and productive way possible.  Every morning she gets up at 5 AM and gets ready for work. Without fail. Some nights she doesn’t get home until 9 PM. She could complain about how exhausted and tiring her job is but she doesn’t. She does it because she loves her family and wants to teach them the value of hard work and how easier things get when you give everything your all. I have always told my mother that I was going to be successful in whatever capacity of the music industry I wanted to go into. I have always had a DIY/EIY attitude and it has been proven to my mother how successful I am when I put my mind to it. She noticed that music has become a stagnant part of my life and how she wishes that I can just immerse myself in it once again. CRAZY. I know. I told her I will when I get over my ego and fear of failure and rejection. She told me to do it now or else you’ll sit here wondering what life could be if you had just tried. That’s exactly what I am doing. And when asked in an interview “Who or What motivates you the most?” I replied “MY MOTHER”. I said that everyone else in my family is a powerhouse all their own and can push me to do all good things. But no one, absolutely no one, has realistically pushed me in the direction of music than my mother. She has been to every talent show, every award show, every audition and was there at my HS graduation when I sang in a three part harmony choir. That night I gave the rose to my mother because without her love, support and reality checks. I wouldn’t have graduated and I wouldn’t be the strong headed woman I am today. Momma, I know you don’t have any knowledge on how to use a computer, but I wanted to thank you for being an absolute life saver and for being a companion on creating, raising and molding an amazing individual. 

If you’ve read this thus far, kudos to you, this was exceptionally long to read. But I just wanted to give my parents the praise they deserve every single minute of every single day. I don’t want to sit here and contemplate when I am going to have another minute with them. *knocks on wood* But I am going to progress through life and live it the best I can. I want to spend every moment with them and tell them that how much I care about them. I want to call them when I am a parent and say “Mom/Dad, you were totally right. I wouldn’t get it until I had kids of my own. Thank you for the tough love.” 

I love you Mom and Dad and I am going to make you so proud of me.