My boys came from school this afternoon. And the first thing Second son told me after asking for my blessings was “the test folder is with me now.” He got his test folder and handed it to me. Though his voice was not at all cocky, I’ve sensed that he got good grades to show off. So I flipped the test folder and the test papers. he got perfect scores in Filipino and Language; one mistake each in Reading and Sibika; two mistakes in Mathematics; and five mistakes in Science. I then asked him how his other classmates performed especially those in the honors list, and he relayed to me he got the most number of highest scores.
I tried to remember how our past week went. When we reviewed for his Aralin Panlipunan mastery exam, he kept on forgetting the important names and dates. He must have been too tired already. Before that, he came from a meeting and church service. He is an acolyte in our parish.
I was so frustrated that I told him to sleep already and we continue our review tomorrow morning. He told me he still can review that night as he needs to be at the church by 7:30am in time for his 8:00am mass service and another one at 10:00am. After that, he has been tasked to take part in the vigil procession which will start at 3:00pm and might end at 7:00pm.
I made him choose if he would serve in the morning or join the procession in the afternoon. I stressed that with his activities for tomorrow, there will be no time left for him to study for his Monday exams. He was crying when he told me he can’t choose as he would want to attend to both services and still able to spare time to review for his exams. He promised me after that he will get a high score on his mastery exams.
And so he fulfilled that promise.
He must have really sensed my frustration. Either wanting to please his mama or doing it for himself, his hard work paid off. He earned good grades for his mastery exams.
I am a bit pushy especially in his studies as he would be graduating grade school this March and I would want him to graduate with honors. He used to come up on stage every recognition day and be awarded first honors. Sadly though, on his sixth grade, his class ranking slipped from first to fourth.
I always believe in you, second son. Your perseverance and intelligence can bring you to places. We can still do it. We have the 4th periodical examinations.
And I am not giving up because you told me yourself that you also want to regain what you had before.
As once said by American football player Ralph Marston,
“Every day you spend drifting away from your goals is a waste not only of that day, but also of the additional day it takes to regain lost ground.”
But you have proven to yout mama that anything lost is a lesson learned that pushes you to regain everything.
P.S.
It’s Saturday and you had your usual 8:00am acolyte meeting. Thank you, son, for coming home on time.