Chain.

At the first day of class when I was a freshman in college, I came late. It’s a beautiful morning. A beautiful morning to rise and shine. Bright, windy, cloudy day. When I entered the room, my classmates were divided into four groups. The professor told me to join the other group and do the said activity. They were told to share something on the group. The professor said, “Share to your classmate, if you would be a thing, what would it be and why.” He gave us fifteen to twenty minutes to finish the activity. I honestly can’t recall the answer of my mates. But I answered; I want to be a diary. When someone needs to rant but has no one to talk to, they can always dwell on me.

After my classes, I went straight back home and told my mom that everything in school went well. As she was reading a magazine, I told her about the activity and she asked me, “Then what did you tell them?” I replied, “A diary.” Her reaction and facial expression tells me, that’s what people usually say. I asked her back, if she’ll have the chance to answer the same question, what it will be. She answered without hesitations nor second thoughts and looked straight into my eye and said, “A chain my child.” I didn’t ask why. I was wondering. A chain. What does it mean… What does a chain actually do in our life… She told me, “Do you know how a chain looks like? It has a series of connected links. It might have two, three, four, or more links. There could be hundreds, or thousands.” I still don’t get it. So what if it has connected links? It doesn’t make sense. My mom said, “I’ve been through a lot of things in life. Some are good and some are bad. I’ve grown old. Figured out a lot of things in life. I want to be a chain to my children, to you. I want you to continue the good things I’ve done in my life and adopt them. But parts of that chain are some bad things I’ve done in my life when I was young, or even now that I'm old. I want you to unchain them. Rip them off. Break Them. Remove those rusty irons and make a silver. A gold. Make a chain that’s not perfect, yet a better one. Learn from my own chains and you’ll be a better person to everyone.” Now, that makes sense.

Today, right now, I want to be… a chain. Not just for my future kids, but for every person in my life.