The Most Difficult Times of Our Lives

Sometimes, life just gives you one challenge after another – and it’s up to you to see how you can rise to it.   Just after my graduation from elementary school, Papang got into an accident. The vehicle he was driving was rammed by a passenger bus. He survived – but he sustained serious injuries.  We didn’t have any money, and Papang’s release from the hospital was delayed because we couldn’t pay his medical bill. It was only after he and Mama signed a promissory note that he was able to leave the hospital. Life was tough before, but this accident made it even worse. Papang was bedridden for more than six months. We could not afford a wheelchair, so he was on crutches for more

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A Father’s Promise, and an Important Lesson

Life was hard during those early days in Padada. My family was poor, and there were times we didn’t even have money to buy food. We had to borrow corn or rice from our neighbors just for us to have something to fill our empty stomachs. We may be poor, but no one can call us lazy. My father was a hard worker – he worked in a logging company before becoming a bus driver. Eventually, that bus company went bankrupt, so Papang went to work as a driver for the town mayor. Papang was my role model. Being poor was never an excuse to not do what is expected of us – I knew I had to work hard, just like my father, in

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