#UniformedOrganization

[crumpledletterstomyself]

Bloodline

by: Merryl Lynch G Mendoza

It’s dark, the sun is barely up but my mother is already nagging me to get up and start the day with a jog. I groaned my lazy self off my bed, mustered all my effort not to fall back asleep again and got ready in the slowest way possible, delaying the inevitable. It’s mortifying to step off our house since I’m accompanied not just but my mother, but also my father, sister and even our dog just to check that I really perform my morning run and not just walk around town. This has been the daily routine in our house for a month now, and in every single day, I dread it. I abhor the very thought of having to exert my effort into something that I do not personally want to be a part of. It’s hard when you’re the only member of the family who’s not in the uniformed service.

For the longest time, my reaction towards entering the uniformed service has been an argument inside our household. I used to detest the very thought of having to follow what everybody else in my family was doing. I was the only one who never showed an interest nor really cared to become a part of any of the government service. I wanted to carve my own name, in my own field, in my own way. But how foolish of me to look at it that way. How ungrateful of me to react in such a scornful way. How inconsiderate of me to only think of my present happiness. How thoughtless of me to respond to the idea negatively. I have successfully evaded applying for different services for two years but no matter how I push it away, I still ended up here.

Unlike in the movies, I never really had a defining moment wherein my opinions shifted and all of my despised thoughts vanished into nothingness. I just slowly absorbed it all and let it into my system. Maybe the months of nagging, scolding, and constant reminders from my parents actually worked. I somehow realized what their intentions were for. It was never their intent for me to enter a path that I would loathe in the future but it was for me to go through a challenging path that will leading me to a brighter future. My parents were not there to force me but rather they were looking out for me. They were not doing this for themselves, they were doing this for me. For all of these things, I am forever grateful for their perseverance to push me beyond my comfort zone.

However, the pressure and expectations does not end when you finally accept the challenge of entering the service, it’s even amplified by tenfold. You are expected to pass all the thorough qualifications because both your brother and sister already successfully passed it, you are expected to be physically fit since you have been preparing for it for an ample amount of time already, you are expected to be prepared for anything since you have both your parents at your back supporting you and most of all, you are expected to be accepted because it’s in your blood.

I may have felt that I was expected to be in this career, I may have resented my parents for their desires, I may have hated this line of work, I may have thought of a thousand things more but right now, I am gratified that I have looked beyond those, and took on the challenge to surrender myself into something that I have no interest in. Service to our country does not run through genetics nor it be inherited, it is one’s own choice to surrender his life for the country.