Gateway

Tough in a rough world

Ah, ako po si Jason Matikas, ah okay po. Hi din, Rina!, I replied and shook Ms. Gwen's hand. Form then on I always came to visit the place and met with Rina. We were both young then but I felt that I gained a friend in her. Rina learned 'tagalog' and she asked for my help in exchange of helping me in my English Language. Though I had friends with her I still dealt with problems in my own dirty and illegal ways. So aside from being a 'basurero' or picking trash and selling them, I always learned to 'pick pocket' (wallet theft). Rina and Ms. Gwen who asked me to call her 'tita' or aunt, didn't know about my activities but later did when a policeman asked to talk to her one day. Sir Richard is my tatay's best friend. He is a good and honest police man but always get bullied for he is so kind he helps and educates the bad guys so they would stop the bad things they do and transform to someone worthwhile in the world. Well, not all bad guys change and neither did I. Until, one time, I was out hustling with one man trying to get his wallet at the back of his jeans, when, Rina who is about fifteen now saw me from the foundation where she is standing at about 50 feet from where I was holding the man's wallet in my hand. Rina moved in closer and walked outside of the foundation's gate to call for my attention. But she halted when she clearly saw what I did and I froze. I stood there numb an turned my back from her. She called out for me but I didn't respond. I was so ashamed of what I did that I ran away and sobbed in the trashiest and dirtiest part of Tondo then. That night a fire broke out in our area that most of the slums burnt along with my family who I wasn't able to rescue since I was busy crying full of guilt and blames against myself, my parents and the world, mostly, I was angry with God. I don't have anyone nor a place to stay now so I ran to ask Sir Richard's help but I froze when I heard the news that one 'tambay' (jobless bystander) killed him with an icepick. He was dead on the spot and I wasn't there to help him or even talk to him before he died to thank him for his goodness.

Dyos! Napakasama mo. Kinuha mo na sa akin ang lahat. Panu nko ngayon!...., Jason asked and was crying his heart out when a hand tapped him from the back. Jason, halika, sama ka akin!, Rina said struggling with her Tagalog. From then on, I was helped by a family named Fort and added me as one of their child out of the many sons and daughters they adopted year after year. We are 12 now, a dozen which is full of fun, happy and wonderful experiences. My dad and mom who are U.S. Army Veterans now are the best parent I could ever asked for. They helped and supported me with my life choices and when I decided to become a scientist, doctor, they were so happy that they gifted me my own pad and the car my dad gave me after my twenty-first birthday is still running. I kept it to remember him buy since he died at the age of eighty-seven, when I was about twenty years old. I am thirty now and I think I am ready to have a family of my own with Marina. And this time it's for real and for good.

I took back the words I told God that unfateful night when I lost my family and Sir Richard. I thank him every day now that if those painful things didn't happen I won't be able to meet and live with my current family now, who I regard as the universe's gift to me. I am so lucky to have them and I'm still lucky to have survived my accident in spite of having body replacements and surgeries yet still alive and living today. So, about Marina and our future? How can I tell her that I want to have a family with her?, soon. Hmm!!!

When I was growing up my family was poor but we were happy. After picking trash, I helped my brothers fill "tapayan's" (buckets made of clay) with vinegar and sell them to stores in the province. My father decided to move to Manila to earn a better living but he was wrong. We were eating better and go to school in the province, but when we arrived in Manila, rent's too high and living expenses was more expensive that mother and father needed to work for us. My eldest brother wasn't not able to go to school to earn money for food and me and my other siblings like snack or "baon" and school supplies. I felt the need to work while I study until I attended college. After I met Rina and her mom or family, they helped me to get out of the gutter and bad vices that selling vinegar was the better option to earn extra cash than pick pocketing or doing illegal side jobs.

Ms. Gwen needed to go back to the states for my best friend Rina's schooling. Every summer vacation, she visited Manila to see me and spend time with me in our apartment near the foundation site. When my family had the accident Rina or Marina asked for her dad's help to assist me in my studies and finances. So it wasn't that hard for me to push through middle school with Gates and Fort Families trust in me. The trust that I would make the most out of what they provided for me and the goodness they let me experience all through-out my junior to senior years After I graduated high school, the Fort family who Mr. Gates knew adopted me and so on, so forth.