Boun had a girlfriend of eight years - they had planned their future together; adopting dogs, getting their own house, traveling the world, and surpassing his girlfriend's illness together.
Cancer's a bitch, though.
Boun would be conflicted when h...
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I am a child of wedlock. My parents loved each other at one point of their life, at least. They were high school sweethearts - everyone outside their families adored them as individuals and as a couple. The first time they've felt an innocent, pure, sweet, romantic connection was with each other.
Once they fell in love, they thought that that was it. That they'd spend the entirety of their lives with each other, happily together, just filled with love, adoration and will.
It's funny how people who are deeply in love think that they can and will conquer the world with just that. Love. It's almost blinding, really. It is as if all you can feel and see is the love mounting between you and your special person.
My parents were naïve.
My parents were convinced that any challenges that they might face - they can surely conquer because they love each other. Love was the primary foundation of their connection. For them, that was the most important thing for a couple. I mean, who could blame them? Don't we all think this way whenever we're in love?
The day came when my mom bought a pregnancy test from a nearby convenience store with her allowance. She was still a student back then, of course she was scared shitless. My mom was skeptical and anxious but at the back of her mind, she was convinced that it was nothing. That maybe she threw up one morning just because she ate something bad the day before. That maybe she was just a little over a week late for her period, no big deal. That maybe she was feeling a bit light headed because of the stress at university.
Alas, she was actually pregnant.
My mom was 19 and my dad was 21. They were both still studying, still living separately, under the roof of my grandparents' house. How inconvenient it is to be having a baby at such time and age? My dad was on his last year of college. He was about to graduate Architecture and as an only child, the pressure was always holding him down.
It was my mom who was always there to make things feel lighter for him. She was his safe space. She made it easier for him to breathe. She made it seem like living in such a boxed environment can be tolerable as long as they have each other.
She was his rest.
Amidst the stress, pressure, and expectations set onto my dad, my mom was there to keep him sane. She kept him grounded. So, he wanted to marry her. My dad wanted to support my mom and I. He was more than willing to take full responsibility and to build a home for his family. He was so sure of it - of us. In his mind, building a family is what he truly, genuinely, wanted. It was what he was destined to do. He didn't want to be an Architect, no. That what his parents wanted him to do. What he wanted at that time was to live a peaceful, simple life. A life filled with love and comfort and happiness. A life that he and my mom would be living.
And he will take it upon himself to get through every hindrances and hardships that might come their way.
And so, though very scared, they decided to tell their families about the pregnancy and the planned marriage. Of course they would keep the kid. They wanted this. They have each other, anyway. And for sure their families would support them, right? They're their family. That's how families work, right? What could possibly go wrong?
