Be a reliable, steadfast man who, for the future, would set earnings aside to prepare; or, on the other hand, be a penniless traveler with the joys of random experiences and tales to share?


My father is a very stable individual - always calm, an intelligent person, a thinker; very caring and engaging, while keeping his cool and funny-ness. Some years ago, he decided to work out of the country, in a foreign place, to give us more. He worked hard to achieve what he has now. That flight was a selfless decision, but maybe all dads come to the same fork and choose; in one way or another. As for my father, it was when he was 50 years old and had three offsprings who were all in college at the same time.

When I think about it, one of the things I really admire of him is how he was always prepared, had been prepared; come whatever problems find his way. Especially, financially. How he (with some help from my mother) could live for more than twenty years married - with three children - and support himself and his family without any disappointment still continue to astound me up to this day. How did he do it? Was he always this able? I'd be happy to hear some answers, but I've always been too reluctant to ask. Maybe it's because I want him to see me as someone who was growing up to become an equal, his equal; not in terms of hierarchy, but in becoming a man.

I would like to be the same. The day will come when I will have to turn to nobody in order to keep myself alive. I will have a family, kids, a home. When that era of my life comes, I want to be able to tell myself it will be alright, you're prepared for this. I want to be able to tell my wife, go on, rest, take it easy, I can handle everything.

Line, line, line.

Just the other day I was looking through some Italian restaurants online, because I asked a woman I really, really like out for a dinner. I was browsing food places and again, feeling this weird sense of not being able to enjoy my life to the fullest. A simple idea of me not being able to go to all those fascinating restaurants with their atypical cuisines gave me a sensation of wanting more.

I'm in a permanent state of wanderlust - I've always been. I have always pictured my future house in mind with one of its walls covered with the map of the world - and then I'd fill it with pins and small mementos of the places I've been, marked properly on their respective geographical location. A wonderful thought, isn't it? Then, whenever I'd look towards the map, my soul will be filled with the memories, places, and people I've met and known through all those voyage.

Then again, I need to face the horrible fact that having a lot of cash is essential if I wanted to do that. People say money can't buy happiness, but it can surely bring you to many different places where you can find those happiness-thing stuff. Sure, I can spend everything, and be broke at times; nonetheless, in exchange, what do I get? Stories, wanderings, all the things that once upon a time I had only read of and imagined about. With it comes mesmerizing sunsets, old-books-smelling bookshops, night lights, warm sand, Spanish music. I could then die a fulfilled bloke, destitute in royalty but wealthy with everything else.





So, the mindset of the young or the outlook of an adult?