I am very selfish … I am just taking care of myself

Like many people of my generation … since the day I started working, I have been trying to take care of many things. At the beginning, helping my parents put food on the table and then making sure that they have a good roof over their head and later on, providing for them to live comfortably when they retired.

That spread over a few decades.

Somewhere along the way I got married … more things to take care of to start a family of my own. Working harder to make enough financially to buy a house and maintain a proper place where we called home.

Then the kids came … with added responsibilities and financial commitments, I have to spend more time trying to take care of more things … so that both my parents and my family are able to live reasonably well ... trying to balance everything the best I could.

The kids grew … faster than I can remember, and then came the time for schooling, extracurricular activities and other learning commitments. All that required more commitments, both time and money … thus, more things to take care of.

In the meantime my parents were getting old. Like many old folks as they lived into their late years, the perils of old age began to emerge.

More commitments … from getting maids (and a set of problems that normally comes with hiring maids) to hospital admissions to nursing homes … there were a lot of things to take care of for a while.

And let’s not forget that during this time, the kids grew into teens and that came with another long list of things that need to be taken care of. From simple things like driving license to important decision on deciding which college and university that is relevant for their higher educational needs … all need to be taken care of. 

All those years … it was all about taken care of things and trying to make things work so that those people that are close to me can have a meaningful living. Somewhere on the side of all those things, I was also trying to take care of things that were also happening around my very own self … career advancement, financials commitments, obligations, duties, requirements, security and assurances.

For a very large part of my life … I was very busy taking care of things around me and it never really occurred to me that I need to take care of myself … I mean really taking care of myself. You see, while worrying about my kids growing up and my parents growing old and all that in between … I forgot that I am also getting older. By the time I have almost done taking care of all those things … I am already in my 50s.

 

Now … I am very focused on taking care of myself. Yes, I can tell you most of the things I do now are very likely for taking care of myself … more importantly my well-being. For now, I am busy and staying active … quite independently doing many things for myself and by myself.

It is not that I do not take care of my wife and my kids, I do … but I can tell you very honestly, I spend more time taking care of myself. Yes, it sounds very selfish but I have a very good reason to do just that.

So what is it ?

Simple … so that my loved ones DON’T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT TAKING CARE OF ME !!!