defining awesome

I've always been told that I won't last a week should I decided to live independently from my family.

For the longest time, I was the only kid in our little extended family. And by little, I mean my parents, my mom's parents and their eight other children. That's twelve adults living under a single roof so inevitably, I was raised as a pampered child not only by my folks but as well as aunts and uncles. When I was young, everything I needed was seemingly served to me on a silver platter.

But I was never a brat. There's a distinction between being pampered and just being a pain-in-the-ass. And anyone who knew me back then can attest that I was never like the latter. I think.

So obviously, I never got to fully learn the basic household chores except for shopping or pamamalengke. As for the rest like cooking, washing the dishes, doing the laundry, ironing clothes and working on some minor house repairs, I know zip about.

It's not that I never showed interest in learning them. I did. I remember asking my mom back in sixth grade if I could start doing my own laundry. She said no saying that it'll ruin my hands. All the while I thought that I really had good, soft hands. Until I realized that she just doesn't want me meddling with her chores. She doesn't trust that I can wash my clothes as good as she does. Ugh. Well at least she lets me do my own underwear because it's just too freaky to ler do it.

My mom loves being a housewife and a mother. She's the best at what she does. But I needed to learn to be live independently, that's why I sought her blessing when I said that I wanted to move out as soon as I have enough savings.

"Kung kaya mo sige. Dapat ka rin matuto para kapag nagkapamilya ka."

Right, mom.

My savings were spent on the house construction we had last year. And I have accepted that I will have to put my plan on having a place of my own on hold. But it didn't stop me from wanting to move out. I was ready to settle for a bed space until I found out what bed spacing meant.

Nevertheless, life's weird. It never occurred to me that I'll get to try and live independently from my family this early. I wasn't expecting this, not until when I'm perhaps thirty - when my brother has finished his schooling and when every major household expenditure has been settled, anyway.

Now I'm literally a thousand miles, or more, away from them. And even if it's only for a few weeks, I get to be independent. And free. And have this freaking awesome place of my own.

So even if I was tired from all the flying, I still unpacked all my things and organized them properly into the drawers and shelves. I wanted to make it feel homey immediately. I got caught up in folding my clothes, I wanted it to be perfect. Yep, I guess I'm O.O.C. - that's overly, obsessive-compulsive. I tend to be like that sometimes.

It was past midnight when I finished the chore. And of course, I couldn't stop myself from taking pictures. The room is just so lovely and I wanted it to be immortalized.

When I said I wanted a place of my own, I was dreaming of a small, studio-type room. Not an apartment with a bathroom inside the bedroom, a cozy living room, my own dining area, a semi-furnished kitchen, two flat wide screen TVs (one for the living and one for the bedroom) and, hold it, a freaking fireplace. Sorry naman kung mababaw, pero wow! I so want to have one when I have my own house built. It can double as an oven, or something.

Like I said before, this is awesome.

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POSTSCRIPT. Of course I get to share all of these with Manolito. But I deem him irrelevant and inexistent. So there. Oh, and we're not sharing rooms.