"Family, Friends, and the Spirit of Christmas (Part 2)"

12/27/01 12:10am (Part Two) I hate stress. Stress is that emotional baggage that begins to fester in your mind, once you get bogged down with problems after problems of pure crap. Most people get stressed around finals time, when they have to cram a semester¡¯s worth of education into their mind, all at once. Not for me though. I choose the holidays to really get frazzled. At first, I didn¡¯t know what was stressing me out. No school, no girls, no jobs, so go figure¡¦ But then, I started to realize that it was my parents that were mostly on my mind. They weren¡¯t pissing me off or distracting me from my social life. It was the sudden realization that my parents are really old, that got me upset. My parents are older than other people¡¯s parents my age; my father and mother are 64 and 57, respectively. That¡¯s grandparent ages for some. Seeing them get left behind in modern technologies and pop cultures is a disheartening view for me. I had previously succeeded in getting both of my parents well accustomed to AOL and E-mailing (as easy as it may be to our generation, it was quite a challenge getting them to understand the standard computer functions). Fortunately, I can communicate via E-mail with my parents while I was in college. But there¡¯s also that part of me where I want my parents to enjoy every bit of technology that I have come to enjoy, such as burning CDs, watching DVDs, watching digital television, play games online, etc. But these things cost money and are very time consuming. And then the obvious question starts to loom over in my head. My parent¡¯s won¡¯t be there for me forever, and its time I start to look after them, as they have for me in my 21 years of existence on this earth. My sister is in Boston, and I feel an overwhelming responsibility to look after my parents. Even Waco starts to feel too damn far away.
Although there will be an added liability on my part to make sure that my parents enjoy a happy retirement, there is also a tremendous sense of appreciation for everything my parents have done for me. Hopefully, these two facets will work in some reciprocal way, preventing my head from exploding due to stress and frustration. In the end, it¡¯s all about growing up. Looking ahead¡¦ Time to end 2001 with a bang! I don¡¯t mean another terrorist attack, but rather a fun weekend spent in Galveston! Happy Birthday, Sandra!