Honor your father and mother

​One of the greatest lessons I learned from becoming a parent is to always be kind and patient with my own parents. Reflecting on my childhood, it was their first time doing this parenting thing as well, and it’s not like they could rely on a manual to walk them through the process step-by-step of how to raise their children or how to best deal with life’s ups and downs or have all human knowledge on the subject at their fingertips as is the case nowadays.

They raised me while carrying their own emotional pain, while being knee deep in their own anxieties and financial worries. They worked while they were tired and at times broken – physically, mentally, spiritually. They tried their best even when they were stressing over bills because they didn’t have savings. When they were barely hanging on every month. When every drachma counted. They didn’t always say the right words or nourish me the right way. They didn’t always listen and face reality objectively. When they tried to discourage me from doing certain things, it wasn’t because they were trying to control me, rather because they loved me.

But they tried in their own way. A “Where are you?” on the phone when I broke curfew. A helping hand when slogging through my school homework. Private lessons during my high school years they couldn’t afford for me to have the opportunities they didn’t have.

But looking closer…behind their worries and anxiety was love – unconditional love for their son. Behind the silence was stress, sacrifices, hardships. They were not perfect. But they gave me all that they could. They stood up for me when they had to. They didn’t stand in my way when I decided to get an education abroad, two oceans away. They were always a phone call away to reassure me, to breathe life into me. And I am grateful for that. So, I need to be kind. And I need to be patient. They were and are still learning to be parents. Just like me. This is our first time living – for all of us.

Where we come from is who we are. But the choices we are called to make every day puts us on the path of who we become. I know that my family is not perfect, but they worked tirelessly to make me who I am and gave me chances that they never had. Hence, my future, whatever that may end up looking, ​is truly our shared legacy.