Soon enough, Mother was introduced to Father by his cousin who knew one of her uncles. They married and opened a joint medical-dental clinic in a strip mall. One of Father’s sisters, who was a pharmacist, opened a pharmacy next door. This set-up was perfect as patients could go to him for a prescription and immediately bring it over to the pharmacy to get their medication. Sometime after, my parents bought a house that was near their clinic after living in an apartment for awhile. By this time, my older brother, was already born. I came a year and a half later on January 17th, 1994. My younger brother was born a year and a half after me.

I have lots of good memories in that house, which is currently occupied by my uncle’s family. Revisiting that house after all those years made me realize how quickly time goes by. It has been 15 years since we’ve moved out, but vivid memories still flooded my mind as my uncle gave me a tour of the new renovations that he made. I remember when I fell down the stairs and cried my eyes out at the pain. Or when I fought with my brothers over who got control of the remote control. Or when my cousins, my brothers and I played hide-and-seek in the dark in the basement. Eventually, we moved to a new house in a nearby city in the winter of 2004 when I was around 10 years old. We moved because our parents wanted us to attend the public school in the area to save money, but we ended up attending private schools anyways.

We were able to forge many new memories in the new house. I remember when my younger brother and I shared a bedroom, and I would shush him when he kept on talking when I was trying to sleep. Or when our parents wanted one of us to move into an unoccupied bedroom and initially not wanting to, but relenting and realizing a new sense of privacy. Or sleeping on the black couch in the piano room after coming home from school. Or watching American Idol every week with my family. Or watching That’s So Raven, Hannah Montana, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, High School Musical and Camp Rock with my brothers after school. Or playing floor hockey, pool, and table tennis with my brothers and cousins in the basement.

I often reflect on my childhood years as an adult. I would look at my baby photos and reminisce about the good old days when I didn’t have to worry about money, success, and career; when I was carefree, innocent and full of life. I would sometime start to get emotional when I imagine that how that baby, so full of hopes and dreams, would be so disappointed if he saw the life that I was living right now. The worst person to disappoint isn’t your parents, family or friends, but rather yourself. It hurts to let others down, but unforgiveable to let yourself down.