Saturday 30 June 2018

The Rebels

I am at the kitchen table at my new home reflecting what we have done so far in 2018. My dearest daughter is in her bedroom sleeping after her long long night shift at a Korean barbecue restaurant in central Tokyo. She has been exploited by this company she started working two months ago in May. She was supposed to work at one of the cram schools she used to go near our new home. It would work brilliantly if she did not join the musical group organized by university students. I decided this new apartment for our home because of the convenient location for her school, her part-time job, and my work. But since she joined this musical group, her home is far from every place she goes to, the part-time job, school, and the musical group. For weekends, she gets night shift, but the company that runs the restaurant does not pay her transportation fully, she takes the cheapest and furthest way to come home. Those mega companies exploit the inexperienced youth and make profits. But they should know what comes around, goes around. Treating a good employer bad is the worst policy in a long run. Smart and capable youth will not work for them. This month is going to be Momo's last month. She won't let her treat unfairly and definitely will not tolerate such business. Bummer for the restaurant because this girl has very high standard working ethics: She is reliable, punctual, a hard worker, doing some works other part-timers do not wish to do such as cleaning the bathroom and has amiable personalities. It seems like she is in control of this issue, Mama tiger will see what happens and keeps her mouth shut at the moment as she sharpens her fangs. Who said this, "You mess with my daughter, you mess with me."? 

As far as her uni life is concerned, she is quite lucky to find a few extremely enjoyable and inspirational lecturers at her university. She also made a few good friends who could be her life-long mates within a few months. What really amazes me is that she somehow knows that best buddy sometimes disagrees on some things. Just because it took me so many years to figure out this truth and I have wasted some potentially life-long friendships due to minor differences. I was looking for someone who has exactly the same value for everything. In terms of a partnership, my expectations have been way too high in spite of all of my faults and errors. I had numbers of arrogant and unfair expectations towards others who are usually lovable human with unique personalities like myself. If I am not a spotlessly perfect being, how can I expect someone to be? Perhaps I realize this last year, yet my daughter at such an early stage of her life, she knows this and very humble and forgiving with her friends and family members. But she inherited the spirit of rebels from her mum and grandma. This fate can't be changed. This means that she has a tendency to question and against the authorities. So, by nature, Momo argues with me and questions my decisions. When I feel exhausted, I get irritated and very defensive, but she won't allow me to be too contradictory because I won't allow her. Good for both of us; we push each other to be fairer and more courageous. My mum was brutal with fairness and she was not afraid to apologize when she realizes her mistakes. Well, she was nearly a perfect mum and she rarely needed to apologize to me. But she taught me this awesome idea, "We are all created equal. So, it is wrong to have an authoritarian attitude towards anyone no matter how young or humble the person is." This idealistic policy sounds amazing, but we get so many problems because of it throughout our lives. My daughter and I almost dropped out of the high schools and I refused to go to a university my authoritarian school kindly "offered" to me. Fortunately, my daughter was smart enough to think of the consequences of her actions and decided to pursue her dreams by taking higher education. I was a student, showing her ups and downs of a student life throughout her high school days. I am so pleased that she did not find it ridiculous and choose other paths because I knew she would find satisfying to explore her intellectual curiosities.  

So far, we got our very relaxing sweet home, things to learn and some awesome mates. We have super hectic lifestyles and almost no time to have a chat. Yet we always find time to discuss and grow together in our own ways. There is no other way for us to feel right.