Sometimes Life is Difficult and Painful

           By Vic Odarve

My best friend and I were classmates since our primary education and enrolled in the same university taking an engineering course fifty years ago. We studied and worked our class assignments together, even though we were still young and carefree. Despite our determination, we struggled in mathematics, which is the foundation of any engineering education. And then something unexpected happened at the end of the semester. He failed both math classes, whereas I received a passing mark.

African University

I was heartbroken and naturally disappointed by the outcome. Worse, his parents chose to prevent him from continuing schooling.  As a result, he lived and worked on the farm with his father, planting rice and corn as his parents had done.

The world seemed upside down. When the semester ended, I visited him in our village. My heart melted as he looked frail and sickly in front of me. I embraced him and said, "How have you changed, my friend?" And he answered, "Yes, I have had some hard times adjusting to this way of life!" It is because of that failure in mathematics that they stopped me from schooling! "

I was greatly devastated. With the help of my parents, we were able to convince his parents to give him another chance. Fortunately, his parents heartily agreed. He dropped the engineering course and proceeded to enroll in a nautical course. My heart leaps up and down in joy knowing they have approved it. Though we studied different courses and lived in separate boarding houses in the city, we are still able to meet on some festive occasions.

Engineering Lecture

Time flew so fast. Both of us passed the government licensure examination for our respective courses. Since then, we have not seen each other.

Forty years have passed. Then, one day, while having a lecture in an engineering course in one of the universities in Metro Manila, I was informed by my boss that somebody was looking for me at the gate of the university. Genuinely shocked and surprised, I instantly saw him at a distance with a toothy smile. Like before in our childhood days, he instantly threw his arms around my neck and said, "How are you then, my friend?" It's been a long time since I've seen him. “Fine," I said with a pleasant smile. Then he led me to his expensive sports car parked nearby.

He brought me to his private mansion in a nearby subdivision and promptly introduced me to his family. They enthusiastically received me like a king, with all their hearts and proper attention. I instantly saw some of his expensive cars parked in a garage.

The Village Life

I had learned that he had been a ship captain on one of the overseas cargo ships for the past several decades and was still serving to date. He was just on vacation leave to attend his youngest daughter's graduation in one of the premier schools of medicine in our country. "Sometimes I regret not seeing my only daughter grow up the past years because I am far away," he admitted.

And while dining, we laughed and happily reminisced about our past, what we had been through and the encouragement we had given to his parents in persuading them to continue his schooling.

Today, as I visited his grand mansions with luxurious cars parked inside, my heart was pounding with unspeakable joy and contentment. His success in life is also my happiness. The part I played heroically by convincing his parents, coupled with my friend’s determination to complete a nautical course, always haunts my memory as we grow older by the passing of days. But the picture that once upon a time we were both struggling in pain over mathematics in an engineering course remains in our brain until our last breath.