Small but big in many ways.
Our diminutive daughter Allysa Anne took from late mother Remedios. And so did I.
But what she may have lacked in height, she makes up in many areas. For one is her diligence to study as she went for higher education. She is a step away from being a medical doctor after finishing the eight-year course.
What she makes up for also is that she is completing a dream of mine to be a doctor. Yes, when I was in grade school, I would always answer “to be a doctor” when asked what I wanna be when I grew up.
Allysa is fulfilling that for me. In flying colors, too. She finished with Latin honors in her pre-med after which she became a Registered Medical Technologist (there are five in our family). Both her Bachelor’s Degree and Medicine course were completed at my beloved alma mater — Angeles University Foundaton. This is where her koyang Asher Allyson completed his BS Pharmacy. He has both RPh and DPh (Doctorate) appendages to his name.
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Both Asher and Allysa did not follow mine nor the footsteps of my wife and their mother Annette in our chosen careers. I am a Comms major and a journalist while she is a banking and finance major and is a licensed assessor.
Did we ever regret that? Not at all. In fact, we are happier with the path they have taken.
As member of the media, pay was not that good. I only got to be more stable when I took a corporate communications job.
But I would sound materialistic to say that with her medicine practice, she would could get to buy jewelry, fancy cars and a big comfy house.
That is not what she is in for. She signed up to help the sick, with the Hippocratic Oath in mind.
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Allysa is so petite. A lot of times in the past she would be stopped by guards in places where only adults are allowed. She would then politely show her driver’s license to their grin. Those meeting her for the first time would see her as someone still finishing high school. That happened to me too when I was still wrinkle-free.
Sometime in the past, we would pity her for burning the midnight oil. She managed to keep those eye bags checked though plus her kilays are always threaded. That is one thing she finds the time for. She would sleep with her laptop, tablet or cellphone slipping from her hands as she falls asleep reviewing lessons. (Or was she just watching koreanovela? Joke).
At the height of the Covid pandemic, her lessons were held online. And they were no ordinary recorded discussions. During exams, there has to be two cameras on. One from the device she is facing while another one was required that show her surroundings to be always on also. It was a measure against possible cheating, I understand.
She is not that serious at all times though. She still finds time to treat herself to concerts. She is a BTS Army and a Seventeen Gang. Time and funds she finds to watch these guys. So she does with Harry Styles (and One Direction before) and other artists. She doesn’t mind the hours of traffic going to and from concert venues. Oh yes, not to mention wearing the OOTDs and bringing props for those concerts.
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With her full title MD or as Doktora just a grasp away, we can only be so grateful to God for this tremendous blessing. We were not only gifted with children who were mindful of their education but have always big things in mind.
Our dear Allysa may be small but she is big, really big in so many ways.
Congratulations.
