hopes and dreams

yesterday i was looking through my father's old photo albums again. he looked quite a bit like me when he was young. i wonder if i'm going to look like him when i'm old? i could definitely do without the belly though.

there were pictures of him and my mother on holiday on a beach somewhere. they were in their early 20s, still youthful and with a life ahead of them. i look at them and think, if they knew how life is going to be like in the future, would they be content? or were their dreams so much more than what they have now?

ordinary life, ordinary children, and sad to say, almost no romance left in their relationship. i wonder if there is still love or has that fire been extinguished too? my mother was quite a pretty girl back then and i think would have no difficulty in finding someone, but there was something she saw in my father i guess. something special about that very normal guy which caught her eye.

she used to tell me that my father was such a boring person even back then. they met during a dance lesson i think, she was with her girl friend and my father was with his friend who happened to know that girl.

their courtship lasted 7 years, from when she was 21 till 28. i don't know how many boyfriends she had before, or maybe even during that time (HAHA). she said he would just go over to her place almost every night and have dinner with her family, and then watch tv till it was time to go home.

she said, and i don't know if it was in jest, that she couldn't just not marry him after 7 years. my mother is a funny woman.

i think i should ask her more and delve deeper into the causes and reasons behind my being. after all, if something went wrong during that 7 years, i would most definitely not be around today. and maybe in the process gain some valuable knowledge on just how this strange thing called marriage works.

i shall show you a photo of my father someday. see if i really look like him.