Memoirs Q19: Who are the Most Important people in your life today, and why?

Hands down, I will always say my partner in life - Barbie, is th most importnat person in my life. She is my rock, my conscience, my constant reminder of things I forget or lapse - she makes me be a better person than I would not have been.

Next would hae to be my two kids. Bryce and Bernice, and I hope that Barbie and I raised them well enough that they can live life possibly without us. Maybe not yet... but when the time for tehm to be totally indepnedent arises, they can live properly, with a strong internal compass, and a good enough set of brains and street smarts to survive what life has in store for them.

I have treid to instill in them some skillsets taht the can find useful by joining Toastmasters. But they are in charge of their career choices. I guided and helped them when asked, but I definitely did to them what my parents did not for me. I guess it helped that ours in not a broken family. Thank God for that.

After these three, I would start putting my friends John, Fred and Gerry - knowing that these three will help my family in case I cannot be around to do so. My sisters, Tizza and Bing bing - after all, they are still family - but we are far form each other, and I just visit them once in a while. From there, I still ahve some relatively loose set of friends, a lot of them from Toastmasters - not people I will approach for help, but people who might help one way or another. I would put Boyet, Tony, Dave here.

Only after these people do I put my dad in the mix. Not because I'm estranged with him - more like I know he's got his own set of life challenges with his otehr family. I tried being close with them - but lately, I felt the distance they'd rather have with me and my sisters. Sure, among us three, I might be the most welcome there - but at times, not so much either. Similarly, I feel a bit of distance with my dad's side of the family. I was not invited to reunions, and I don't want to push it.

So it can be a bit ironic that blood isn't thicker than water - with exception to my family (Barbie and the kids). Then again, this could be because of how my mom kept us separated from them. Hence I was not that close with my cousins. Sad, really. But that's life. You can't rely on anyone but immediate family. And a handful of real clse friends. The rest are just acquaintances.