Ilustrado

I handed my sister a nice, clean envelope with a month’s worth of my savings. She smiled and thanked me. We ordered Jolibee’s palabok (bean noodles in yellow sauce) like we didn’t have shrimp allergies.

“Why are you doing it?” she asked me while chewing her food. I thought it’d help her keep quiet but turns out she’s curious too.

“What are you referring to?” I asked then swallowed a mouthful of noodles.

“Writing thesis for other people…your part time job, right?” she said then continued to eat. She stirs her iced tea with a plastic straw.

I smiled. “They don’t want to do it. So I do it for them. That’s essentially why people pay for services. They give away jobs that they hate.”

She frowned. My sister is young. She wants to finish school so I have to send her to one. NGO jobs do not pay much. I have to pay for the housing loan, attend grad school, and contribute to household expenses.

“That’s not the way to help people. You are doing them harm than good in the long run,” she commented with sternness and conviction. But I am not hurt.

“There are two reasons why people go to school. First, they just needed a job after graduating. But schools these days don’t teach anything. See, they teach you Literature so you’d buy these books and pile them under your bed,”

My sister eyed me. “We make book reports.”

I continued to chew my food. “That doesn’t help trees.”

“You don’t have to be so cynic. You are sending me to school too,” she said with emphasis.

“There’s a second reason why we send the youth to school. That’s so they can marry the right persons at the right time.” I said right away without blinking.

“What about Jose Rizal? I think he didn’t need a job. He didn’t do it for marriage either. They said he’s wise and a genius,” she mused.

“Are you still hungry? Common. Jose Rizal? Who’s that? I don’t even owe him my freedom,” I muttered under my breath. “What was it exactly that he did? Yeah…I remember. He died dramatically for us.”

My sister smirked this time. She finished her Palabok.

“I’m going to the rest room,” she said standing up. She pushed her tray away and was gone.

She was gone like forever then appeared again across me at our table.

“Why do you have to be so negative about everything? I was only asking about your part time job,” she said somewhat resolutely.

I laughed. “You don’t always have to take me seriously, sis.”

She made a face and then throws me some of those fries.