if i were a boy
At 60, my father still does all the hard work.
He works in the office, he deals with electrical problems, plumbing and other fixing stuff.
And most of the time I assist him.
Assist. Yes. Not HELP, really.
Once he had to fix and change the water pipes so i assisted him.
Well my brother should be the one helping our father since he's the only son.
And so it sucks to have a brother who's not much of a help around the house.
He was out that time with his wife off to somewhere i don't really care.
Anyway, my father asked me to hold the flashlight while he works under the sink trying to remove the old rusty pipe.
I knew he was struggling with it, but I'm so helpless that all I could do is sit, watch and hold that stupid flashlight.
Out of frustration maybe he said, "Someone should be helping me with this."
Then I realized I was holding the flashlight but not really helping him with the work.
And at times like those, I can't blame myself for wishing I was born with 100% pure muscle, power and testosterone.
After a while father asked me to cut a 12 inch pipe using a saw.
I end up cutting half way through.
Only half way cause I was struggling with the saw until he took it from me and finished it in a second.
And I thought again, "I knew I should have been a boy."
It sucks.
I really wanted to help my father with everything.
I don't want to see him struggling.
I think the only thing that made me happy after that water-pipe work was when he told me, "At last! Let's see if it works fine. What can you say Architect?"
He called me Architect.
And it melted every cell in my body, although that's impossible.
So what happened with our little project?
There should have been no problem once we open the water line and faucet.
But then it leaked.
The only unchanged pipe failed us.
My father and I laughed.
We failed.
But it's okay.
Then I told him, "Why did you ask an Architect to fix the pipes anyway?"