Father of a free spirit
It may be wallet-taxing and nerve-racking having a daughter who loves books and adventure, but this man is not complaining.
ELECTRICITY bills shoot up when she’s back for her semester breaks. Water bills akin to flash floods rise overnight when she’s around. Who would ever make such an impact in my life and, ahem, my wallet, if not my 21-year-old firstborn, Amy?
She takes hour-long baths and reads into the night and wee hours of the morning, just to finish her novels, leaving the lights and air-conditioning on till the sun sits on our heads the next day. Mind you, she does not keep a single book unread for more than 24 hours. Her voracious appetite for reading has led her to spend her allowances on books, rather than clothes.
Her eyes will light up and twinkle when there is a book fair. Once, at the Big Bad Wolf book fair, she called to say that she was surrounded by thousands of fabulous titles.
The excitement in her voice was palpable. The only thing that prevented her from buying all the books of her interest was her budget.
Ironically, this bibliophile has lamented that all her friends ever gave her for her birthday were books or anything book-related.
She may seem like a bookworm to you, staying at home all the time in the company of her novels. But do not be fooled by her meek and mild demeanour and hobby.
The girl, standing at only 1.58m, adores the outdoors. She had gone camping countless times during her school days, and been through a myriad of challenges.
As testament to her feat, she received the Queen Guide award from the Queen in 2007.
I remember when she was nine, she was totally unfazed by four continuous roller-coaster rides at Dream World in Bangkok, Thailand.
At 15, she travelled alone to Adelaide. She returned to the South Australia capital city four years later to help out at a fast-food restaurant for six weeks.
After six months of industrial training, she hopped over to Bangkok with her friends for a short holiday.
Subsequently, she travelled alone to the Philippines to carry out a HIV project with AIESEC, the Dutch-based, world’s largest youth-run organisation that cultivates youth leadership, for seven weeks.
She made good use of the prize money she had won with her buddy as the champions of the Inter-university Malaysian Business Challenge 2011 organised by CIMB Foundation and Universiti Malaya.
She returned home only in time to begin her new semester at the university.
She is bold, confident and independent. She is like a whirlwind, and my wife and I get breathless and speechless watching her and her exploits.
We were shocked when she related to us her near-death experience climbing the cliffs just to view the Hanging Coffins in the Philippines, where she went backpacking with her buddy. She had nearly lost her footing and fallen into a deep ravine in the mountains!
She did not mind travelling miles alone to visit nature museums and cultural villages when she could not convince her project mates (who wanted only to go shopping at the malls) that they would have a whale of a time looking at flora and fauna, and learning the local history of the country.
Now in her final year at the university, she is tied down by her thesis and projects. I guess that would keep her busy for a few more months. Heaven knows what she would do next.
And until the time comes for me to worry again, I will just lie back and enjoy burning the telephone lines with her. I will wait for her to come home and rest her head on my lap, which she has been doing ever since she was born.
And she’s assured me that she would continue doing so even after she is married!