#DailyWritingChallenge: Family

Easter holidays have always been my favourite school holidays. As a child, it was usually a time to eat copious amounts of mum’s delicious food, argue with siblings over who watches what on the TV, and go to the library with my sisters. On some occasions, my older sisters would create games for us all to play at home and on other occasions, my parents would take us to visit the Queen at Buckingham Palace. And although I knew some of my friends would be allowed ‘out’ during the holidays or might even be on a holiday abroad, I didn’t really feel discontent with the fact that we couldn’t afford to do much outside our home.

I did, however, long to explore the world and all its treasures beyond my books. I dreamt of holidays abroad, sitting by the beach overlooking an ocean but the closest I got to that was watching Wish You Were Here? I dreamt of being a teacher or writer one day and having enough money to buy a bookshop. That was the ultimate dream. Visualising that success as a child was an important part of growing up in my family because it helped us understand what we wanted to do and how to get there. It was always about looking beyond our current situation so that we could be and do better tomorrow.

That’s the thing, you see. We did not have many material possessions or the luxuries that others may have had but we had each other. We helped each other. My parents helped us by instilling hard work and a love of education because they saw its potential to transform our lives.

“We didn’t leave Bangladesh so that you could do nothing with your lives,” they would say.

I didn’t really understand or appreciate that sentence as a child. I now know that it was about sacrifice. Those sacrifices that I did not appreciate then but I do now as an adult. And this sacrifice, the sacrifice of their lives for the success of their children, makes them heroes in my eyes.

And so now, as we enter our third week of ‘lockdown’, I’m reminded of my childhood full of wonderful memories. Memories that remind me that though I did not have wealth in its literal sense, I was ‘filthy’ rich in so many other ways! I had parents who loved me and gave me and my siblings all they could. I had siblings who became my role models and teachers, teaching me self discipline, morals and manners, and demonstrating the success and fulfilment a good education could bring. These values have stayed with us all throughout our lives, as we’ve gone through the education system, undertaken our degrees, secured our jobs (half of us are teachers) and become independent. Despite this independence, we are always there for each other. We are always reminding each other of our greatness but also helping us work on our flaws, in the way families do.

Now, more than ever, I am so thankful for my family. Despite living on the breadline as a child, I was taught that we did not need much to be content. As long as we appreciated what we did have, we could see the light in the depths of darkness and disaster.