Biography: Never Take Anything For Granted

Sunday nights have been family filled for as long as I can remember... even longer than memory can serve me. Nine of my favorite and most cherished family members would be in my living room and we would eat, laugh, and just simply be in each other's presence. My mom is the middle child of 3 girls. When she was a child, her parents owned a restaurant in Miami that she and her sisters worked at starting at the age of 10. My grandparents make the best traditional Chinese food I have ever tasted. Every Sunday they come over and make some of my favorite dishes which include ketchup shrimp, peeking duck, sweet and sour chicken, and so much more. Some of my earliest memories with my grandparents include me in the kitchen helping them cook and learning their ways. I have always been close with my mom's parents as they have always lived in the same city as me. My cousins and I always fight about who is their favorite and I know it is definitely me as I call them almost everyday (and my grandpa tells me everytime he sees me)! Now that it has been almost 3 weeks in quarantine and even longer with a Sunday sans a family dinner, I am realizing how I took that cherished family time for granted. My Pau Pau and Gung Gung (that's Chinese for maternal grandma and grandpa) are the some of the most important people in my life and not being able to hug them has probably been one of the hardest parts about this. My grandpa is a survivor as he has had his fair share if illnesses and chronic diseases. He is 87 years old and this virus scares me simply because he is old, but I continue to call every couple of days to make sure he is still doing well. Every time I call, they always ask if we can have dinner on Sunday and it breaks my heart how hard it is to tell them not yet, but we are determined to fight this virus's spread until we can all be together again in the comfort and closeness of my home. There have been those Sunday's where I wasn't appreciative of all the love around me and I wish I could go back in time and truly enjoy every Sunday we had. I can't wait until we can have our Sunday nights back.

(The grandkids with my grandparents out at dinner; photo taken June 2018)

Author's Note: I chose to write a biographical about something more vulnerable and relevant to my life right now. I have always felt blessed to have something so special with my family like Sunday dinners. Whenever I tell my college friends about the happy times and memories I have from the dinners, they always tell me how jealous they are that they did not get to experience something like that when they were younger. I chose to write about this to share with people this traditional, but to also air out my concerns and free the thoughts from my head. I chose to write in the first person style as I felt is gave my words a more personal and raw feelings to relay my emotions.