Poverty is Depressing.

While strolling around a mall with my mom, a total stranger carrying a baby in her arms was waving at us. She called my mom "tita" and all I did was just stare, wondering why would a total stranger call my mom that. Then it hit me, I really did know this person. She's a distant relative of mine. Apparently, we spent a few minutes chatting up a bit. She was gushing about how I've grown and how long a time we all haven't seen each other. True, the last time we saw each other was when I was in 5th grade. She was fifteen then and I was probably around ten or eleven. My mom couldn't help but say how terrible she looked. Actually she did look quite worn out and rather old. It was a far cry from the way she looked years ago, healthy and quite pretty.

My eyes soon fell on the baby she was holding. She must have guessed what we were thinking and explained that it is her child. She actually got married and got a job as maid in the same neighborhood we are in. All I could say was, "Oh".

Learning that did make me quite upset. That relative and I were quite close back then and it is quite depressing for me to learn of her condition. She is definitely far too young to get married at 19 and work as a mere maid when she should still be in school. Sadder still, in that side of our family, people are quite lax about education and just consider being a maid an easy way out. I must admit, she may have not been the smartest but I still couldn't believe why anyone would settle for anything less. She even mentioned that there seems to be no hope for her, considering what she is and all. People shouldn't be discouraged of exceling because of "what they are". It isn't right to just throw it all like that.

I now know that if you settle for less, you get less but if you settle for more, you get more.
Had she studied and graduated, she could have gotten a decent job and lived her life differently. I feel so sad for this relative of mine since I know that she could have done more.