2 From the start (Prologue)

Tucking my graduation cap under my arm, I make my way to my car, today marks the end of my long-suffering probably known as education. At 25 years old I am finally a graduate.

I know, I know people at 25 don't graduate they are already halfway through their careers, but with the kind of life, I had it's a miracle that I graduated. Now don't start assuming stuff, no I'm not an orphan, who has younger siblings to feed, although I do have younger siblings and I do feed them from time to time but that is beside the point.

Nor are my parents divorced/separated, actually I have the best parents in the world, the kinda parents everyone dreams to have, caring, loving, and supportive. The real reason why I am 25 and graduating just now is that I was short on the money, simple.

My parents, god protect them, are great people but short on luck. They have worked hard their entire lives to provide for us, feed us and fulfill what little luxuries they could afford.

I am my parent's eldest child, which in other words translates to being the third parent. I have a younger sister and she is the apple of my eyes.

Contrary to the fact and belief that teenagers should start working here in Britain early and support themselves, my parents were not big fans of overstressing your children to the point where they start questioning their lives and hence move towards dangerous stuff such as drugs and suicide.

So, instead of causing us stress, they took the responsibility themselves to provide for us that we do not have to think about working until after we graduate, cool right? but only when you're not the eldest.

With being the third parent comes the task to worry unnecessarily about not only your future but your siblings too. That being said I would simply forgo my future in exchange for her's if need to be, and there did come a time.

My mother was diagnosed with cancer when I was barely 8, I don't remember much except for the fact that my mother was not home tending to our needs and showering us with her love nor was my father present, I went from being with them to not seeing both of them for a couple of days.

They never told us the reason that why our neighbor Mrs. Conway was the one putting us to bed all of a sudden and why we can't go and visit mum who was visiting her distant relative.

According to my parents, it was easier to manipulate their children than tell them the truth. It was out of sheer luck that I found the hospital bills inside my fathers' drawer, needless to say, that was the day I started to mature to grasp the fact that how unstable life is.

I started lying awake in bed thinking about how our lives would be affected if my mother can't make it.

That was the time I started taking extra care of my siblings, started hiding any troubles I had from my father to not cause him any more problems. I become quiet and sensitive all of a sudden.

Though my mother came back strong, she still was not as active as before with a shaved head and scars to show off the battle she won. I remember how it was the 31st of October and my mother happily announced to my siblings and me that she is dressed as a popeye the sailor man for Halloween, although she did fool my siblings I knew exactly what she went through.

So from this moment onwards I became her support system, she needs help with my siblings, no problem I'm there.

She is going to be late from work, no issue I'll look after everybody no matter how small or little I was.

She needs help cooking, I'm her man for this job.

She did try her best to do everything for us on her own but I could see her struggles, see right through her facade, maybe that was the reason why I turned out to be such an observer. I would ponder over things, trying to decipher what's underneath.

Eventually, I developed an interest in cooking. I would cook to take a break from everything, cooking became my solace, my happy place.

All was going well, I was soon to be graduated with only a year left, my parents were as happy as they were, with slight ups and downs here and there. Maya was all set to start high school when my mother relapsed.

It was a very difficult time I'm not gonna lie, I just was not able to focus on my studies, my and my family's priority was my mother.

I was a wreck, how I was going to face all of this again but this time it was a shit load more difficult. With all my fathers' efforts to not let us have jobs until we graduate, we were short on money.

What little savings we had were already put to use, so there I made the sacrifice, I not for a second regret it mind you, my mothers' health and Maya's future was more important to me than my own self, what good these things would be if I won't have a proper family to share them with.

So, I made the decision to use my trust fund money on her treatment, it was a feat to get all to agree to let me do it, but in the end, they had to agree, we just couldn't let her die.

So here I'm 4 years after finally achieving what I could have achieved a long time ago with my mother by my side, not exactly though because I stayed behind after the ceremony with my best friend so we could take pictures. I'll be starting off as an intern along with my best friend, who mind you is 3 years my younger, Matt from next week, at an accounting firm. Oh, I forgot to inform you that I'm officially an accountant as of today. Life is looking great from where I'm standing and I just hope it stays that way.