Nearly there, just a few more to go!
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I guess for starters, I should probably thank you for giving birth to me, as without you, I wouldn't even be here today, literally. I know it's been a tough journey, it can't have been easy to raise me, and I know that you did everything you could to give me a good childhood, even though I was a bit spoiled, being the eldest child. I'm sorry for disappointing you by refusing to learn Chinese. I know it must have hurt you a lot that I turned my back on my heritage.
I am grateful that you gave me the opportunity to learn. You used to walk me to the library at least once a week, and wait around with me for hours as I read and browsed books. I know we didn't have much money growing up, but you always found a way to entertain us despite that fact. You took us too all of those free shows that are put on by the various councils around the city - even though we complained once we started getting too old to go to those things, it was still very nice of you to do it.
You never wanted us to be sedentary children. Tennis lessons, karate lessons, swimming lessons, girl guide meetings, piano lessons. If there was a driving equivalent of frequent flyer miles, I'm sure you'd be platinum class now, as there was so much driving to take us to all the different things that we had to do. And you did it all on your own.
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You also had a hand in my existence, of which I am incredibly grateful. You are also the reason that I am a gamer, as you loved playing games. The day you brought home our first NES is still a very fond memory in my mind. We played duck hunt for so many hours, though it shames me to say that I still haven't finished Mario Bros (I think we only made it to world 5, as I looked up some pictures of world 6, and they don't look familiar at all).
For a long time, you were the only source of income for our family. You would leave for work at 4am, and return just before dinner. It makes me sad to think that I was scared of you for such a long time. Mum would never hit us, but if we misbehaved, she would threaten to tell you, and you would hit us with your belt when you got home. So there were many nights where I, or one of my siblings, had done something wrong, and so we'd all fear you coming home in the evening. I'm glad things between us have gotten a lot better since then.
Whenever I see people talking about having female role models for getting girls into IT, I think back to my own childhood, and I never had any, I just had you. You always shared your hobbies, like gaming, making model planes, tinkering with electronics, and it never mattered to you that I was a girl. You just thought it was something interesting, and you wanted to share. You never pushed me to play with dolls, even though all the other girls were doing it, but you bought me so many books on dinosaurs, and how things work.
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How do you sum up the contribution your parents have made to your life in a single blog post? I could probably sit here all day reminiscing. I can understand that it was difficult for them, as I recall believing that I'm so much smarter than them, and that they should be listening to me. And it might be true, when it comes to book-smarts, I'm probably miles ahead of them, as I had the good fortune of being able to attend university, but that doesn't mean that they don't know anything. Both of my parents have good hearts, and they did what they could given the circumstances. That's why I would really like to buy them a house, so that they can finally rest.
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