MONTHS into my son’s learning to drive after two lengthy formal lessons, he backed his car up a bit too near our wall, and the left front wheel got stuck in the open canal. As such, we implored the assistance of five neighborhood local muscles to eventually push it free. As my son doled out a hundred fivers for their much-needed help, we thought that just as the rest of the entire neighborhood had done, it was about time we closed our side of that “waterway” down for good.
That was roughly two years ago and right at the time when we were coming out of quarantine. Happy to say, he’s turned up to be a very fine driver after that incident and has now become our official (meaning ‘one and only’) family driver as mum and myself can’t drive.
With that being the case, I am always in awe, not only at his presence of mind while at the wheel, but also at how he has learned to handle two ‘backseat’ drivers offering non-stop directions on an almost daily basis. I guess how he has handled it is exactly how Gen Zs like him manage their stress nowadays, to drive and do other things with a comprehensive set of playlists ready as soundtracks for any occasion.
Speaking of music playlists, our older generations never really had the tech they conveniently have available today. At where I worked in the 80s, I only had the luxury of a battered double-deck cassette player at my desk from which to copy my selection of songs, and it took me days to compile a list because I still had to painstakingly dub most of it via the FM rock channel. My son does the job in a matter of hours, and almost every other day, he comes up with a new playlist each time, ready for the day’s driving.
Not that I envy the guy, of course. The fact is, I totally appreciate the freshness of his collection of today’s tunes (wherein 99 percent of the time, I don’t know who the artists are playing). Regarding his take on what I have on my phone, however, which on one or two instances I shared with him, he merely nods a respectable so-so, which is close to a dismissive no-no.
No matter, I’m not offended at all because what I particularly like about the playlist is his soundtracks of online games which closely resemble those of the fantasy movies we both love.
I guess this is just one of those daily little things that endear him to his old man and his nanay. It’s his birthday today, and it goes without saying we’ve come a very long way, from him being the tiny rugrat climbing up the window every morning to holler “good morning neighbors!” to being our mascot at the recording studio covering his ears and saying “excuse me” non-stop.
With at least six or seven little tykes present in the family today, it’s not difficult for me to imagine that I see our once-little guy in each of them. Because of this, my mindset nowadays always is: wonders never cease and in how we appreciate our children, may it be as fresh as day one.
