It is a pressure cooker

Mum thinks being twenty one and still single is a curse.

She thinks that being twenty and single and not being worried is even worse.

She thinks that being twenty and single and not being worried and actually being happy about it is the worst that could ever happen to HER.

She thinks I need to have a boyfriend.

Don't ask me why.

She had my dad call me all the way from Ontario to talk to me. Fortunately for me, Dad didn't like the idea of me having a boyfriend yet so he pretty much told mum to leave it alone.

Don't pressure her into having a boyfriend, talk her into studying law, he said.

Do'h!

He's always been on my back about studying law. Even when I was in Manila scouting for colleges to go to for just a couple of year before I came back here, he was selling his University to me. Bad.

I didn't take the bait.

Ok, Ateneo, he compromised.

No freaking way.

Because if I had agreed for Ateneo, I would've been a law student now.

In the end I got what I wanted. I studied communication arts and I loved every minute of my life. I loved the buzz I got when we were organising a play or a movie. Or beating a deadline for a script.

Then we would go down a local pub for a few drinks.

The work was excruciating but it was way worth it. I had an offer for an internship on my second year in college but I had to turn it down cos I was going to go back here.

Then I enrolled at TAFE. I wanted to do Film and TV. Dad was selling his LAW degree idea again. I finished my marketing diploma [I'd tell you why I decided to study marketing but that would be another blog entry...] and went on to University.

Again, Dad with his law degree and Mum with her tourism degree.

So I'm studying hotel management.

I'm a hotel management student with no boyfriend.

A pressure from my mum on having a boyfriend.

A pressure from my dad on studying law.

It sure is a pressure cooker.

And the worse part is, it's fucking summer.