Never Again

I believe everyone knows for a fact that experience is the best teacher in whatever it is that we do, but then we also know that there are some things that are better not experienced.

I'd like to explain better with a story of mine, something not so serious but a true story nonetheless. You see I used to be the guy in charge of cooking whenever mom was out handling her business. Yeah I know it's hard to believe (seeing how I usually complain about not knowing how to cook), but I used to do it.

_{Photo by Gaelle Marcel}

My mom would explain what I would do in theory and then leave for work. And by the time I was to prepare the meal, I would go on YouTube or Google to check what steps I was to take when preparing that meal. But you see, Google could only help with the steps, but it can't help you put in the right amount of salt needed, you needed the spirit of your ancestors whispering "that's enough, my son" for that.

So I would cook the meal and serve it to my father when he's back from work and it would be a disaster (the ancestors were clearly not in good terms with me). My dad wouldn't complain, but he would always tell me that it was better I added little salt, than too much salt and it was because one had a solution and the other didn't.

Well my mom continued making me make dinner and with time, the more experience I got, the better I got at perfectly adding my salt (the ancestors were pleased).

If it weren't for the multiple trials and the experience, I probably would had never gotten better at it. But like I said, having to experience everything isn't exactly a good thing because when I was little, I used to have this series of ear pains that only happened at night. I remember the feeling being like a grenade exploded right next to my ear and I could no longer hear anything except for that biiinnngggg sound i was feeling in my eardrum.

It was hell for me.

At the time, my dad had said that wearing earpiece all the time was what was causing the pains and I believed him (I still do) because I always had all this tiny radio with me or a Walkman and my earpiece were constantly in my ears from morning to night. Luckily for me, I've never had to go through that pain for years now even though I still make use of earpiece (though not as often as back in the day).

Now that is something I never ever wish to experience ever in my life again because I remember I would stay up all night, crying my eyes out while my siblings were all asleep and then when it's slowly getting to morning, I would finally doze off and when I wake up, the pains would be gone. It was literally coming like a thief in the night and I pray never to go through that again.