Luciano Linsangan Gaboy

West Point, 1976

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Milmar Soyuz Gaboy on March 3, 2018:

Last February 1, at 4 in the morning I received the most devastating phone call I have ever had in my life. In his loneliest voice, my brother had informed me that our father had passed away due to cardiac arrest. I did not have any words, I could not speak, my hands were shaking and I felt that my heart sank down to the floor. My initial reaction was to drive back home to LA to my mom's house and be with family. During that quarter, I had 16 units of classes, 10 hrs. a week of internship and was doing research. Just like everyone else, my schedule was packed, but I dropped everything the moment I heard the news of my father's passing. This happened Thursday, I bought my plane ticket Friday and I flew back to the Philippines Sunday. The same day, I emailed all my professors and supervisor asking for a two-weeks off. Although there is a comforting element that my father is in the better place now, there is still that pain in my heart that he wouldn't be here physically to see me graduate and for me to hand him my diploma and say "Popc, I have made it!". I will never hear the words, my daughter I am proud of you. Which I am pretty sure he is. If there is one take away that I have learned from this experience is that family trumps the mundane facades of the modern world. Wherever I was in my career or academic journey, none of these mattered when I found out about the bad news. I dropped everything to fly back to the Philippines to see my dad and be with family. My message is not for you to stop working and stay at home. But my message is this. No matter where you are in life, let us be grounded and be mindful of the people that have motivated us, supported us, and raised us to be who we are today. Whether it's your parents, significant other, friends, family or children, let us not forget their roles in our lives. Growing up, my father would always tell me "there are so many things in life that you take for granted". Popc, I never took your love for granted and no matter how many times I say I love you and thankful I am for your love, I felt like it was not enough. My message to everyone is that today and days forward, let us always remind our loved ones how grateful and thankful we are for them. Let us not wait until they get sick or gone until we do so. Let us not take them for granted. I have learned that to be truly successful in the path we chose, let us not get lost into the world of consumerism, power, fame and even LinkedIn structure of social network. At the end of the day, it is those deep social connections, love from our family, sincere support from our friends makes all this hard work, life, meaningful and worthwhile.

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