The Road to 40 Day 16/365: Small steps

by | May 26, 2025 | Strawberry-Filled Donuts

Our Sunday provided a couple of new experiences for us.

It was a lazy Sunday where we found ourselves binging on K-Drama (Pump Up the Healthy Love, Viu) and resting. Che was able to run a bit on the treadmill, so at least she got some exercise done.

She got salmon head in one of her grocery runs, so we were thinking sinigang for it. Almost all ingredients were present, but we needed tomatoes.

I know it’s available in the mart downstairs, so I asked Vino to buy it. It’s really close by, so I found it as a good chance to let him do things on his own.

The other day, I asked him to take the trash downstairs, and while it’s pretty straightforward, I was still a bit anxious about that decision while he was outside.

But I know that at some point, he’ll need to do things by himself and Singapore is a great place for him to learn it because of how safe it is.

So I shadowed Vino through his minimart journey and tried not to talk to him or help him in any way. He would look, but I just let him be.

Near the mart, he confirmed that he was going to buy “calamansi” because his mom told him he should buy “kamatis.” He’s still learning, and at least I was there to confirm it, otherwise he would have come home alone with calamansi.

He did a good job overall, but he kinda forgot about the thing he bought after getting the change.

Growing up, I remember riding my bike to buy stuff for the house or for visitors whenever we had some. For my eighth birthday, my parents gave me my own bike with a basket in front. It even had these colorful things on each spoke of the wheel that made noise when you moved.

Looking back, I feel like we were given more freedom as kids back then. I could buy cigarettes and alcohol because the shop owner knows they’re not for me.

These days, you need to show an ID to buy those stuff. It’s not all bad and I get it, but it’s kind of an inconvenience.

But times have changed, I guess.

There’s always the fear of people with bad intentions and unforeseen accidents. But as I said, Singapore is a good place to practice independence.

I see kids going down by themselves to play in the HDB playgrounds or riding the bus by themselves. We’ll get there, for sure, but it won’t happen instantly.

Later in the day, we went to Church to hear mass at the Church of St. Bernadette, which is our regular parish on Sundays.

Last week, they said something about a ceremony happening this week but we didn’t realize the extent of it until we arrived.

When we arrived, we were told that the church is already full and we should go to a different section of the church to hear it.

We walked to the back where they set up the small chapel for people to hear the mass happening inside.

Apparently, the mass was for some people who were receiving the sacrament of confirmation and the cardinal was going to celebrate the mass. The sudden influx of people suddenly made sense.

It took longer than usual, but at least Vino didn’t sleep this time around. We’ll probably get him to some catechism classes soon to prepare him for his first Holy Communion.

Unlike Che and I who grew up in Catholic schools, Vino goes to a non-secular school. As a result, he’s exposed to other beliefs at an early age. Sure, we’d like him to go to a Catholic school as well, but several circumstances led to our decision to put him in the school he’s in.

However, I feel that it’s a good thing for him to be open to other people’s beliefs and practices at a young age. With him learning about other religions and practices, I hope he will have a deeper faith because he chooses to believe it and not because it’s shoved down his throat.

I am still learning how much information he can process at a time, so I’m treading slowly when talking about concepts like faith and religion.

But again, we’re taking small steps to get there.

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