The Road to 40 Day 161/365: Empirical Learning

Vino learned a hard lesson this day, but one that he should carry over moving forward.

It’s our last day in Manila, so we really had no plans, just chill out, eat lunch while waiting for Che, and then head to the airport.

In the process of “chilling out,” Vino decided to take a dip in the bath tub. He had his tablet with him, which he does when he has an opportunity to take a long bath. I didn’t mind him, as he already knows what to do.

He came out, played more, charged the tablet while playing, and then it was time to go. He asked me if he had a screen protector, and I said he didn’t, but we can get one. He showed me a while part of his screen, which I recognized as moisture. I assumed it was from while he was in the tub and it was a bit hot.

Naturally, I told him that he had to take care of it, and he knows that electronics and water do not go well together. During this time, he just took everything that I said and didn’t make any excuses.

I tried to dry it off, and thought it was fine. We went to eat at the food court across the hotel as he requested for a burger. While I was buying his burger, I heard a loud cry and saw Vino devastated. I was puzzled, but worried about what happpened to him.

He showed me that his tablet had a lot of white lines and it wasn’t responding. I asked what happened, and that’s when he told me that it fell down the bath tub. Of course it was an accident, he’s old enough to know his tablet doesn’t swim. However, I also had to remind him that no one will drown if no one goes near the water to swim.

It didn’t take long for him to calm down, probably because he knows he messed up. It’s quite an expensive lesson, really, but these painful ones are the ones that you remember.

I decided to have it checked out at a nearby mall, since I know Apple isn’t going to honor any warranty for water damage the way it was damaged.

Dude checked it out, and figured he can’t fix it and that the LCD screen was already toast. Vino was still hopeful that he could still be able to use it, but I said the guy can’t do it. He’s sad, but it feels like he’s already accepted reality.

We walked back to the hotel, this time he was holding on to me again. I told him that he needed to be honest with me about anything. I know that he tried to hide the fact that his tablet went swimming because he was afraid he’d get scolded. But hearing him say “daddy, can you please help me fix it?” while crying his eyes out at the food court just melted me.

If I could, I would have fixed it right there.

Again, it’s not the first time that I’ve told him to be careful with his things, so I was really angry about what happened when I first saw it. As he was crying, all I could say was that I’ll try.

I tried my hardest not to victim-blame him for what happened. But I had to remind him that he had to be completely honest with me about anything, because I can’t help him if he’s so far down a hole already. If he had told me immediately that his tablet fell in the tub, maybe I would have Googled immediately what I should do and prevented potentially drastic damage.

Unfortunately, he kept it from me, hoping it’s going to be ok, and it went from bad to worse. At that point, I literally cannot do anything.

I guess once he saw that I was really trying, he was back to finding comfort in me as opposed to being scared that I was angry about what he did.

We had to rush to the airport, because of Philippine traffic, but at least it’s not so bad because we were heading to Terminal 1, which is exclusive to Philippine Airlines so not as huge in terms of people traffic.

We had time to spare so we ate a bit while waiting for our boarding time. What was supposed to be a 7:45pm flight departed at 8:30pm because the turnaround plane was late.

It was a full flight, so Che and Vino sat together while I sat behind them. It was mostly an uneventful flight, save for the fact that the guy beside me kept sleeping on my shoulder. He kept doing it despite me giving him a bit of a stiff shoulder bump, so I decided to just play on my phone so that the glare bothers him as he leans on me.

Vino slept in the car going home and I had to carry him to the house. As Che was supposed to remove his shoes, we noticed that one of his shoes were missing. We are guessing it fell inside the Grab ride going home.

Che and I have always said that Vino evolves as a person every trip. I didn’t expect any lessons from this short trip, but Vino had to have one in the last day of our trip.

I hope experience is a good teacher for him.