The weekend over at Melaka was fruitful though tiring from the travelling up and down.

Another reason going back besides taking a break was to spend time with my family; visiting my roots.

I remember my childhood days where visits to Melaka were frequent for my family to spend time with my grandma and other relatives. But most of my relatives have already made Singapore their home.

Re-living my childhood memories is easy since most of the things in Melaka remains almost unchanged like the home my grandma lives. Even my aunties and uncles do not seem to age over the years.

This visit was primarily to celebrate my grandma’s 85th birthday. She has 9 sons and 1 daughter, so a grand total of 10 children. Grandchildren got aleast 13 and great grandchildren 5 and more on the way… Ha ha…

They say visiting your roots is good and I totally agree. When you study the past, you can understand the present and thus, be better prepared for the future.

For instance, most of my uncles love to drink. It made me realised why I picked the drinking bottle so easily in the past, cos I see them do it commonly when I was growing up. Indirectly, I modelled after them so that I could be part of them in order to be accepted as family.  

But of cos, family influence is just one factor. Ultimately, it’s the choices that we make in life as we assume responsiblity for our own lives.

In retrospect, now I see why God had commanded me to quit drinking; to free me and to change the curses to blessings on my family in the generations to come.

The future generations: My cousins, Jacintha and Aaron with grandma

In my own future family, I pray that I will be able to set an example of loving and serving God and His Church so that the generations of the next can model after and carry this lifestyle into their own families. Amen.