Another lawyer in the family

BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – First, I would like to congratulate my son Robin, who just passed the Bar exams, results of which were released by the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
    We never talked about the matter when he took the exams and it had been a heavy cloud on us not knowing what the outcome would be.
    I called him up when news reached me that he passed. I could see he was visibly relieved when I saw him later since he lives along Brookside which is near the Environmental Management Bureau of the Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources where he works as an environmental management specialist.    
    He now joins my namesake, his elder lawyer-brother Alfred “Jay” Dizon Jr. in the roster of lawyers. Jay passed the Bar two years ago. How time flies.
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Somehow, I guess their hard training since they were kids as layout artists, newspaper distributors, folders and other work the Northern Philippine Times demanded of them and their brothers and sisters, molded and pushed them to dream and attain something better than doing tedious newspaper work for the rest of their lives.
    I was 38 years old when I started the NPT in year 2001 and everybody in the family had to do their share to make copies come out and hit newsstands week after week. I always told them to bear with the work since we did not have enough finances and since it was our main bread and butter for everyday expenses like to pay for their tuition.
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I guess they understood since nobody complained knowing I worked even at night as a musician in some Baguio bars until the wee hours of the morning even though the pay was not that much to make ends meet, then wake up early to work.
    Somehow, life became a little bit easier when we acquired some printing machines, but then the main one bogged down and it was back to basics.
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Seeing the hardship over the years, I guess, made the kids strong- willed to finish their studies and are now working in different fields with others staying far away from home like Manila.
    Life is still hard, but a little bit better now somehow and I’m gladdened when the kids, now adults, come home once in a while like during the Holy Week.
    When the others left this weekend, it seemed something was lacking once again -- the  rooms bare. But I knew they had to get out in this world to pursue what they wanted in life.
    Somehow, they are succeeding and when somebody attains something momentous in their lives, like Robin and Jay passing the Bar, it gladdens the heart, knowing that somehow, in raising children and making choices in life -- we, which includes their mother Ma. Consolacion “Babette” whose maiden name is Antonio of Caluttit, Bontoc, may have walked the right path after all -- with God’s grace.