Dear mom and dad,

How are you both? Are you enjoying your stay in the cosmopolitan New York City? Please do take some time off to enjoy yourselves - go visit the museums, the art galleries, the breathtaking scenery. Pamper yourselves for you deserve it.

The school has asked every single student to write a letter to their parents. The letter, as explained by the teacher, is supposed to contain expressions of thanks and gratitude, and, as the teacher so carefully noted, it has to be written on fancy letter paper. I know not of the significance of the floral letter paper, with its floral scent, but I am aware of the great significance of the letter, and its importance to you both. In that way, I reckon this would be one of the hardest letters to compose, but I will try my very best.

I will be graduating from high school soon, in approximately a month's time. October 26th will mark the end of a large section of my education, and the beginning of my venture into tertiary education. Indeed, time does fly. It just seems like yesterday that I first stepped into kindergarten, with mom by my side. I remember learning for the very first time, the meaning of the two overused words in society today - 'hurry up', through the experience of mistaking it to be another girl's name. I remember too, among other things, my first day at Primary School, how I felt like a total stranger in a room of thirty-odd students, all of whom were foreign to me. I remember thinking how I would dearly like to have both of you by my side, to protect me and to satisfy my desire for known company.

I see clearly the pride in your eyes as you loudly declared to dinner guests that your daughter had managed to transfer into the top primary schools in Singapore under a Supplementary Program. I can almost visualize the joy you felt when you sat in the darkened SLF auditorium, as I lead the kindergarten graduation recital. While obvious distinction of merit might have fallen fewer and farther between, I still am aware of the pride and immense faith you have in me. I truly want to be worthy of the faith and to be able to bring on more sources of that pride.

Yet I do know that while physical achievements do make you proud, at the end of the day, it is the person that I have become that would truly matter to you. Mom and dad, I do hope that I can make you proud of me, in that aspect. You both have done a great job bringing me up, demonstrating by your examples how to live a virtuous life. You both are the most generous persons I've ever come to known. I've seen the way you both interact with other people, and how your expectations of yourselves are always so high, while freely giving concessions to other people. Sometimes what you both do make me mad. I perhaps will not ever fully understand why you carry on lending money to a certain character X, when you know that what goes out will never come back. I do not deny that at times like that, feelings of disgust at your foolish generosity have crossed my mind. I recall,. more than once, fuming about how you dismissively said, ' no matter' after certain unjust was dealed your way. Yet, slowly I am understanding that perhaps to you both, materialistic possessions do not matter that much anymore, for there are much more important things than that. Your forgiveness and values are just two of the vast pool of things that I am trying to learn.

I cannot think of any two other people bringing me up better than you both do. True enough, the punishments handed out by any one of you really did hurt; but while they hurt me physically, you were the one who felt the true impact of emotional pain. But I do thank you for correcting me when I am wrong, and for that sharp spank to draw me back on track, before little mistakes turned into huge, irreversible ones.

I know that I am not the perfect child, and at times I can be difficult, especially in terms of housework. But I truly wish to bring you joy and a very full heart to my greatest ability. I do not wish for you both to worry, although despite me saying that you will worry anyway. I guess it is perhaps due to the very deepset Asian tradition instilled in the household that affection has never been openly displayed. Yet, I am constantly aware of the love you both have for me and the little actions that you do to show that. They may seem like little things to you, like the way you both would stroke me to sleep when I was little, but they magnify themselves to gargantuan proportions in term of making me aware that you both do care alot.

Yet, I wonder if you both know my feelings for you too. I do not want to be the one left crying when someday you both have departed, leaving me with the regret of not having let you know about the way I feel about you both. It is a little self-serving maybe, but sometimes the simplest of words are the hardest to voice out.

Mom and dad, I want you both to know how much I love you. You guys rock! Come home safely, for I miss you both.