The Eldest

Failed many times but never stopped, misjudged by everyone but never judged. Since she was young, the household chores were hers, the burden of being the eldest. While other children at her age played, she washed dishes, folded the clothes, and fed her younger siblings. At twelve years old, she traveled by herself all the way to Manila— her first time travel away from home. At the young age she work as a housekeeper to pay for her own tuition. Her family was so broke that they barely starved. At home, her parents beat her up, hung her upside down, said hateful words whenever they call her and she didn't respond. She's burdened by being the eldest, the weight that she has to carry. Each day, she carried those hardship in silence, burdened by life she skipped school, drank liquor, and smoked, not to rebel but to survive.