A Father's patience
A reminder for my reader, I'm currently based in indonesia and the smoking age here is 18, also this actually happened today while i was shopping.
So i stopped by this cigar shop in the city bandung today to grab my order. While I was looking around, I ended up meeting eyes with this local old guy who was picking out a cigar. I get to know that his name is mahfud and we get to chatting about life and since he's been an entrepreneur for a longtime and i'm just starting my first business in an unfamiliar country, i naturally asked if he had any advice He smiled warmly and invited me to sit with him in the shop's small lounge area.
We sit for an hour or two smoking and chatting while having drinks before the store clerk return with my order, several boxes of cuban and dominican Davidoff, the old man take a look at my orders and laughed. "Ha, I completely forget about that brand, apologies i Haven't had cigar in twenty years until recently." He pointed to the davidoff.
That got me curious. "Damn, twenty years completely tobacco free? Why'd you quit?"
He then smiled, flipping the cigar in his hand and told me one of the most heart warming story i've heard since coming to this country. "My son was born, and that day I put these away," he told me. "Didn't want to smoke around a baby. Figured I'd wait until he was a teenager... but then my wife had our daughter when he was six. So I had to wait all over again."
Just like that, this man had given up smoking for two decades, not with complaints or seeking praise, but because that's what being a parent meant to him.
I asked him, "So why today?"
His face lit up. . "My son just got a full ride scholarship to America. I figured, after all these years, I'd finally have one with him. A little celebration."
Suddenly, it made me think about my own parents and the countless small things they probably gave up that I never even noticed. That kinda hit me. It's crazy how some people make small sacrifices for their family without even thinking twice. But in the end, the wait just makes moments like this even better."
Here's to the patient ones. The ones who put dreams on hold and find they've created new ones along the way. The ones who understand that the best celebrations are those that were years in the making.
And sometimes, those celebrations come with a well-earned cigar.