How I Conquered My Temper and Stopped Being Upset At Everything
Lessons From My Angry Mother
I used to be a Grade A loud mouth and an unearable hothead.
The operative phrase is “used to be”. So what changed?
Step back into the past with me, wont you?
Everything has a beginning…
I grew up in a typical Southeast Asian household. “What was that like,” you ask? Well, it meant that we were centuries away from the normal family scenes that you see in the west today. We had flying slippers and animated brooms directed at our buttocks every time we messed up as kids. While you used hangers to hang your clothes, we ran away from them. I don’t remember how many hangers have died in the process of meeting me and my brother’s butts. I’m not saying all families were the same, but at least it was for me and everyone I knew back in grade school.
Behind all those inanimate objects, was an all-powerful being — our mother. (In the case of me and my friends — our mothers!)
My mother knew everything. She would know what I planned to do even before I thought about them. She sensed secrets and she could smell sin from a mile away. You had to be careful about saying the wrong thing or flinching the wrong way. Or else, she would let loose a tirade of…
