Some 20 years ago, the Philippine economy was near collapse that my parents had to leave the country too. Being only 13 while my 2 younger brothers were only 10 & 11 (our eldest brother was 15), the 4 of us had to care for ourselves for several years.

Of course, my 2 younger brothers & I kept crying for the first few weeks & so, I looked-up to our eldest brother who was such a terribly bad boy when we we're growing-up that I knew I'll find strenght in him to carry on.

But it was upon seeing him break down in tears too that I realized we're in trouble! (I thought he'd rather see the parents gone so that no one will scold him anymore with all his bad ways:)

It was right then when I realized that we have no choice but to pull through somehow. Sink or swim, we had no choice but to survive by only the 4 of us without the parents.