My parents had always told me to respect my elders, and especially those who had helped me throughout my life.
Growing up, I was surrounded by my grandparents and aunts and uncles who were always ready to give me advice.
This past Chinese New Year, my relatives gave me a lot of hong bao or red packets with money in them.
I was so excited to get the red packets and I thought it was really generous of my relatives to give me so much money.
I expected to get the same this year.
But as I opened the red packets, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed. Most of the red packets contained only two dollars.
I felt embarrassed and angry at the same time. Even though I was grateful for the gift, I couldn’t stop the feeling of receiving only $2 in my red packet.
I had expected more from my relatives because who still has the ‘face’ to give $2 for red packet nowadays.
I was so angry and disappointed that relatives I decided to never speak to them again.
If they can be such misers then there’s no point in me looking up to them again.
From then on, I decided to never trust my relatives again. I thought that if they didn’t think I was worth more than two dollars, then why should I bother with them?
I was so angry and disappointed that I felt like I couldn’t even look them in the eye anymore.
I just want to erase them out of my life and I vow never to entertain them anymore.