I DON’T know who spread the word that I am rich.
I mean, I’ve always thought that I was rich because I don’t need much.
I mean, I know that I can afford LV, Chanel, Gucci, Hermès, Balenciaga, et cetera.
I just don’t want them.
And I definitely don’t need them.
***
I live rather poorly, rather cheaply.
I mean, I travel a lot.
I mean, I have these great experiences with entertainment, luxurious dining, meeting famous people.
But it’s not like I’m paying the full price.
Instead of staying in a $200 per night hotel, I stay at $27 per night hostels.
But it doesn’t mean that I don’t eat, or do my toilet, in $400 hotels.
***
If I eat grandly at more than $30 a plate, you can be sure that somebody else is paying for my meal.
When I visit my friends, I volunteer to sleep on the couch.
And of course, they don’t let me.
At my friends’, I always feel comfortable with leftover food.
I’m the official refrigerator scavenger; anybody who really knows me understands that.
But of course, my friends always take me out to fancy restaurants.
And of course, I take photos at the restaurants. Haha.
***
Still, people think I’m super rich.
They Google my net worth.
They stalk my social media accounts full of travels, and exciting hard-to-fake lifestyle.
***
And so on the week that my uncle got sick with Covid-19, I got not one, but two, offers for real estate properties in the Philippines.
One was a short-sell for a house in Park Regency.
The other was a “good deal” for a small boarding house in a university belt.
How do I say, “I am not that rich!”?
***
When my uncle got sick, and the hospital bills were mounting, I could feel my family’s eyes on me.
But I only got to this point: I give what I can afford to give.
For everything else, I can give a loan.
But it has to be paid.
I don’t care if it will be paid in five or ten years’ time, but it has to be paid.
***
Now, that sounds selfish, or brazen.
But you must understand the whole story.
My uncle has a life insurance; at the very least, about half a million pesos.
And I am not the beneficiary, but my cousins.
Also, I campaigned hard for my uncle to get a Covid-19 vaccine; but somebody in the family got to him first, or hard.
So please do not paint me as the bad person here.
***
In the aftermath of my uncle’s death, my sister, the crazy one, called me selfish.
Because she thinks I had the money, and did not assume the 1.2M hospital bill.
Well, I let her call me names because I know she’s just grieving.
Raving mad. Going crazy.
Grief can do that to people.
Let’s just see what she says when she knows she is also not a beneficiary of uncle’s life insurance. Haha!
***
My uncle’s death and hospitalization has confirmed my fears.
And I will say it again, I do not want my family to spend on my health issues.
My budget for any serious illness is only 2M pesos.
If 2 million can’t save me, let me go.
Just let me go.
I have lived life to the fullest.
There is nothing I missed in this world.
Everything else after 50 for me is just a bonus!
I am rich that way.
***
When people declare that I am rich, I do not correct them.
Because in a way, I do feel rich.
I am not Marcos rich.
I am not politician rich.
I have no ill-gotten wealth.
And I worked hard for whatever I have.
***
I never stole from anyone.
And the fact that I’m happy with my life, that’s really rich.
I mean, that’s how I really want to be remembered.
***
I like that people think that I am rich.
I also don’t like that people think that I am rich.
Picture me just coming home from the US, and these people from my town visit me, and ask for assistance to buy medicines for their sick.
And I say, We got DSWD for that. You have your mayor’s and politicians’ discretionary funds for that.
And if people can understand it, I really want to say, “I am not the Messiah!”
Meaning, I maybe rich, but I’m not the Messiah!/PN
