The promise of a new life

The promise of a new life 

E.R. (D. Guapo) October 5, 1995

May 13, 2013

By: Gina Yoryet Roman

D. R. High School Prom, Saturday May 11, 2013

It It feels like forever since I last posted but it really hasn’t been that long. This whole time I felt an empty void and was somewhat anxious and moody because one of my fundamentals was missing. Every time I skip writing (because of work related reasons), I go through bouts of fear because I feel as if I am going to lack motivation or run out of ideas. That is only the inner voice dramatizing over every single tiny matter. It’s like they say in Spanish, “Hacer una tormenta en un vaso de agua.” 

Last week I only posted two articles, not because I didn’t want to but because I really was extremely busy after suddenly being bombarded with a few different projects that literally consumed all of me for over a week, which had to force me to prioritize and set everything else aside. 

I am always so emotionally driven that despite being grateful for having work (I go through very slow and/or dead seasons throughout the year) I couldn’t help feeling annoyed and resentful because I was being pulled away from one of my passions...

When I am separated from one of my loves: Praying, working out, writing, volunteer work and reading, I tend to fall into a quantum of solace until I get to them once again. 

Anyhow, this isn’t about me but about D. R. (E. R2)...

Last week in between projects, there were a few ideas lingering in my mind. “The promise of a new life,” was one of them. It was created after my oldest sister sent me a few very colorful and lively pictures of D. R. AKA, Guapo Roman’s prom and his charming date. Wooow! I Immediately closed my eyes and brought back the chubby little joy that was born on October 5th 1995. Who would’ve thought that loving child would very soon blossom into a young man full of life. 

Here I am still admiring such charming pictures of him posing very elegantly and self-confident embracing his smiling date. This young man is the promise of a new beginning, a new life to choose between good and bad, to confront the not so rosie moments, rise after all the ups and downs, and prevail amidst all the black and white. He will learn to work arduously and know that there’s no such thing as a ‘free lunch,’ and be patient and mindful that someday every single suffering moment will have been worth it because he will reach the summit. He will learn to fight for his truth, morals, values, ideas, ethics, fundamentals, to shape and give purpose to the intact man he is meant to be, and to form a loving family of his own. He will have to learn to face the world alone, a cara limpia. There will be no river too deep nor mountain to high for him, he will fight every setback with his sword of truth, I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate him from what he is meant to become. Romans 8:38-39

Yet first and foremost, he will have to choose to go through the least trodden road or avoid it:

The Road Not Taken

by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - 

I took the one less traveled by

And that has made all the differ

As El Jefe of the second generation of Romans, he will be the one to carry out our legacy and set an example to all the little ones following his footsteps. And I, as his loving aunt will stand by him through his moments of crisis because under ANY circumstances will I let him wimp out on this world. And MUCH LESS will I let him break down in public. It is my duty to teach him to ALWAYS show a serene face and posture to the world we face no matter the turbulence. 

As I have watched him grow since moment one, I will keep observing that life take form and develop into a new promise...

Ben E. King

STAND BY ME

When the night has come

And the land is dark

And the moon is the only light we'll see

No I won't be afraid, no I won't be afraid

Just as long as you stand, stand by me

And darlin', darlin', stand by me, oh now now stand by me

Stand by me, stand by me

If the sky that we look upon

Should tumble and fall

And the mountains should crumble to the sea

I won't cry, I won't cry, no I won't shed a tear

Just as long as you stand, stand by me

And darlin', darlin', stand by me, oh stand by me

Stand by me, stand by me, stand by me, yeah

Whenever you're in trouble won't you stand by me, oh now now stand by me

Oh stand by me, stand by me, stand by me

Darlin', darlin', stand by me, stand by me

Oh stand by me, stand by me, stand by me