Responsibilities of the Eldest Son

My small family have four members include my parents, me and my younger sister. I am the eldest son and the first paternal grandson in my family. Few years ago, I realized that my future would be full of responsibilities as other eldest sons in traditional Families. At that time, I was absolutely stressful. Since I attended college, I myself step by step understood it were benefits that make me become a stronger, more mature person, and I have strength to come to the whole new life after leaving the school.

As the eldest son in family, I should be a role model for my younger sister. Whatever I do it is always supervised by my parents. They want to make sure that I did not do wrong things, because it would affect on my sister's behavior. Therefore, my sister consider me as idol. She always follows my advice. She likes to share informations with me. We have a great brotherhood. My parents are happy about it, and I learned how to get along with people.

Being the first paternal grandson in a traditional Family, like my father has been doing, is a heavy responsibility or a great pride. There are a lots of ceremonies in Vietnamese culture, and many of them are Family ceremonies which are held by the first paternal grandson. The most important ceremony of the Family is ancestral ceremony, which all people belong to the great Family line come together and commemorate their ancestor. On this day, my father usually prepares a big supply of food. He has to kowtow (to kneel and pray) for hours in front of Ancestral altar. Currently, I am still young and I know I will do exactly what my father do now. It is could take energy and money but I am proud to be the lead of the Family.

After leaving the school, I will looking for a job which pay me enough to build up my own family and help my parents when they are retire. To looking for a high salary job I must be good at it's field. My family is just middle not rich, but my school fee is not affordable for everyone. Knowing that, I try to study as well as I can. In addition, I applied a part-time job in order to gain more experience before graduate. Although it is cost a lots of efforts, I believe I'm not wasting my time and my parents' money.

When I was younger, being the eldest son is a nightmare with me, but now it gives me some advantages: knowing how to get along with people, responsibilities of the lead in Family, receiving good education and good work experience. Actually I feel tired of being the eldest son, but I did not choose to be the eldest son or the first paternal grandson. I was born to be here. By realizing the fact, I try my best in this situation make my life better in the future.