It was ninety-five degrees at the end of January in Malaysia. Chinese New Year festival is upon us and it always excited me because it is the time of the year when all my relatives would gather at my grandparents’ house to celebrate the festivity. My grandparents’ house was like a magnet that attract all of us in one place no matter how busy everyone was.
I paid a visit to my grandparents’ house a week before the Chinese New Year to check out if they need my help preparing for the festival. My uncle asked me to assist him to build a swing outside of my grandparent's house and I accepted his request without knowing how laborious it is to build a swing. My uncle is a carpenter, so he is skilled enough to build anything and building a swing is just a walk in the park for him, and was in my sophomore year in high school who have no skill at the building, but I weight a hundred and eighty pounds and five feet and nine inches tall, and evidently still growing. I think the reason he asked me to assist him to build the swing is because of how tall and large I was, and he expected me to do all the heavy lifting.
As I mentioned earlier, the weather is very harsh in Malaysia especially during January because it is the driest month of the year. We would usually build the swing during the evening, which is the hottest time of the day. We planned to build the swing from steel and wooden plank with a finishing touch of green paint to make it look more aesthetic. We had to buy all these commodities from our local construction depot which is about ten to fifteen-minute walk between the depot and my grandparents’ house. The two of us had to carry all these heavy commodities under the blazing sun and we even had to make several trips because of our limited human resources. We are all covered in sweat while building the swing because we build it outdoors under the blazing sun and it was unbearable. I was very irritated because of the weather and I kept bending the nail when I am hammering in into the wooden plank. My uncle notices me and instead of getting mad about all the nail being wasted, he took his time to teach me how to properly hammer a nail. I can still hear the grunt we made when we lift all these heavy commodities, the sound of a nail being hammered, and the foul smell from our sweaty shirt after each day of hard work. I hated every moment of it, and I was very resentful of my uncle for dragging me into this laborious work.
We finish building the swing after four day of hard work. It was a laborious and resentful four day but for the first time, I felt extremely proud of what we had built. I could also see the pride on my uncle’s face when we move the swing to a shade after letting the paint dry in the sun. When I took a seat at that swing, I could tell that my uncle’s handiwork is flawless as expected, and all our struggles are worth it.
Chinese New Year is here, and all my relatives arrived at my grandparents’ house by noon just in time to enjoy the lion dance that my uncle recruited. The lion dance is a form of traditional dance in Chinese culture usually to celebrate the Chinese New Year festival. Thanks to my uncle, I can enjoy watching the lion dance every year. As far as I know, recruiting a group of the lion dance is expensive and it impressed me that my uncle always managed to recruit them every year just to let all our relatives to enjoy the festivity.
One thing that my younger relatives catch my eye on as soon as they arrived was the newly built swing. For me, I think a swing is one of the pieces of furniture that can never fail to amuse and spark a smile to a child's face. Having the swing at my grandparents’ house creates an incredible aura of happiness around the house because of all the children's laughter, like how a true festival should be. I could spot my uncle’s face while he is watching how happy the children were while playing with the swing, the smile drawn from his face show me that his unconditional love toward his family is strong and eternal. Now I realize why my uncle wanted to build a swing with me. It is pure joy while watch someone being loved unconditionally by another. I felt shameful that I resent him so much for the past few days for dragging me into the laborious work of building the swing.