It’s 11 am and my mom is standing in the kitchen, busy preparing lunch. We’re having a discussion on whether or not to attend my cousin’s wedding in Australia. Discussion became arguments.

“I love you mom, but I really can't support you to Australia.”

“Oh now you’re yelling at me, now that you’ve all grown up, you think you can yell at me?”

“I just said I loved you and all you ever noticed was I yelled at you”.

Tears were gushing down my cheek. That was the first time I told her I love you.

Contest Master, fellow members and welcome guest.

In my family, love is a strange word. We were taught that to survive in life, you have to be tough, you have to be resilient, you have to conceal your emotions. But, don’t get me wrong, we have love and concern for each other, we just show it in a different way.

Ay ya ya..look at you! So skinny. Eat some more food

It's cold today, just t-shirt not enough. Wear jacket.

What! No more allowance? Here, take this

Those are just some of the little acts of love at home.

When I was little, I used to have piano lessons and I always had that envious look towards my cousin because they own a piano. So I asked my mom if she can buy me one and she did. She bought me a branded piano worth 55,000 PHP. 55,000PHP, that's equivalent to 33,000 twd and for a middle income family in the Philippines, that's 2 month’s livelihood expense. That’s how my mom shows her love to me, through food and material possessions

In return, I’ve also learned to give back food and material possessions. If my mom wants Gucci, Prada or iPhone, I would immediately buy it for her with tears on my eyes while paying the bills. But as I grew older, giving her material possessions no longer felt enough. I felt there's something missing in our relationship. I am there sitting beside my mom, but we're not talking much to each other. I'm her daughter, she's my mom and our relationship shouldn't just be built in food and material things.

I've always wanted to say to her how much I love her. Those 3 words are almost there at the tip of my tongue and yet I swallowed them back.

“Mom, I… have a Toastmasters meeting tomorrow night. Sorry I can’t make it to dinner.”

Days, months and years went by without saying those words.

One day, I went back home. I opened the door and there she was sitting by the computer table playing solitaire. For some unknown reason, it struck me when I noticed that all of her hair has turned grey.

I approached her, said “hi” and patted her head. I realized then that time is running short. She’s growing older and weaker by the day. Slowly caressing at each strands of grey hair, it reminded me of the difficult life my mom had - she was forced to stop her education to take care of her siblings.

She was forced to marry the wrong man. She was abandoned and left with 2 more kids to raised. She went through so many hardships, done so much for me and yet, here I was still struggling through the awkwardness to tell her how much she means to me.

Finally, I hugged her and whispered “I love you, ma”. There was a moment of silence and she said “I love you too.” To my surprise, that was her answer. I was expecting “are you pregnant?”, “are you sick?”, “did you do anything wrong lately?”. “I love you too” was never a response in my mind.

Growing up in an Asian family, I know exactly how awkward and hard is it to say I love you. I know some of us here might have good relationship with your loved ones such that there's no need to say those words.

But ladies and gentlemen, How would people know that they matter to you if you don't tell them? How would people know that they matter to you, if you don't tell them? Saying words of love will only take 2 seconds of courage.

Don’t let time pass you by without telling people who are dear to you, how you feel deep within. You might think I'll do it someday, but who can guarantee that someday will come? There’s never a better time to say the words of love than now. Contest master.

And I won’t miss this moment to tell my mom how much she means to me. She’s sitting right over there.

Ma, I've always wanted to say I love you. You’ve done everything you could to provide me the best things in life. You’ve raised me the best way you knew how. I am where I am today because of you.

I love you, ma.