What from your childhood are you most thankful for?

A loving family with a strong value foundation! When I think back to my childhood, I had to admit I had a really smooth ride, but life doesn't go as planned and each and every one of us is expected to take that roller coaster ride of life. I'm no exception. If there is one thing that this loving family with strong value foundation gave me was resiliency. So what do these values got to do with it? Love? Communications? Commitment? Values?

Ironically, communications wasn't really a bit thing for us, considering that it is one of the most important things to strengthen and maintain a good relationship. Credit that to a culture that we grew up with - passive and inexpressive. But despite that, our family was able to survive this. Love was definitely part of it, but I believe it's the values that we were embedded with that made a difference.

My parents were not perfect, we had a relatively happy and loving environment, but it has not always been that way every single day. The secret is that they believed in certain values that made a difference and these are the same values that served as a good foundation for each of us as we grew up.

• Love, Trust and Respect - we learned to build and earn the respect and trust of our parents as we grew up, and this gave us the privilege of making our own choices in life. Our parents never forced anything on us, but instead provided guidance in the midst of allowing us to grow into independent and self-reliant individuals on our own, even if this means exposing us to the challenges of life

• Honesty - my parents believed in being open and honest in everything we say and do. This sounds really simple and sometimes appear too good to be true, but the truth will always lead you to the right path, eventually

• Humility - one of the things my parents had taught us is to stay grounded and not let fame, fortune, nor conflicts drive who we will be in our lives. We all experience success in our lives, but oftentimes, we are tempted to stray and let the success and power overtake who we are. If we work hard to stay grounded, we can still enjoy the fruits of our success without losing who we really are

• Commitment - everything takes work or effort! No love can last forever without a "personal commitment" to make it last. No temptation can be destroyed without a "deliberate choice" by us to stand strong. No conflicts can be resolved without a belief that everything is possible and that it just requires a open heart and commitment to make it work.

Life doesn't always go the way we want and it is not always perfect, but having a strong value foundation allows us to survive the rollercoaster ride of life!

Thank you, Mom and Dad.