leaving again

i'm set to leave for baguio today but i'm having second thoughts...

just turned in an outline for a lecture i'm supposed to give next week to a group of hs grads who are going to taiwan on a college scholarship. an outline which, btw, i crammed last night and early today because of this very bad habit of procrastinating...

also, i haven't fixed my requirements for law. plus, it's limee's 40th day (i dunno how to call it) on the 29th, e friday night pa dapat ang balik namin.

tsaka, kararating lang ni mama last friday at eto, lalayas na naman ako.

i haven't even packed my things yet, and here i am blogging haha.

well, it's been quite a while since i last posted so i promised myself i'll write a quick post.

graduation last sunday went well, although it was very, very tiring. 6:30 a.m. ba naman ang calltime for college grad then 3 p.m. for college grad. ang init pa especially during the luncheon. nakakapagod talaga. the first thing i did when i went home was to sleep (after eating of course) kahit andaming tao sa bahay...

funny how graduation felt like just one of those days...actually, i thought it was just like my high school graduation. i had butterflies in my stomach of course before the program started but after that, everything felt fine. not a hint of nostalgia. none at all. in fact, it felt like we were just practicing for graduation hehe...

it was fun though. we spent most of the time chatting throughout the ceremony, especially during the university grad. sa dami ba naman ng sinabitan ng medalya: 500+ cum laude, 120+ magna cum laude, at 10 summa cum laude, aabutin ka talaga ng gabi sa kakatunganga.

buti na lang katabi ko si kate. kung alam lang daw namin na nasa lilim ang mga summa (they were seated on the stage sheltered from the heat of the sun), pinagsikapan na lang daw sana namin. ang dami pang seats o, sabay turo sa monoblocks sa stage.

oo nga sabi ko. pero nung nalaman namin na mananatiling nakatayo ang mga summa while the rest of the honorees sa college nila ay sasabitan ng medal, wag na lang. halos isang daan ata ang sinabitan sa maskom. wawa naman sila pam at tere, nakatayo dun sa stage katabi si chancellor cao (it's the standing part, not the chancellor), ang sakit kaya nun sa paa!

well, anyway, tapos na rin ang graduation sa wakas. sa ngayon di pa nagsisink-in dahil ang dami pang ginagawa. one of these days, i should start missing the maskom people.

for the meantime, pag-iisipan ko muna kung tutuloy ako sa baguio...

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watchathink?

counting the days

ang saya ng remaining days namin sa naga. we spent saturday night at chili peppers with some beer and pulutan. excursion naman sa isang hot spring (na may ice cold river kung saan kami nag-ala tabing ilog) on sunday. night swimming the next two nights then on to our presentation for our hosts before we left on wednesday night.

things to miss about naga: halu-halong may mangga na 5 pesos lang, pinyang maliliit, at siyempre, who’d forget the embudo? oo nga pala, si ate jenny and her indian mangoes.

got back in manila early thursday morning. just when i thought makakapagpahinga na ko, di pa pala tapos ang mga kelangang gawin! i needed to pay for the clearance so pumila ako sa pnb cashier for almost an hour only to find out the next day that i needed to pay for the transcript also, so balik na naman ako. hay...

but things are really going well these days. i found out that two of my closest friends are graduating magna. both rhea and lawrence made it! of course, kate is also magna. cy almost made it but even if she didn't, i know she deserves it.

pam, by the way, will deliver the speech during the college grad (sorry pam for announcing it; hope you won't mind hehe...congrats!) while tere will give the speech at the univ grad. wow, ang galing naman ng maskom. nah, ang galing ng batch this year. mantakin mo, 10 summa from diliman alone! whew!

sa kaps din, all four of us graduating guys are finishing magna. astig!

not that the honors are the mere measure of excellence, pero i just knew this batch was something hehe. i'm sure the graduates will go places. so to all of us, congratulations!

***

maiba ako. while in naga, i received this email from sir alcuin of the inquirer. kinilabutan ako when i was reading it. it started this way...

"it has come to my attention that you mentioned my name
in your blog in a rather unflattering light. may i
know the circumstances to these comments? how and why
have i been referred to as "the dreaded" ..."

uh-uh. what did i do? i searched my archives and i found an entry, about a year ago pa yun, regarding a friend's assignment sa aguinaldo. sir alcuin happened to be the reporter at medyo nabanggit ko ang bargaining session ni lawrence at ni sir gerry. our fault really, kasi nakinig kami sa mga rumors before about him. kaya ako naman, sinulat ko "the dreaded" even without having met sir alcuin. ayun, i never thought blogging could get me into trouble.

so i explained to him the circumstances ng pagkabanggit ng pangalan niya and apologized na rin for "not getting the other side of the story" hehe. buti na lang mabait siya at sa reply niya, nagpasalamat pa siya for my answering his query. pwede pa nga daw akong humingi ng advise sa kanya on journ-related matters, basta wag lang math. whew! nabunutan ako ng tinik.

hay, the perils of blogging. naalala ko tuloy yung mga pinagsusulat ko dito. tumitindig balahibo ko habang binabasa ko ung mga previous posts, lalo na yung tungkol kay ms mu. did i sound obsessed, starstruck or what? ang babaw ng mga posts ko, some made no sense at all except to entertain and titillate the minds of the readers. hay...sabi ko na nga ba this blog is showbiz kaya dapat hindi sineseryoso. well, maybe from now on, baka maging serious na to.

come to think of it, it was a blessing in disguise na rin kasi i found out mabait naman pala si sir alcuin. i actually met him dun sa isang pdi lecture and he seemed nice naman, malayo sa mga kwento. he puts on a serious mask daw kasi while at work.

that somehow made my day. mahirap kasing may kagalit ka, o kaya may galit sa'yo. kung paiiralin ko ang insensitive me, i'll just ignore it so wawa 'yung galit pa rin dahil di ko man lang alam na galit siya haha. but i never bear grudges against anyone so the burden is theirs really (i'd like to think wala naman sigurong galit sa'kin no...speak up people or forever hold your peace hehe).

***

i recently received a message from a friend thanking me for inspiring her these past few years. i didn't know i had inspired her because all i did was to do my best in whatever i do. but i was really happy dahil nakatulong ako kahit papaano sa kanya.

naisip ko tuloy, more than the awards, it is the sincere thank you and the respect accorded to you by your peers that really makes all the efforts you've exerted all these years worth it. i'm thankful to have met friends who believe in me and in what i can do.

salamat din kaibigan for always being there and for all the support you've extended to me.

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every waking moment is a chance to do good and to do better.

turning a leaf

for the first time, i'm spending my birthday away from home. by the looks of it, masaya naman.

kagabi pa lang, party na. as it turned out, may kasama kami sa workcamp na nagbirthday kahapon. so, 3 of us went to buy 3 cakes (sa dami ba naman namin, kulang ang 1) only to find out na ang isa pala dun ay para sa akin haha.

then, 3 groups presented their cultural performances, kasama kami siyempre. yung 2 kumanta, kami nag-skit, kumanta, sumayaw...san ka pa? then, some of the guys stayed up late for an acoustic session.

what a way to end the day. afterall, namulot lang naman kami ng basura along the riverbanks of the bicol river in the morning at sa naga city dumpsite in the afternoon. and to think kakarating lang namin 5am kahapon. sayang nga raw at di namin naabutan ang pag-eembudo, i.e., pagsalok ng dirt sa canal. wow, how interesting. ang tanong nga daw ng mga tao, wala bang kanal sa maynila at namasahe pa kayo para maglinis? oh well. masaya magworkcamp so here we are.

kahapon was quite an extraordinary day. we gathered around the television sets to watch the Pope's burial. what an amazing sight to behold: throngs of people filling the st. peter's square to pay last respects to the man, undoubtedly one of the most important world figures in recent times. sayang i didn't take the chance to go to vatican last year. i never thought it would have been my only chance of seeing him.

what struck me about the whole ceremony was that i never saw an image of the pontiff anywhere. and the coffin was as simple as it could be. and yet, andaming dignitaries na andun.

i wonder how it would have felt if i were there. will the whole thing move me to tears? (naku, baka matuluyan na ako sa vatican at di na umuwi.) i wouldn't know of course but i certainly look up to the man who, even up to his last breath, was able to draw people closer to God.

the Pope's passing will certainly usher in a new page in the Church's history. coincidentally, while our eyes were all glued to the tv set, a pre-school graduation ceremony was taking place right beneath us, in the function room of the naga youth center. outside, around the swimming pool, there was a wedding reception, too. and i knew of at least five people na nagbibirthday.

coincidence? maybe. pero ang galing ng timing. all four signify an end to something and a dawning of a new one. personal thoughts? i'm looking forward to another good year ahead.

i'm spending the day preparing a newsletter chronicling our activities here. (watch out for the embudo chronicles.) that gives us a respite from the manual work, kaya eto, blogging on the side, in the guise of writing hehe. will start writing pretty soon. so there. wish me a great day, ok?

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salamat sa lahat nang nakaalala. i'm truly blessed to have you all, my friends.

leaving

i'm leaving later this morning for naga. we'll help repair a school, teach children and go on excursions and a tour around bicol. i'm more than excited i should say. sa 14 pa ang balik ko.

came from coron last weekend. that was really fun. two days of island-hopping, swimming, snorkling, rafting (and of course some working sessions in the evening)...what a welcome break after a really long, agonizing sem. and to think i just turned in a mediocre paper the day we left for a philo class--by mediocre i mean 11 pages, double-spaced, na tadtad pa ng spacing in between paragraphs. a terrible experience pero given the circumstances, that was the best i could have done. to my surprise, sir mendoza gave me a 1 haha. ambait, sobra.

mp177 was a different story. after spending countless nights and days doing the 50-page tv script, i got a 2! pero ok na rin yun kaysa inincomplete nya ako for submitting a definitely-below-ricky-lee-standard script.

wow, this sem's really groundbreaking. got a 4 in an exam in anthro (but not to worry, i'll pass), nasabon sa interview sa gma, at kung anu-ano pang kamalasan. on the positive side, got to debate with ms evang in class, traveled to other places more than 5 times i guess within the sem...what more could i ask for? (not that i'm so proud of a 4, but my wish came true: finally, masasabi ko nang complete ang college life ko. at may social life ako. lovelife...hmmm...it must have been love, but it's over now haha)

just turned in the bound copies of thesis yesterday. ang sarap ng pakiramdam. that's the ultimate sign na gagraduate ka na, yipee! now, we're just counting the days til 24...hope everything turns out really well.

stayed in maskom for some time yesterday. it feels weird na wala nang tao. maskom pa na maingay, masaya, magulo. will surely miss it. i know law school will definitely be different but what can i say...some good things come at a certain price.

which reminds me, i should be making some improvements in this blog some time soon. pagbalik ko siguro. i'll try to put in some really good journalistic stories. this site, after all, will be my sole outlet for my journalistic side. it's sad. 4 years kang nag-aral and you won't even get to practice what you've learned. and the opportunities that you only used to dream of are now coming to you pero kailangan mong tanggihan.

well, who knows what His plans are. i hope i'm stronger now to face them. i hope it's not too late. a basta, live each day a moment at a time. and make the best out of it. at least i've got some words to live by: every waking moment is a chance to do good and to do better.

i wish the Pope well. i'm sure he'll be in heaven. and to all the people who have recently left this temporary abode--terri schiavo, prince rainier of monaco, limee, the up eng'g student, at kung sino pa man--we'll see you soon. for the meantime, do watch over us, ok?

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so far so good so far