Scene One:

The year: 1995. I was hunched over my book, reading. Then one of the guys from our lab approached me from behind and exclaimed:

“Kathy, nakakalbo ka na.” (Kathy, you’re starting to go bald.)

I carelessly shrugged off the comment the way you would dust off dandruff from your shoulders. I have had super-thin fine hair for as long as I could remember. I wasn’t exactly blessed with glorious mane like my two wicked sisters. And I have this ahm…cowlick that looks like a gash right smack on top of my head. We call it puyo in Tagalog, I think. My “puyo” is so obvious, peeking through the barest amount of hair, that it makes me sort of look err…balding. Depends on which angle you’re looking. Not as bald as your Archbishop in your favorite church, but …you get the picture. Incidentally my puyo is conveniently hidden whenever I tie my hair into a ponytail.

Scene Two:

Continue reading Who, Me? →

“You’ve got to get rid of all those papers,” Baggy told me one evening while we were sitting down for dinner.

“What papers?” I asked him.

“Those papers which you have accumulated for the last twelve years,” he replied. He was referring to the piles of papers I’ve kept all these years, and are still awaiting Judgement Day in the boxes which we had used when we moved out of our old place.

“Oh, that.” I sighed. I’m an avid collector of memorabilia and other mundane stuffs. And that includes anything and everything. I love to go over old stashes of papers and reminisce the events associated with each one. Like that brochure we got from the hotel when we stayed in Narita, or Singapore, or wherever. Or the handouts I got from my first six months of Japanese intensive course in Tohoku U, complete with my doodles and notes. You get the picture.

But this is Japan – where space is precious, and we don’t have the luxury of spacious storage space in our house. We have to take the “minimalist” approach: retain only what is essential, trash the inessentials.

Continue reading The Analogy Between Papers and Souls →

Speaking of cartoon characters, I think I’d like to be Bubbles of Powerpuff Girls. Soft and cute but could knock ’em monsters down. 🙂

Found this interesting meme about personalities and cartoon characters at Bernard Chan’s blog.

Intro to the tag :

Everyone has a personality of a cartoon character. Have you ever asked yourself what cartoon character you most resemble? Apparently, a group of investigators got together and analyzed the personalities of well-known, modern cartoon characters. The information that was gathered was made into this test.

Rules of the game :

Answer all the questions (only 10) with what describes you best, add up all your points (which are next to the answer that you choose) at the end and look for your results.

Okay, here goes :

Continue reading What Cartoon Character Am I? →

Do you fear change in your life, habits, attitude, even the people you live or work with? Or do you embrace change with enthusiasm, eager and hopeful for what’s going to happen next?

I will never be the same when I take this path

Change is inevitable. The world around us changes all the time. We change, too, even if we sometimes do not discern it ourselves. Just take a look at your photo taken a year or two ago. You just don’t look the same as before. Not just in terms of the extra wrinkly spots or newly sprouted white hairs, but in the way you think, feel, or react to situations. Although the previous year may seem too short, so many of life’s events that transpired during that year has changed you into the person you are now.

I see my daughter growing right before my eyes – all five years of her – and I just marvel at how fast she has changed from a helpless infant to a zestful preschooler. How much more different would she be in another five years’ time?

Continue reading Change →

When I was in college, I commuted everyday from our house in Tondo to the UP Diliman campus. It usually took me two hours on the road, one way. So that’s a total of four hours wasted everyday while waiting for jeepney rides, running after buses, and inhaling the carbon monoxide exhaust from the smoke belchers. Needless to say, even if I had left the house smelling fresh and cool from the morning shower, I would usually arrive in school two hours later all sweaty, smelling of smoke and virtually coated in soot and dust from head to toe. That was my daily routine. I happily endured it, all in the name of education.

During a particularly crowded day, together with several people I rushed towards a jeepney and squeezed myself into an available seat, unmindful of the people around me. I was intent on getting a seat, and that was all that mattered.

As soon as I sat down, to my horror I found that my bag had been unzipped and my wallet was missing. That was the first time that something like that happened to me, and I almost cried out in frustration. I couldn’t believe that someone would actually steal from a college student who only wanted to study hard and change the direction of her life for the better.

Continue reading The One About the Wallet →