“Hurry! Let’s move to the high ground” the ant suggested to the mosquito.

“No, I have a better idea” The mosquito held the ant with his hands and flew to the tree’s branches. Both watched the innumerable droplets shower.

“You? How about you?” the ant breaks the dead air.

“Huh? What about me?”

“Have you had your own story?”

“Oh… my story? You see it’s… hehe…”

“C’mon, it’s unfair. You knew mine so maybe it is just right to tell yours. Blurt it out, I will listen.”

“I also loved a girl, a mosquito of course… no… I mean I still love her… somehow, I found my strength to tell her how I feel for her.”

The mosquito’s face became more serious.

“Oh… now, what’s with the long face?”

“It’s the proboscis, man…” The mosquito feigned a smile while later redoubled into a sullen mope. He took a deep sigh and then continued on talking. “You know, I’m the man who takes risks. I am not the person who will undertake things only if he is sure that they will turn out as he desires.

He paused for a while. He closed his eyes to feel the breeze of the wind.

“Maybe it is not good to expect for something in return but I unconsciously find myself hoping.  I know I made some efforts though I may admit they are not impressive. It is just so hard to read her mind and I’m not a mind reader. I just don’t know…”

“Uhm..”

“You know, female mosquitoes are above us males. They have more responsibilities than we do. That is the status quo and I cannot do something about it. And I don’t want to get on her way. I don’t want to derange her plans. I don’t want to be the one who will drag her down. I just can’t help it… all she have to do is to tell me. I gladly will listen… I have a feeling that I know what she will tell me. I feel afraid but I must not. But I’m ready. I made myself ready.”

“So, it means you’re letting her go?”

“No. Not yet. I’m still holding onto something. But if it’s for the sake of the both of us…” The mosquito took another deep breath then he continues. “Sacrifices have to be made when we have to follow our hearts’ deepest desires. And I love her…”

The ant was so amazed by what the mosquito have told him. He found it amazing to see how a lively mosquito he had met a while ago is now a mosquito trying to feign a smile on his face. By the time they finished their talk, the sky has stopped crying. But the mosquito had his hard time trying to contain his tears.

Love. Time. Patience. There’s a park named Paradise set in the heart of the city. The sun is up after minutes of light rain. The flowers boast their colorful petals while the butterflies keep on circling around them. Yes, there are still butterflies that roam the busy streets and in the almost polluted air. Butterflies of modest colors…. Butterflies of elegance…

Then there’s an ant who watches distantly. He keeps on sighing and holding his breath upon seeing the picture he always want to view. He looks so keenly with eyes shining like the Polaris at night. The silence is too loud and the moment is still until a mosquito interrupted that solemn instant.

“Yo, wazzup?”

“Huh? Nothing.”, the only answer the ant gave. Then silence took place. He turn his head up again looking at the sky. The mosquito followed the ant’s eyes direction and found out the reason behind the ant’s current frame of mind. His eyes were set to a fine-looking butterfly, to be precise.

“Oh, I see. You like her?”

“Like? No… I love her… There’s more than that…”

“Oh, cmon. Tell it to her. Pursue that yearning!”

“I did. I already have. But it can’t be.”

“You don’t need to be a sucker for love! Get it? Sucker? Sucker? Hehe-“

The mosquito paused upon seeing the ant looks so serious. The ant sighed and nodded his head. Then, he looked up into the sky again, breathing so deep.

“Look! Take a look at her. Look at her wings. Look at how high she fly. Look at her colors. Ain’t she pretty? She’s great. But look at me, I’m just an ant. I don’t have colors, I don’t have wings. I’m just this, I have nothing to boast.”

“So, what are your plans?”

“Plans? I do not have any. I’m already contended on this way. I think it’s enough to see her smile every day, to hear her sweet voice. It’s just enough that I love her with all my heart. Do I need to do something? What? Will I court her? I don’t think so… it is just enough that I love her and I’m not expecting for anything from her.”

The mosquito put his hand to his head.

“But how will she fall for you if you don’t do something?”

“That is… the question which I don’t know the answer…”

Helpless I am,

Anticipating for every dreams

Juvenile is your beauty

Immaculate from the heavens

Without a glimpse of your face

Oh, I cannot live a day

Nothing more, I can say

You have the Oriental beauty

I cannot resist, I am your slave

Whenever I gaze at you

I feel an outburst of the utmost bliss

It’s enigmatic, I feel this way

It’s unusual; I’ve never been like this

Infatuated, am I strayed?

Am I in love? I  know it’s true

You are a flickering star

I’m just the moon watching you near

You are the mighty Sun

I’m just the sky overflowing by your radiance

We are worlds apart I think

How I wish that someday, somehow

Our roads will meet by luck

And I’ll be happy by your side

Yup, that’s from Parokya Ni Edgar’s First Day Funk. Nice advice, eh? But what if that very day will make you upset? When it is the day you give your best shot waking too early only and come rushing to the school only to find out there’s no professor to be seen. And you remember, your school does not even have a swimming pool.

It’s another funny thought that when we are in our usual school days, we wish for vacation to come early but when the long retreat came, oh how we wish school days will come rushing back. Whew! Time passes by so quickly, I hope you enjoyed your very own summer experience. Now we will engage ourselves to the same old (rigorous?) routine we are used to. It’s time to meet new professors, either an angel heaven sent or a wolf hiding in sheep cloth. I would like to share a Tom Bodett’s quote: “The difference between school and life? In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson.”

-oh, and remember, one thing we learn from school. Chalk does not work in any whiteboard but ink markers do work in a blackboard

I remember what happened this summer when I and my classmates decided to write a letter recommending a professor to be our lecturer in a particular subject. However, one of the professors there happened to read my letter. He truly objected to it and rejected the letter even before the department head read it. He said that our preferred professor is not that great in teaching and thus, giving credit to the other professor who we do not like. He even said that he prefers that prof saying she is much better.

Well, he prove himself wrong.

It is not what they (the professors) see in each other matters most.

It is on the eyes of the students to whom the professor spend days with them.

Let us end with tweaking lexicon to make college life less serious.

It’s a compilation of dictionary jokes from the Net and SMS. I added some myself:

ALLOWANCE – force that motivates you to go to school

BALL PEN – device used to draw something on the desk

BONUS – the key to pass the exam

BOOK – used to cover when sleeping or texting while in classes

BREAK – most enjoying subject

CLINIC – home of the best actors and actresses

DESK – serves as the students’ freedom wall and also a great companion during examinations

ERASER – throwable weapon of an angry teacher

GROUP STUDY – alibi used by students to be with friends in a drinking session

HOMEWORK – disturbs you when you watch TV

HUNGER – condition produced by five minutes of continuous studying

I.D – alternative ruler to draw straight lines with

LATE – happens when the teacher arrives earlier than expected

NOTEBOOK – substitute to fight heat

PROFESSOR – it’s either an angel heaven sent or a wolf hiding in sheep cloth

REPORTING – part time job (sometimes, full time) you are not paid for

STUDYING – causes sleepiness faster than a sleeping pill

SUMMER CLASSES – a viable alternative to a summer job

TOMORROW – deadline

UNIFORM – where you wipe your wet hands after going to the comfort room

–a prayer of a student for his professor…

Lord, I wish that my professor this semester would instill in his mind what his profession really means. I wish he will never pretend to know more than he does instead for him to know what he is going to teach. I wish he will have a passion for the subject and the passion for his students. He will have a passion to teach.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

TO MY CLASSMATES, see you when I see you…

BLOG OUT!

Are you the one we’re looking for?

Are you the one the youth needs; you satiate the hunger of the students to learn and quench their thirst for answers. Do you teach someone else with gentleness, discernment, and selflessness? Do you offer your experience and hard-won knowledge, so that you can help others to avoid mistakes that you’ve committed, to achieve results that you’ve been able to achieve, and to improve beyond what you’ve been able to accomplish?

Do you not read from books verbatim while giving lectures? Do you make sure your students express themselves in their own unique ways? Do you preserve the loving for learning long?

Lastly, do you appreciate their accomplishments rather than emphasizing their shortcomings?

If yes, congratulations! I wish you stay the way you are.

**

To my fellow students, this is the list we must incorporate to our daily school life.

• Good time management in everything we do.
• Do not procrastinate.
• Read. Read. Read
• Do not allow ourselves to be drowned by stress and school work.
• It is always helpful to have a good source of motivation.
• Learn from our own mistakes, work harder, and aim high for the next one!
• Find the passion to learn. Have the passion to discern.

***

I would like to share a striking line from Mark Twain – “I never allowed my schooling to interfere with my education.”

Let this new semester be significant to you rather to spend it dull and meaningless. Find answers to life. Seek for a better purpose

As what J.R.R. Tolkien has said through his novel, the Lord of the rings, “Not all who wanders are lost.”

TO MY CLASSMATES, see you when I see you…

BLOG OUT!

One hundred twelve years have marked your Independence

Your years, your splendor, your grace shone eminent

Let the whole nation rejoice and embrace your Prominence

Let the people weep for joy or pray so silent

Your flag of blue, red and white waves proud in the blue sky

As your stars and Sun shine throughout the islands

Like a noble eagle, thirsty of flight, you fly so high

As your hymn plays throughout the air; hear the March bands

You can barely recall from the scrolls of History

How men from the other lands maltreated your people

You long for the freedom as you tell us a story

Served as the symbol to be seen on the flagpole

Monstrosity of waves incinerate the dictators

By our zealous heroes who died for our nation

Their gallant efforts against the heathenish oppressors

Is the solid base of our emancipation

Behold! Purged from fear, the Filipino multitude cheers!

Mabuhay! Kalayaan ng ating bansa!

Like what our Katipuneros cried and broke into tears,

Viva la independencia Filipina!

in commemoration of June 12, 1898

Philippine Independence Day

But what can I promise you to give if promises are meant to be broken? What can I offer you to live if the life I have is all that’s been forsaken? I can give you bouquets of roses but we know that flowers will only wither. I can write a myriad of poems and sing a flock of songs but words are just empty and cold.

I know loving someone can bring you harm but I know it’s my purpose to make you feel so loved. I may not be the man you’ve always dreamed of neither be the greatest writer of love letters. Here I am, a simple guy who’s in love with you.

But frankly, I don’t care much if I don’t possess perfect physical features. It’s just I am already into grasping the idea of being contended. But, of course, I never stop believing that I can be better in a healthy way.

Wanting to be better is natural and human, and in fact, can actually be good. The danger comes when you go out of the boundaries. Defying gravity will only result to a grave impact when you hit the ground. Each one of us wants to become better in various aspects of our lives. All of us have our own insecurities.

But, hey, we can look at such things from an optimistic point of view. Let us not allow our insecurities to drag us down or make us feel bad about ourselves. Let us look at them as challenges as we continue to travel on our chosen path.

Most of us will always have insecurities but we can manage them better if we look at them in a positive light. The next time you think of improving something, don’t look at it as a way of getting compliments instead make a better reason for doing so. However, if you cannot change some things, change how you look at those things and you will enjoy life better.

You are not any greater when people praise you or any worse when they criticize you. Don’t live by the standards of this world or by the expectations of other people. Who you are is how God sees you, nothing more, and nothing less.

Well, anyone can be beautiful… but what does being beautiful really mean?

(Second of a series)

Raindrops started to pound angrily on the roof, stealing the stillness of the night. My mind would not want to allow me to take my slumber though the cool breeze entices my eyes to surrender. I stood up and went near the window, finding myself being amused by the racing droplets on our windowpane. Sitting by the window, I tried to sing lines from a melancholic song.

Someone has told me that most people tend to be more emotional at night. Well, I guess here’s the perfect moment for me to let loose of all my sentiments. Is this the feeling I get when blue skies turn to gray? Have I put myself under the spell of the rainfall?

Finding it irresistible, I quickly trotted my way outside to embrace the descent of water from the sky. The pouring rain devoured every inch of my body in just a matter of seconds. I spread-eagled and looked up to let the heaven cleanse my face. I looked around, I saw no one. I am all alone. I’m expecting for anyone to jump in and blend with me, someone to share with my laughter and tears. Alas, I saw nobody, I am all alone in the streets, in the benightedness. I thought I need a shelter from the rain shower.

I run as fast as I can and I felt like walking on water. I tried to scream but my voice was drowned by the sound of the incensed rain. I paused for a second but then continued on hopping on pools of water. Amused by the ripples I make when I tap my feet in the water, I found solace and joy in the middle of the dark empty street.

They say rain has a healing effect, not because it can get rid of prickly heat as what the elders say but it is for it can soothe any exhausted soul. The rain offers the perfect setting for one to think deeply. You can find sudden enlightenment. You can discern the difference between living and merely existing. However, I do not believe that the rain itself and the plain raindrops that will only make you drenched in the cold can heal any wounds. But I believe in one thing about the rain, it perfectly mixes the proper orchestration of mood, a potpourri of emotions.

I looked up in the sky only to see a starless night without the moon. The raindrops raced from my eyes to my chin. I find myself trying to wash away all my pain, all my worries. I just need to cry, my eyes are dry and I feel them sullen. Let the rain wash away my troubles, all my inhibitions. Let them drown my weary heart; let them clear my eyes of tears. And there I was, finding myself being soused in the rain.

People say there’s a rainbow always after the rain but silly I am for looking for one when I know it’s already dark. You cannot find a rainbow in the night, an illusory goal it may be like the very thing I really wanted to have.

I found my way home. I am soaked with my clothes being dampened. I dried myself up and put on my sleeping clothes. The rain hasn’t stopped but I need to take my rest. I still have miles to go before I go asleep. And miles to go before I go to sleep.

(First of a series)

9:00PM

9:01PM

Seconds continue to tick…

The TV is off and the whole sala is quiet.

I am all alone and still awake.

I don’t know if my parents and sisters are already asleep upstairs. I turned on the radio but I turned it off just the moment I heard a song. Here starts my sleepless night as memoirs and sentiments start to play with my heart. There, I start to write everything my mind wants to scribe.

“Promises are meant to be broken.”

I remember having that line as a response by someone who I have said “I promise to love you forever” to. I do admit to see the folly in my ways when I recall uttering such line to her for I have loved other girls after her. But there have never been WE and if I have given the chance, I might have put that line of mine into reality.

Honestly speaking, I get pestered whenever I hear someone said that promises are meant to be broken. I am a man of promises and also a man of fulfillments but I have heard that line in my entire life like a song that keeps on repeating. I really junked the idea that you make a promise only to let it die a natural death. Does it mean that making promises is like writing letters on thin air? So, what’s the essence of the word promise itself?

prom•ise \ ^▐ prä-mis\ n- a declaration that gives the person to whom it is made a right to expect or to claim the performance of forbearance of a specified act.

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary

Imagine a scroll which contains a special technique from a popular anime series. There’s always a magical seal in every scroll which makes it secured. But when something is completed or fulfilled, the seal becomes broken. that’s the same way with promises. A promise is a thing that people can hold on to, the way we say we keep promises. Why do we make promises anyway? It is because we give someone assurance of a fulfillment of something significant. A promise serves as the seal of that agreement and though it may sound contradictory, you break a promise when you fulfill it. Isn’t it true that the promise does not exist anymore if you already have fulfilled it?

Here I am… I’m still unaffected by the Sandman’s spell as my eyes showed no sign of an impending forty-winks. Here I am, going with the flow of my pen’s ink, rewriting that very phrase and giving it a new meaning.

For me, a promise is a seal of an assurance, that is, to be broken when someone fulfilled it.