in an mmmbop they're gone...

tin (aka colby) was right... listening to our high school guilty pleasures playlist does take away the stress... it takes me back to the days when law school was just a dream and the biggest dilemma we had was to make it to becky's kitchen and back before 6PM so she could stick to her after-6 diet.

i miss the 100 peso club.
i miss stalking the cutest social studies department chair st. scho ever had.
i miss the quadrangle and miming.
i miss the time when MTV actually played music and didn't have reality shows.
i miss the time when text messaging was only for the deaf.
i miss the boybands (no matter how irritating their bouncing steps were).
i miss wholesome bubblegum pop.

ten years was a lifetime ago. but for the next ten years, whenever i'm down, all i have to do is listen to the guilty pleasures playlist and i know that laughter is not far behind.

Song of the Day: This Is Our Song (by the now defunct boyband Code Red)

When my skies are gray

Make them clear again

When I'm weak you are strong

I need to hear the sound

You need to hear the words

This is how we all began

This is our song

missing my nips

it's been ten years since we all had lunch at the st. scho quadrangle table, trying to beat the chiming intercoms as we raced from the canteen to our table... having conversations with the teachers from the balcony of the faculty room and doing our nips sway.

some of us are busy with our careers, kids, boyfriends, husbands and school but we always ALWAYS find time to contact each other. we may never actually have the chance to open the WAHAHA music store or marry our teenybopper crushes (eeeeeeeew) but we will always make time to know how everyone else is doing.

can't wait to see them again.

Song of the Day: Walk on the Ocean (by Toad the Wet Sprocket)

We dont even have pictures
Just memories to hold
That grow sweeter each season
As we slowly grow old

To My Lions and Tigers and Bears

It's about time I learn to let go of some things. I've been through a lot of ups and downs this past year that I need to sit down and catch up on things. I need to take some time to figure some things out.

I've fallen and picked myself up at least half a dozen times every month this year. I've harbored ill-will and entertained thoughts of slipping muriatic acid into certain people's food. I've laughed till I cried at jokes I've heard a thousand times and I've thrown a law book across the room out of frustration at least once this past week. Too much has been going on that I failed to appreciate the better things in life.

I failed to appreciate what good friends I have, who are all willing to stick with me through good times and the bad. I failed to see that there are still people who have faith in others, those that see the good inside everyone.

I'm not yet ready to forgive those who hurt me-- I'm not that good enough a person yet. But I am a good enough person the thank the people in my life. I am thankful for the sun, brightening my day like nothing else can and I am thankful for the moon for being there after the sun has gone down. I am grateful for the stars that guided me on this journey called life and the knowledge it brings that I have something to look up to during the darkest of hours. I am grateful for the flowers along the path for making me feel better when I feel down and the thorns on the roses for teaching me to be careful. I am grateful for the rain for washing away my fears and my sorrows. Most of all, I am grateful for those that kept me company on this journey called life-- my lions and tigers and bears.

Two months of being a 25-year-old gave me a crash course on letting go. I also learned to let go of the past... past memories, past loves and learned to live a life that isn't based on the what-ifs of the world. I had to let go of what I had (and what I thought I had) to make room for new things in my life. I learned how to sort through the memories and the people, through clothes and shoes, books and photographs, cases and scratch paper. I'm closer to figuring out which ones have to go and which ones to keep. I will surely keep my lions and tigers and bears with me.

Exclusive Schools: Like...Whatever!

(my first article submitted to www.peyups.com)

“Oh my God! As in? Promise? It’s like… so confusing ha!”

“I swear, he is like… the cutest guy ever. Totally!”

“You know what? Her outfit is so baduy ha! It’s so last season!”

“Are you kidding me? I’m totally not going there! It’s so kadiri!”

“Those girls from that school are so unbelievably… oh gosh, (sabay roll the eyes then taas ng perfectly plucked or shaved kilay) like… they’re so duh!”

These are the words spoken in high pitched voices that we laugh at every time someone says them. All I can say is I used to speak that way. And sometimes, I revert into that dark side of mine para lang mang-inis ng tao.

Nakakapagtaka bakit natin pinagtatawanan ang mga taong ganito and why we always attribute these words to girls who came from exclusive schools, which I will not name for fear that someone might get offended. At hipokrita ako kapag sinabi kong hindi ako nagsalita ng ganito eh majority ng twenty-four years na namalagi ako sa mundong ito, sa all-girls’ school ako nanggaling. Apat na bagay lang ang pumapasok sa utak ng tao kapag sinabing exclusive school for girls: (1) maarte, (2) may kaaway na ibang girls’ school (na hindi natin alam kung saan talaga nagsimula), (3) hindi siya nakakuha ng virginity award nung graduation, OR (4) lesbian. Hindi lahat ng taga-exclusive school nasa isa sa mga categories na iyan habang buhay. That’s all a part of a phase that adolescent girls in such an environment go through.
I’m not trying to justify why girls from these schools are like that and I am not making fun of them… not now anyway. May mga panahon na nang-aasar lang ako ng tao dahil pag nalaman nila saan ako nag-high school, bigla akong babanatan ng mga salitang panimula ko sa article na ‘to. O, eh di ibigay kung anong ine-expect nila tapos pag dating sa acads, mapapa-wow nalang sila kasi pag dating ng recitation, biglang nawala yung slang. Or ma-shock sila kasi mas malutong pa ako sa chicharon magsabi ng mmmm…ina mo.(baka ma-censor)

Nasabi ko na kanina, galing ako sa exclusive school at natuto lang ako magsalita ng normal nung nag-college ako (kasi naman po, pag nagsalita ako ng ganun sa UP, malamang, na- KABLAM na ako di ba?). Naalala niyo yung “Legally Blonde” and how they were biased against her just because she was blonde? I think that the same thing is happening here: that we label people just because they came from exclusive schools. Affected pa ako nung college, lalo na nung sumali ako ng org kasi kapag tinatanong ako tuwing reporting at sasagot ako ng matino, inaartehan na nila yung pagsasalita nila… for the lack of a better way to express it… “kasi it’s like they were mocking me na.”

I’m already a law student and at this level, akala ko limot na yung labeling phase and people would be more mature so as not to judge by the schools. Eh kung yung “war” between exclusive girls’ schools nga hinayaan ko na (funny, my closest friends from college and in law school are from other girls’ schools), yung labeling pa? May classmate ako nung first year na loyalty awardee na ng isang exclusive girls’ school (kung may law nga lang daw dun, dun na rin siya nag-law eh). When a guy in our class found out where she was from, sabi nung guy, “Di ba lahat ng taga-_______ pok-pok?” What the *@#%? Leche, o ayun, nasampal siya nung friend ko! At hindi na ulit nagtangkang mag-comment ng ganun yung guy kasi baka hindi lang sampal ang abutin niya sakin pag may sinabi siyang similar comment sa akin. Baka makabalita nalang kayo ng law student na pinatay ng kaklase…

ANYHOO…

My point is: let’s not judge people because they went to a certain school or spoke in a certain manner. Hindi naman yun ang talagang nagpapakita kung sino sila hindi ba? It’s how they adjusted to that kind of environment that shaped the kind of people they are now. Bata pa lang tayo, tinuruan na tayo “not to judge a book by it’s cover.” Let me rephrase that to suit the situation: Do not judge a person by the school he or she went to. Anong magiging feeling niyo kapag kayo yung binigyan ng comment na kagaya nung binigay nung classmate ko? Kunyari makarinig kayo ng comment na “Ah, yung _________ (whatever school you went to, my dear reader)? Hindi ba bagsakan ng bagsak yan? Tingnan natin hindi kayo makasapak ng tao.

Para naman dun sa mga taong na-mention ko sa article na ito, specifically those from exclusive girls’ schools, sisterettes, ipakita ninyo na hindi lahat babaeng galing sa mga paaralan natin ay gaya ng sinasabi ng ibang makikitid ang utak. Patunayan natin na hindi lahat ng taga-all girls’ schools ay kaartehan lang ang alam. May ibubuga din naman tayo pag dating sa acads ha. Marami tayong pwedeng magawa para sa lipunan. Kaya lang sabi nila: “When a man speaks up, everybody listens. When a woman speaks up, people look at the packaging and if they like what they see, they listen.” I’m not sure if it’s true pero narinig siguro yung ng mga madreng nagpapalakad ng mga eskwelahan natin kaya naisip nila na plus points din yung magandang packaging kaya tayo binigyan ng kikay classes. It may sound biased pero I think that was supposed to be an eye-opener on how women are still discriminated against by some people… except that the nuns did not expect that their plan would backfire and some students would concentrate on the kikay stuff instead of acads. Yung Dalagang Pilipina program nila ay unti-unting nawala sa curriculum dahil na-misinterpret ito ng ibang estudyante bilang “how-to-make-paligaw class that later became “how-to-make-ligaw-a-guy” class. Once again, I emphasize the words SOME students.

So, next time na makarinig kayo ng “Let’s make tusok-tusok the fishball,” don’t judge at once. Get to know the person first and then you have the right to comment na maarte, coño, malandi o okay lang pala. Hindi niyo alam, baka kagaya kong lokang nang-gagago yung nakakausap niyong taga-girls’ school, leading you on na brainless bimbo siya tapos mapapa-wow nalang kayo sa performance niya sa class or sa pagiging jologs niya (there is a jologs hiding in every one of us). I’d like to emphasize para mag-stick sa utak ng nagbabasa: DO NOT GO BY FIRST IMPRESSIONS, BECAUSE THEY ARE OFTEN WRONG. I swear, as in.