Growing up in a family geared toward the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field, the performing arts wasn’t something they took seriously. The idea of one of us siblings going into the performing arts worried my parents. “Walang pera doon” is the usual argument I would hear, and it was something I agreed with…
Tag: Opinion
Change of plans
On my way to covering an event, I overheard a report on the radio that said overthinking can shorten one’s life. This struck me as I was just thinking about all the things I had to do for the day and the days to come. In my youth, I was often disappointed in myself when…
Clothes don’t make the man
If you were to ask me what I would wear on a nice Sunday morning stroll, I would insist on a plain navy blue polo shirt and a pair of white chino pants. I occasionally get compliments for the choice of outfit. But in choosing what to wear, I would pick the one that I…
Life after loss
Something definitely felt off that morning. The day before the DLSU College Admissions Test, I woke up sensing an ominous weight fill the air. A high school teacher had posted something that implied the passing of someone close. A few hours later, I received word from my classmates that the one who died was our…
It is okay to feel
It’s been more than three years since I first felt a lump in my breast. To say that I was scared was an understatement. I was still in my first year of college then, still settling in when suddenly the record screeched. Deep breath in. I have never really given much thought to my relationship…
Revelations comes in 11 years
I found it strange that my pastor never mentioned the Amazon fires. A month-long blaze is ripping into the lungs of our Earth—and he never said a thing. For nearly as long as I’ve been alive, I’ve attended a Protestant church, listening to the Gospel preached by a Protestant pulpit. Global warming was as constant…
Scarring heals
Dancing might be one of the most dangerous things one could do in the shower. I was ten when I decided to tap dance in the bathtub. The water from the shower gradually made the floor slippery. I already knew the possible consequences of my actions, but the music was hard to ignore. The next…
Attention, to those unaware
“Nasa isip mo lang yan.” (It’s all in your mind.) This is a typical remark given to people experiencing stress, worry, or fear. Often times, the impression one gets is that the person saying that is discounting their negative feelings to nothing more than a passing thought. People often discount mental illnesses to be a…
Jab, hook, straight
Life is often likened to a race—a marathon—where pacing yourself is necessary to last the whole stretch. We run with an end goal in mind, the finish line being our inspiration to cover the distance ahead of us in a finite amount of time. We start running and we do not stop—not looking back, in…
Fighting for what matters
Something unusual happened online recently, which caught my—and the rest of the student body’s—attention. The sister of one of the candidates for an Executive Board position called out her sibling’s opponent for allegedly spreading false allegations of corruption. Her brother was lending pens to voters heading for the booth. During this time, the other candidate…