3 min read1 “Hey, see you soon?” Read a text from E, 36, Spanish, 183cm tall. I was at NAIA Terminal 2 having breakfast with Gino and Makie at Jollibee. By pure coincidence, he and I were both traveling to Siquijor, taking the same 8am PAL flight to Dumaguete. It could have been the perfect meet-cute but…
Category: Personal Stories
Flight Delay, Bag Left Behind, False Start, A Very Long Run and An Unexpected Podium Finish
5 min readWhen a series of unfortunate events confound a certain plan, it would lead one to ponder whether soldiering on is a wise choice. I found myself in this situation two weeks ago when I decided that perhaps it is a wise idea to go back to Marbel to run a half marathon as part of…
Why I Like To Write
2 min readI must have been about 10 when I joined my elementary school’s paper, the Grader’s Folio. I didn’t think I was particularly talented but it seemed like the kind of club the honor students signed up to so I did. During my time in school, there was a lot of focus on academic meritocracy and…
Turning Over A New Leaf
5 min readAt the stroke of midnight on the eve of the Lunar New Year, I found myself standing on the famous shorelines of Boracay, marvelling at the fireworks that illuminated its night sky. I was in the company of some of my college best friends, people I realise I’ve now known for half of my life….
Little Moments That Make Home
7 min read🎶 Pagbibigyan na lang silangMagkandarapa na manligaw sayoIdadaan na lang kita sa awitin kong itoSabay ang tugtog ng gitara 🎶 Parokya ni Edgar’s Gitara played on the car stereo as we drove through the winding roads of Bohol. It was from a Spotify playlist curated by my cousins who are on average 10 years my…
Warm Fuzzy Feeling
< 1 min readThere’s something about rainy days that bring about warm fuzzy feelings. You wake up to a barely illuminated bedroom seeing as the sun hasn’t shone. You decide to lie in bed just a little longer hoping to hang on to the lingering dreamy languor of the previous night’s sleep. To no avail because you’ve already…
One Night
< 1 min readA microstory. “You were gone when I woke up, did I just dream it?” Twenty hours earlier, she would be tiptoeing around his hotel room, picking up pieces of her clothing scattered all over the place, careful not to make any noise. She opted to take off before sunrise with barely any sleep, to attempt…
In Memory Of A Life Well Lived
3 min readI remember that fateful Sunday morning clearly in my head, three years to this day. I was woken up from deep slumber by a familiar ringtone, a call from Tita Lucille via Facebook’s messenger. I had an inkling it was a call to be dreaded. I never get phone calls from family not preceded by…
A Teacher’s Resilience in the Time of COVID
3 min readFor the past few months, my Tita Wen, a public high school teacher, would occasionally call me to ask for help in initiating online meetings via Zoom, Microsoft Teams and most recently, Google Meets. These weren’t the most pleasurable of times. More often than not, my patience would already run out five minutes into the…
Mahjong
3 min readWhile casually talking about weekend plans over lunch the other day, one of my new colleagues said she was going to her friend’s house to play Mahjong. She’s 26. I was surprised. I’ve always thought of Mahjong as a game old people play. It reminded me of my late grandfather who used to frequent the…