Showing posts with label personal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label personal. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 03, 2012

On Failure

It wasn't until after college that I began to fail. Before that, I coasted. Best in English, editor-in-chief of my high school newspaper, Journalist of the Year, it all came easily and without much effort.

I graduated in the top ten of my class and hurdled the Intarmed qualifying exam, all without really trying. Sure, I studied and did my best on exams, but I didn't really work. College was a dizzying whirl, but I managed to balance all of it. I didn't excel in academics or at the campus newspaper where I wrote, but I wasn't too bad either. You could say that I was complacent, content just to get by.

All this would later have a detrimental effect.

Sunday, January 01, 2012

How I did with My 2011 Resolutions

How did I do for 2011?

This blog was revived partly to keep track of my goal to read one book a month. I'm proud to say that I did way more than that. Here's what I was able to achieve for 2011:

  • Continue taking a regular yoga class
  • Finish The Largest Pearl and write two other short stories for my portfolio
  • -I was able to write three more short stories: Malabon, Going Up, and Those That Live By the Gun.
  • Write regularly
  • Join the Palanca Awards
  • Read at least one book a month
  • -33 books read in 2011, hurrah!
  • Travel to somewhere I've never been
  • -Kalinga, Samar, and Moalboal, Cebu
  • Get the best scores possible in both the TOEFL and GRE
  • -I got a 700 in Verbal, 640 in Quantitative and 4.5 in Analytical Writing. And I aced the TOEFL.
  • Apply for an MFA in Creative Writing
  • -in process.
What I haven't done will have to remain a secret, but I'm happy with what I've achieved. Now onto 2012!

Monday, August 31, 2009

I'm back

Again. It's getting tiring, this disappearing and returning, this constant renewal of pledges and promises, only to be broken at the first sign of weakness.

But for today, I have eschewed Escape. And I am thinking and writing again. And that is enough.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

An antidote to sadness (or remembering vj in a stream of consciousness ala kenneth)

Hindi ako makapagsulat. Saan ako magsisimula? Paano ko sasabihin na si vj ang unang kaibigan ko sa kule? Minsan hindi natuloy ang genmit kasi konti lang ang dumating. Umupo siya sa tabi ko, at nagsimulang magkwento. At hindi na kami tumigil sa kwentuhan, ako, ang baguhan na walang alam, siya, na mahusay editor at makatang magsulat

Inamin siya sa kin minsan na kaya lang daw nila ako tinaggap kasi may potential ako magsulat. ganyan si vj, nakikita niya ang potential sa bawat tao. Kaibigan niya ang lahat, at pakiramdam namin, close kaming lahat sa kanya kasi wala siyang tinatago. Hindi siya namumuna. Sa mata niya, kahit na oily ang mukha mo at punung-puno ng pimples, lagi kang maganda.

Siya ang una kong nakwentuhan tugkol sa crush ko. Bawat lingo, may bago siyang sasabihin sa akin tungkol kay M. Pagkalipas ng ilang taon, ibang M naman ang pinagusapan namin, ang taong nagudyok sa kanyang humugot ng tala at gamitin itong pangkiskis sa kanyang puso.

Si vj na grand mameshka ng kultura, na sumasamba sa altar ng kulturang popular, na nagcacarstuffing kay Vanessa kahit na hindi pa siya marunong magdrive. Na kasama naming sumayaw sa saliw ng light my fire pagkatapos lumaklak ng alak, Na itinuring kong kuya, na laging hinahawakan ang aking siko tuwing tumatawid kami.

Kung may five stages sa grief cycle nasa pagitan na ako ng anger at sadness. Sabi ng kapatid ko, hindi ka ba nagbargain? Hindi, dahil kahit ano ang ipangako ko, hindi na siya babalik.

Wala nang kumakalong sa aking siko tuwing tumatawid ako.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

For a chance of winning a new moleskine notebook

In which to write and keep track of these goals and aspirations for the next 12 months:

1. write a novel
2. travel to somewhere I've never been
3. figure out what Master's degree I can't live without and start applying to schools
4. fall in love :D
5. learn basic html for blogging, and photo and video editing
6. shoot more photos and video
7. save up for and undergo laser eye surgery
8. take a regular yoga class
9. go diving at least three times a year
10. get a job that will be flexible yet allow me to travel
11. exercise at least three tines a week

Margaret Atwood writes that to name is to invoke. Hope that these invocations are fulfilled.

The Moleskine Notebook is courtesy of Avalon.PH
http://www.viloria.com/go/go.php/avalonph

For the Viloria.net contest rules, please see
Viloria.net

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Stuck in Stasis


You've got to get yourself together
You've got stuck in a moment and you can't get out of it
Don't say that later will be better now
You're stuck in a moment and you can't get out of it


And if the night runs over
And if the day won't last
And if your way should falter
Along the stony pass
It's just a moment
This time will pass


I've been stuck in stasis for quite some time now, but it's time to get out and face the world again.