WRITING AND PEACE

One afternoon in the audio room in UST Commerce Building I attended an Art & Literary workshop. Since I love writing I was asked to attend together with other writers in our batch. I expected a boring, sleep-inducing session but with award winning writers as speakers you have no choice but to fight off yawning for the nth time and try to focus. After all, we were in the presence of greatness. And I had to make the most out of it. And try to get some tips on how to write more effectively with perfect word constructions. Knowned Filipino writers Ophelia Dimalanta and Lourd De Veyra of the band Radioactive Sago Project plus 2 other speakers whose names I can't remember (sorry) were the lecturers. They showed us samples of their works. I must admit I was amazed. So after I think 2 or was that 3?hours I thought it was over, suddenly the host announced that there will be a suprise literary contest. Crap. Great. I was not ready. And I feel worn out since we had an exam in taxation that day. But I just can't leave, so feeling obliged I sat again and listened to the mechanics. We were asked to pick a topic or theme and we could choose the language we want to use. Since I was brain dead I chose to compose an essay in Tagalog (haha) about past and present heroes. In summary my essay was a comparison between Ninoy Aquino (I'm fond of him coz I was born 2 days after he got shot so I feel some kinda weird connection with him haha!) and modern day heroes involving the youth of today. So after an hour I turned in my material and left. Upon reaching home my friend phoned saying I won haha tough luck! I won in the Sanaysay Division (wow lalim lang db yuck), well the cash prize got me more excited more than the ragnarok cd and the medal. Haha! There's moolah in writing! My first! Haha!

Before the contest I asked for Lourd's autograph on a torn paper from my miniature notebook. I looked at what he wrote and it made me smile. :) He'd drawn a peace sign and scribbled the words, "PAX, do you know what your name means in Latin?" Hehe maybe it's his way of saying I should live up to my name. :P Well, I believe I am! No one loves peace more than me, though sometimes when the situation calls for it I could totally bitch away. But that's less then seldom. So yeah I love peace. And if there's anything or anyone that is best suited for Globe's tagline "connecting people" that would be me. Hehe! I never filter my friends, I never choose. Although they said it's good to sometimes do, coz you know we live in the world of outright commensalism. And some friends could and would suck everything they can from you. But that's only for people who doesnt know their boundaries or their limits. And for people who gets their identity from the people they are with. That's not me. I don't build reputation from the people surrounding me. I treat people nicely not because they have fancy cars or they are high profile, but because they are good and they deserve a chance to be ackowledged. I believe that there is an innate goodness in everyone that some people just miss because they are too busy with themselves. A good friend from St. Scho told me once that I am the mediator between the aliens and the earthly beings in our school. I don't know what that means but I believe it's because I was able to build bridges for everyone. When I was in 3rd year HS there was this kid who everyone thinks is weird coz she's super quiet and just sits in her chair. One day we had a suprise test and as usual I had no pad paper together with almost half of our class. The "weird" girl was my seatmate and when the quiz was announced she was I think in the guidance office. So we were scrambling for a piece of paper to write on (or else we'll all fail) when lo and behold! There lying on top of her armchair is one whole pad of intermediate pad. I know what I did was wrong but we were desperate and I just thought I'd buy her a new one after, so I picked up the whole pad and distributed the paper to everyone who have none. When she got back she saw the almost finished pad of paper. I know she got mad coz she suddenly turned to me and shouted "F--- you!". It was supposed to be I dunno scary? But we found it hilarious. So it made the whole class laugh. And I was kinda proud of her. I said sorry and the rest was history. :) She became my friend from then on, and everyone else's. They just can't believe that a timid girl like her could f**cking curse! Haha! So yeah I might have built bridges, and I still am everyday. It's what this world need, bridges. For peace, for love, for hope.

So have you built any bridges lately?