Monday, March 27, 2006
Still On High School...
I once mentioned a fellow classmate's name to a friend, she reacted and said something like, "Oh, I don't like her so much. I heard that back then she was talking bad about me." Another time, I mentioned yet another classmate, and the response was, "Her? We were close once, but when she found out that the guy she likes liked me instead, she started to say things against me."
I sympathize. However, these incidents were more than a decade ago. We were all kids back then, prone to envy, foolish talk and pettiness. It's all in the past. You would think that after college, graduate studies, a career and a family, all those things in the past would be considered trivial and all the little resentments forgotten. Apparently, it's not.
I guess as some people glory in those olden days, they also hang on to the little resentments that they had then.
Time to get a life. Sa totoo lang!
I sympathize. However, these incidents were more than a decade ago. We were all kids back then, prone to envy, foolish talk and pettiness. It's all in the past. You would think that after college, graduate studies, a career and a family, all those things in the past would be considered trivial and all the little resentments forgotten. Apparently, it's not.
I guess as some people glory in those olden days, they also hang on to the little resentments that they had then.
Time to get a life. Sa totoo lang!
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Life after high school
I regularly receive e-mail from my High School e-group. I really enjoy walking down memory lane and recalling all the stupid stuff we did back then. The trouble my friends and I got ourselves into were the stuff made for hilarious teen flicks. But I have read again and again, emails claiming that high school days were the greatest, how we were the best batch, how the friends you make there are the friends you have for life, etc. I agree to an extent. But frankly, I can't relate.
It isn't that I didn't enjoy a certain amount of popularity then or that my memories of those days were bad. Oh, I had a lot of fun in High School. I had a great time and as good a set of friends as you possibly can, at that age and level. I just really don't think that my high school days were the greatest in my life, you know.
I didn't realize how much peer pressure there was in High School until after I left. I felt free from the trappings of 'popularity' and being cool. After, the 'selection' I had were more varied too when it came to the things I did, the friends I made, the places I went to. I was freed from wanting to be cool and popular -- to being myself. I didn't need to affiliate myself with a group to feel good or accepted. In college, I even got out of a sorority pledge simply because I felt that I didn't need to kowtow through the inititiation rites to feel accepted by a 'society' -- a bunch of sorority sisters that will try and dictate to me what I should do during all my years in college. Hell, I didn't get freed from the peer pressure in high school only to jump into it again with a bunch of sorority sisters. I remained what the fraternities and the sororities call a "barbarian". I thought I was pretty cool the way I was, and the way I always being recruited to be a pledge told me that thought I was too. :)
I enjoyed High School but that was just the prelude. In College, I felt that the best was yet to come. Yup, I did so much more with my life after that. I had more than my shares of failures and some successes, but it's been one hell of a ride.
High School should be fun and memorable, but your glory days they should NOT be. There's just more to life after, you know.
It isn't that I didn't enjoy a certain amount of popularity then or that my memories of those days were bad. Oh, I had a lot of fun in High School. I had a great time and as good a set of friends as you possibly can, at that age and level. I just really don't think that my high school days were the greatest in my life, you know.
I didn't realize how much peer pressure there was in High School until after I left. I felt free from the trappings of 'popularity' and being cool. After, the 'selection' I had were more varied too when it came to the things I did, the friends I made, the places I went to. I was freed from wanting to be cool and popular -- to being myself. I didn't need to affiliate myself with a group to feel good or accepted. In college, I even got out of a sorority pledge simply because I felt that I didn't need to kowtow through the inititiation rites to feel accepted by a 'society' -- a bunch of sorority sisters that will try and dictate to me what I should do during all my years in college. Hell, I didn't get freed from the peer pressure in high school only to jump into it again with a bunch of sorority sisters. I remained what the fraternities and the sororities call a "barbarian". I thought I was pretty cool the way I was, and the way I always being recruited to be a pledge told me that thought I was too. :)
I enjoyed High School but that was just the prelude. In College, I felt that the best was yet to come. Yup, I did so much more with my life after that. I had more than my shares of failures and some successes, but it's been one hell of a ride.
High School should be fun and memorable, but your glory days they should NOT be. There's just more to life after, you know.
Friday, March 24, 2006
"Kung may extra ka..."
Just because I live in a first world country, a few relatives back in the Philippines think I'm an endless pit of money. It's not that they're greedy, but sometimes they do forget that making a living in a first world country means my cost of living is higher as well. They have this idea that I have a lot of money to spare. I know that they don't ask out of greediness, and they probably think that it couldn't hurt to just ask. Hey, the worst response I can have is to tell them no, right?
But still, I do feel very bad sometimes when I can't meet their needs and wants. I and my family do have our own needs and wants to take care of in our lives and we don't always have the extra money to take care of theirs. Sometimes I even feel guilty about using our extra money to reward ourselves with a little family enjoyment simply because I wasn't able to give my relatives back home what they want.
I'm lucky compared to some of my friends whose relatives shamelessly try to take advantage of them just because they earn in dollars or euros. My relatives don't really ask me for everything. I'd be happy to give it to them though, if I could afford it. But I can't and I can only do so much. And unless you're in the same boat, you have no idea how sucky that feeling is.
But still, I do feel very bad sometimes when I can't meet their needs and wants. I and my family do have our own needs and wants to take care of in our lives and we don't always have the extra money to take care of theirs. Sometimes I even feel guilty about using our extra money to reward ourselves with a little family enjoyment simply because I wasn't able to give my relatives back home what they want.
I'm lucky compared to some of my friends whose relatives shamelessly try to take advantage of them just because they earn in dollars or euros. My relatives don't really ask me for everything. I'd be happy to give it to them though, if I could afford it. But I can't and I can only do so much. And unless you're in the same boat, you have no idea how sucky that feeling is.
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