'Tis a Tears Day...

This early dawn of February 14th, while the rain pours with cold winds and thunders, my sister suddenly received a text message. I already had a feeling of what the message contained. I don’t know what to do though I knew this time would come. I knew that he had to take a rest. I knew that he will leave us. But it slowly digested in my mind.

He had suffered a lot due to his sickness. He had a kidney failure. For that, he can’t walk the normal way. It was hard for him to take a pee and a poo. It was also hard for him to utter the words he wanted to speak. He only eats a little and always complains of his food. He was only allowed to eat fish, either smoked or “tinola”.

He is my father’s brother, the oldest among four siblings while my father is the youngest. He has a wife and a daughter. His daughter is pregnant and goes to work while his wife says she can’t do it alone. That’s why he was transferred last month into our house after having a dialysis. 

Our daily routine rapidly changed when any one of us should look after him. To bathe him, feed him, to cut his nails, to accompany him to the toilet… to take care of him. I understand the fact that his family can’t do these things. But what I don’t understand is when she doesn’t sleep in our house to look after her husband. She only goes there to bring food and his medicines. They rarely talk to him. 

Perhaps there's a reason behind it. Mom said he weren't a good father and a husband. He was always gambling and never had a permanent job. But I think it's not enough reason to neglect him in the last days of his life. They should have used the remaining time to show their love to him. They should have let him enter their house three days before his death. They should have accepted him and forgive him. But they didn't. They closed their doors as well as their hearts.  

And now, his life ended without his family beside him. Now I'm wondering, is he in peace right now? Had he already ask forgiveness for all those things he did in the past to his family? Was he forgiven? 

I hope you're fine now, Uncle. No more sufferings and no more pain there in your journey to heaven... Goodbye.

Crying. It's when a tiny drop of water is born from you eyes, run down to your cheeks and die on your lips. It has been one of the easiest ways to express my emotions. May it be happiness or sadness. This time though, it is the latter.  

It has been a while since I last cried. The last time was when I was watching an episode of Maalaala Mo Kaya, which I forgot the title. It was a story of a father who worked hard being a construction worker just to earn money to support his family. Coincidentally, they are from Talay, Dumaguete City just a few distance away from our barangay (Bagacay).  He skipped meals and worked overtime. One evening, when his children are eating their meals, he suddenly panicked and warned his family to lie down since there are men who are looking for him and would try to kill him. It was long before they knew that those are just products of his insanity. He was plainly hallucinating. That's how the story evolves - as the father who once was the breadwinner while his family are relying on him until he suddenly became a burden. It was a story of love and acceptance within the family as well as with the people around them.

Oops, I went too far from what I wanted to blog this time! But honestly, I'm not really good in talking out or writing my feelings. Probably, I'm just so naive that I just want to keep it to myself. Now I'm wondering why I  took up BS Psychology in the first place! My friends often misunderstood me when I tell them that I have problems, they won't believe me because they said that they don't see it. Perhaps, it's one of my defense mechanisms. I'm trying to suppress my emotions and memories per se just to escape from hurt and stress. And I think it's effective but on the other hand, people might have different perceptions towards my actions.

P.S. There are just some things that are out of your control. People don't really know you. They misinterpret your actions. They don't understand you until you have to explain some things to them. And only few people are concern to you: you, yourself and only you.

Piknik: Edit a Pic

Earlier this morning, after an essay midterm exam continuation in our Social Psychology class, I went directly to our school pub office. Feeling disheartened by making four essays which I haven't read some articles of our copies and missed my breakfast again to come on time, but still end up late. Opening the door, I found Mayet and Leonil facing the computer. Leonil was watching some art photos while Mayet, our photographer seemed very happy putting designs on her photos. Curious, I asked her what it was and she said that through that site, editing photos would be easier compared to using Adobe Photoshop. As a neophyte in photo editing, here is my first edited photo... 

see the difference between that and below...

Hurry and have your photos edited... before piknik.com is closing this April 19, 2012!!! :)

Bacolod Escapade

I was out of town last week. It was so sudden since I wasn’t actually the one who should be joining the conference. Thanks for Albert and Jessie who chose to stay and attend their academic responsibilities, while I and Shenmae were opted to go. Anyways, I would just like to share my experience on our Bacolod escapade, a fun-learning but also a near-death experience to the seven of us who joined the The Spectrum Fellowship 2012 National Campus Journalism Conference and the 2nd National Campus Press Awards held in Nature’s Village Resort, Talisay City, Negros Occidental for three short days from January 26 to 28 (so biteeen!). I hope you enjoy the trip through these photos…!

waiting for Ryan and Rolyn at the terminal

after we set our feet to Bacolod, we hurriedly rode in their tiny-type of tricycle going to the venue

we arrived there late, just in time for lunch...
me there at the center listening intently to the speaker

we were actually very lucky to have this picture taken with CY Untalan
who spoke about  how to inject humor in  features articles

dived into our individual beds in room 11, 2nd floor of the hotel after the first day of the seminar

On friday, January 27th...

dressed in semi-formal wear for the Fellowship Night (w/ our EIC Ken)

with the whole delegates, including my crush in-front Joey :)

TN delegate: Ken, Joey, me, Shenmae and Ryan
(Rolyn wasn't in the photo since she went home after lunch)

here with Epi, The Spectrum EIC, DLSU-Bacolod

Horrifying!!!

After the event, we decided, after minutes of persuading me, to go to a bar, but luckily, we don't have that much money to pay for the entrance fee, so my supposed first time to enter that certain hideous place didn’t came to happen.  We just went strolling the Bacolod streets at 2 am and found ourselves in this intersection where an fx or somewhat pajero almost collide with the fast-pacing ambulance. 

we could have been killed if not with the amazing brakes of the ambulance's driver!...

After that shocking incident, we took a chill inside Jollibee and rode back to the bar...

while waiting for the others, 2 young men punched and kicked
this foreigner outside the bar until he fell to the ground...

Horrifying isn't it? We were right there watching them like in those action movies. The journalists in us was totally forgotten since we didn't even get to take the pajero’s plate number (the nurses inside the ambulance asked us about it) and we haven’t got a picture of those two men who escaped after the scene while our photographer had a camera in hand (the foreigner’s relatives were willing to pay about a hundred thousand or more if only we have one).

However, on the third and last day, there were new set of prominent speakers. Lucky me to have them in these photos...

with Butch Dalisay (won 16 Palanca awards) in Literary Writing

with Reuel Vidal in Covering and Writing Sports Events

and with the handsome Ryan Gamboa (ABS-CBN TV Patrol Anchor-Bacolod)
who gave an inspiring message, a sign to the end of the  seminar


Perhaps, it was really a memorable experience to all of us...