Is it just me, or do the people who make the greatest impact on my life not stay long?
I
was in my third year in high school. I've known this certain teacher
of mine for quite a few years, and has been close to my mother and I
since we usually had lunch together way back since I was still in
fourth grade. He has been quite influential for me since he was my
first adviser for my first year in high school, he even got me a
dictionary for a Christmas present, since he picked my name out as my
"cringle" i.e. the person whose supposed to give you a present on the
class Christmas party.
So there I was, totally overcome with
stage fright due to an experiment-- I would try to do what most
classmates of mine wouldn't: make an elocution piece look real. For
some reason, he was standing in the corridor most probably "chilling",
but either way, he was there doing absolutely nothing. So I went over
and tried to vent it all out on him, and all he said was something like
why should I be ashamed if I'm going to do my best, and for some reason
even my supposedly "high" IQ couldn't possibly formulate a logical
answer as to why I would let shame get the best of me and end up
letting me give a subpar effort to what should be something beautiful.
The
fear then seemed significantly insignificant, because I shouldn't have
a reason to not give my best when I absolutely can. I had no idea that
he wasn't staying for long, as he joined his Maker in a car accident a
couple of months later. I went on and gave my best and eventually I
would receive a silver medal for elocution on graduation.
Is it just me, or do the people who make the greatest impact on my life not stay long?
I
was in my second year in high school, and there was this music teacher
who graduated from the University of the Philippines Conservatory of
Music. He taught us how to sing in my first year and I was so
attracted to music that I joined the glee club. We would practice
every day after class and learn different kinds of songs, this was the
first time I really felt that I had the potential to sing not just well
but be able to express what I felt through music. He would have the
patience of a beaver-- he never did complain, he just went on trying to
encourage us whenever we would sing off-key. or lose our breath, or any
other technical stuff singers shouldn't do. He gave me hope that I
wouldn't be just the nerdy geek who had a high aptitude for math and
science.
So in the middle of the schoolyear, he suddenly
disappeared. We were shocked to find out that he had cancer in his
brain. All our hopes of joining the national comptetion for youth
choirs were shattered as we were left with no trainer-- the person who
would encourage us to do better despite failing miserably and know what
he was doing at the same time. The glee club was temporarily
disbanded, I didn't even bother being serious with the new trainer in
the succeeding years. My love for music came with a really high cost.
Is it just me, or do the people who make the greatest impact on my life not stay long?
It
was my final year of studying in Corpus Christi School, and I realized
that I would rather confide myself in women since they actually do
listen, and that my circle of friends (who were all guys) would say
something ridiculous like "i-otot lang na" when I needed someone to
talk to, who would make fun of me when I was being DEAD serious.
So
there I was in my classmate's private library, a newly found friend of
mine needed some help with the her computer since our classmate needed
to print something for our English class. After the printing job was
done and my other classmate went home, we eventually talked about
school and the people around us. It was there that I realized for the
first time in my entire life that I could seriously converse with
someone on the same wavelength. We confided in each other and for the
first time I could actually say that I had a best friend, for that
miniscule amount of time. One thing led to another, she now studies in
UP Diliman, while I'm stuck in Xavier University - Ateneo de Cagayan
--- not that there's something wrong with Xavier University, it's just
hard to maintain a friendship with that kind of distance.
Is it just me, or do the people who make the greatest impact on my life not stay long?
Then
again, some wiseguy wrote "Everything changes, but nothing is truly
lost." Well, a truly great man by the name of Homer Simpson once said:
"D'oh!"
