Brownpau has a question about the tsunami coverage; another blogger has a comment. I personally have been watching CNN in the U.S., on which I've seen what I considered to be a mix of good reporting and bad reporting.
_________
Two decades ago, Carol Ann Duffy wrote this:
War Photographer
In his darkroom he is finally alone
with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows.
The only light is red and softly glows,
as though this were a church and he
a priest preparing to intone a Mass.
Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.
He has a job to do. Solutions slop in trays
beneath his hands which did not tremble then
though seem to now. Rural England. Home again
to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel,
to fields which don't explode beneath the feet
of running children in a nightmare heat.
Something is happening. A stranger's features
faintly start to twist before his eyes
a half-formed ghost. He remembers the cries
of this man's wife, how he sought approval
without words to do what someone must
and how blood stained into foreign dust.
A hundred agonies in black-and-white
from which his editor will pick out five or six
for Sunday's supplement. The reader's eyeballs prick
with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers.
From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where
he earns his living and they do not care.
As the death toll continues to mount, and the images of devastation become public, the enormity of suffering and tragedy becomes simply incomprehensible.
A timely reminder, especially this year, with everything in the news:
The Work of Christmas.
When the song of the angels is stilled, When the star in the sky is gone, When the kings and the princes are home, When the shepherds are back with their flocks, Then the work of Christmas begins: To find the lost, To heal the broken, To feed the hungry, To release the prisoner, To rebuild the nations, To bring peace among brothers, To make music in the heart.
- Howard Thurman
________
My December 25th was different from previous years, and especially meaningful, with celebrations with family and extended family whom I haven't seen in very long. More kwento to follow about what I've been doing the past couple of weeks.
(Spending Yuletide so far away from home, however, also reminds me that really, nobody celebrates Christmas the way Filipinos in the Philippines do. Haha!)
I hope you are all having a blessed and meaningful Christmas season.
I watched The Debut--the Fil-Am teenage film that my brother was raving about earlier this year--on DVD today.
I must say, I'm really glad that there's a film like that for my younger brother and other Filipino teenagers like him growing up in the U.S., a film that tells their story in a country where they're trying so hard to understand what that story is. In the past year, my brother's interest in learning more about his roots, about Filipino history and about Philippine-American history has grown by leaps and bounds, and I wonder if the film might have played a part in that.
There was a special feature on the disc entitled "The Little Film That Could," which showed how this little indie film made it, really against all odds, getting screened in theaters for 350,000 people across the U.S., and taking off when so few people believed it would. Very inspiring.
Fil-Ams should buy the DVD for their teenage children or brothers or sisters. Go, buy it now!
Pinoy talaga ako; can't take 9-degree (celsius) weather: I'm finding it too cold to step outside, so I've spent most of the last 72 hours in my room enjoying the warmth of the heater. I'm here on the other side of the world, visiting my family. In my absence FPJ has died (but you know all about this already), and people have wondered what the Philippines would have been like had Loren or Noli been the next president.
Mass on Sunday was nice. The Gospel reading was about St. John the Baptist, and there was an anointing of the sick rite for the congregation. That was pretty moving.
This weekend and next week will be spent driving around with my family. I fly back home right after the New Year.
Meanwhile, Mike sent me this article, and we both breathed a sigh of relief that we are a "connectivity-compatible" couple.
Ditsi Carolino and Nana Buxani's latest film is Bunso, about children of prisoners who live in jail.
The Philippine premiere is this Friday, December 10, at the U.P. Film Institute. There are screenings at 2:00 pm, 4:00 pm, and 7:00 pm. Entrance is P40.
Clar talks more about it here. Jo-Ann Maglipon's PDI review of the film is here.
Okay, mental game, everyone: How many miles do you think it is from Manila to California?
This was the question M and I debated over lunch.
My answer: approximately 16,000 miles. My reasoning? I know that the United States is about 3000 miles across, and that it spans 3 time zones. Therefore, each time zone is approximately 1000 miles. Since California and Manila have a time difference of 16 hours, then California must be about 16,000 miles away from Manila.
M's answer: approximately 8000 miles. His reasoning? He knows that a plane travels at around 500 miles per hour. The plane ride from Manila to California takes around 16 hours. 16 x 500 = 8,000. Therefore, California must be around 8,000 miles away from Manila.
So who was right?
Well, we were both off, but M was closer. According to this chart, Los Angeles is 11,740 miles away from Manila.
My mistake was that I failed to account for the fact that the width of a time zone varies depending on whether you're measuring near the poles or near the equator. By a fluke, my guess that a time zone is about 1000 miles wide was correct, but this is true only around the equator.
(Yes, my boyfriend and I actually have conversations like these. Heheh!)
Today is the feast of St. Francis Xavier, so I'm featuring a prayer attributed to him, which is one of my favorite prayers of all time:
O Jesu ego amo Te
Nec amo Te ut salves me
Aut quia non amantes Te
Aeterno punis igene.
Tu, Tu mi Jesu totum me
Amplexus es in cruce,
Tulisti clavos, lanceam
Multamque ignominiam,
Innumeros dolores,
Sudores et algores
Et mortem et haec propter me
Et pro me peccatore.
Cur igitur non amem Te
Mi Jesu amantissime,
Non ne aeternum damnes me
Nec ut in caelo salves me
Nec praemii ullius spe.
Sed sicut Tu amasti me
Sic amo et amabo Te,
Solum quia Rex meus es
Et solum quia Deus es.
==========
Here's my favorite English translation:
It is not Your promised heaven
That moves me, Lord, to love You.
It is not the fear of hell
That forces me to fear You.
What moves me, Lord, is You, Lord,
Fixed to a Cross and mocked;
What moves me is Your wounded body,
The insults and Your death.
What moves me really is Your Love, so that
Were there no heaven, I would love you still,
Were there no hell, I would fear you still.
For me to love you, You need nothing to give,
For even if I did not hope as indeed I hope,
even so I would love You as indeed I love.
My God, I love thee; not because
I hope for heaven thereby,
nor yet because who love thee not
are lost eternally.
Thou, O my Jesus, thou didst me
upon the cross embrace;
for me didst bear the nails and spear,
and manifold disgrace.
And griefs and torments numberless
and sweat of agony;
even death itself -- and all for one
Who was thine enemy.
Then why, O blessed Jesus Christ
should I not love thee well?
not for the hope of winning heaven,
or of escaping hell.
not with the hope of gaining aught,
nor seeking a reward,
but as thyself has lovèd me,
O ever-loving Lord!
Even so I love thee, and will love
and in thy praise will sing,
solely because thou art my God,
and my eternal king.
O GOD, I love thee, I love thee-
Not out of hope of heaven for me
Nor fearing not to love and be
In the everlasting burning.
Thou, thou, my Jesus, after me
Didst reach thine arms out dying,
For my sake sufferedst nails, and lance,
Mocked and marred countenance,
Sorrows passing number,
Sweat and care and cumber,
Yea and death, and this for me,
And thou couldst see me sinning:
Then I, why should not I love thee,
Jesu, so much in love with me?
Not for heaven's sake;
not to be out of hell by loving thee;
Not for any gains I see;
But just the way that thou didst me
I do love and I will love thee:
What must I love thee, Lord, for then?
For being my king and God. Amen.
================
At ito naman ang salin sa Tagalog ni Albert Alejo, S.J., na pinamagatang "Pagkabighani" at inilapat sa musika ni Manoling Francisco, S.J.:
Hindi sa langit mong pangako sa akin,
ako naaaakit na Kita'y mahalin,
at hindi sa apoy, kahit anong lagim,
ako mapipilit nginig Kang sambahin.
Naaakit ako nang Ika'y mamalas,
nakapako sa krus hinahamak-hamak.
Naaakit ng 'Yong katawang may sugat
at ng tinaggap Mong kamataya't libak.
Naaakit ako ng 'Yong pag-ibig.
Kaya't mahal kita, kahit walang langit,
kahit walang apoy sa 'Yo'y manginginig.
H'wag nang mag-abala upang ibigin Ka.
Pagka't kung pag-asa'y bula lamang pala,
walang mababago: mahal pa rin Kita.
Panginoon, hanggang kailan kami magdurusa
Panginoon, kailan sisikat umaga ng paglaya
Panginoon, dumating Ka na
Kupkupin kami sa 'Yong awa
Kupkupin kami sa 'Yong awa
Narito na ang Pasko ng paglaya
Bayan magalak sa mabuting balita
Tumingala at pawiin ang luha
Narito na ang pinangakong tala
Iniluwal ang Sanggol ni Maria
Sa Kanyang sabsabang payak at aba
Ating haranahin, alayan ng saya
Narito na ang Tagapagpalaya
"Hesus" tinawag Siya, hinirang ng Ama
Narito na ang Pasko ng paglaya
Bayang kinumutan ng mga tanikala
Ang ligalig ng gabi ngayon ay payapa
Narito na ang Sanggol na Mesiyas
Narito na ang Pasko ng paglaya
You can bring your relief donations for the flood/typhoon victims to the lobby of the Loyola House of Studies on the Ateneo de Manila campus, Loyola Heights, Quezon City.
is the deadline for applications for JVP Batch 26 (SY 2005-2006). Visit the JVP website for details, or dial +632 426-6001 local 4880 for your inquiries. In Metro Manila, application forms are available at Room 313, Bellarmine Hall, Ateneo de Manila University.
Ninoy Aquino's funeral to the nth power. (Filipinos, by the way, have a tried and tested way of controlling a very emotional crowd: give the crowd a song to sing. Hence the immortalization of "Bayan Ko.")
"Britney Federline, I like that. Society probably won't allow me, but I would like to change [my name]." -- Britney Spears, in an interview with Germany's Bunte magazine, on whether she will change her name now that she has married dancer Kevin Federline.
When I was growing up, the person who was considered the icon of pop culture was Madonna, a woman who, for better or for worse, tried to defy every societal convention, even when those conventions were rational.
Today, the person who is considered the icon of pop culture is Britney Spears, a woman who, for better or for worse, tries to conform to everything that society demands from her, even when those demands are irrational.
For people following the U.S. election: An interesting quiz that weighs your views on social, political, and economic issues against Kerry's, Bush's, and Catholic Social Teaching (via the U.S. Catholics Bishops Conference). After taking the quiz, the site will tell you what percentage of your views agree/disagree with Kerry, Bush, and Catholic Teaching.
The site's weakness is that the overall computation doesn't weigh the relative importance that a person may give to individual issues (e.g., equal weight is given to taxation and to abortion).
Nevertheless, it's still an interesting quiz, because unlike some other sites on this topic, it considers many different aspects of Catholic teaching, and not just sexuality and abortion. In that respect then, while the overall percentages ought to be taken with a grain of salt, the site does encourage further reflection on a wide range of issues that American Catholics (and all Americans for that matter) ought to think about as they prepare to vote.
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In case you're wondering, according to the quiz, I agree with the U.S. Catholic Bishops' Conference 82% of the time, with Kerry 23% of the time, and I disagree with Bush 36% of the time.
"EUGENE, Oregon (Reuters) -- TV hardly gets much better than this.
"An Oregon man discovered earlier this month that his year-old Toshiba Corporation flat-screen TV was emitting an international distress signal picked up by a satellite, leading a search and rescue operation to his apartment in Corvallis, Oregon, 70 miles south of Portland...."
Yes, believe it or not, I once was a fan of a teen magazine.
But, you see, it wasn't just any teen magazine.
In 1991, I went to the U.S. for a month-long visit. I stayed with my cousins in Chicago for a few days, and they introduced me to Sassy.
Sassy wasn't one of those make-up and blush-on, "how to catch the cute guys," teen magazines. (Though I did read those too, borrowing them from my classmates in high school who could afford to buy the imported ones they sold at Galleria.)
Sassy was a feminist teen magazine, back when the word "feminist" wasn't even in my vocabulary yet. I don't mean "feminist" in a bra-burning sense, but feminist in the sense that the magazine was first and foremost about empowerment, rather than trying to catch that cute guy's eye. It showed that there were many kinds of teenage girls: yes, there were those cutesy-patutesy girls who wore pink, wore lots of make up and smiled out of the pages of Seventeen; but there were also nerdy girls and ugly girls and girls who were smart and not ashamed of it and girls who tried to change the world inasmuch as teenagers could ... and that it was okay to be one of those girls too. Instead of articles on what make-up was trendy, it gave tips on how to write complaint letters to cosmetic companies that did animal testing. Instead of instructing teenage girls about what "being a girl" was all about, it encouraged readers to speak out against sexist remarks. Instead of profiles of models and actresses, the magazine featured stories about women activists who were saving rainforests.
It was sarcastic and edgy and intelligent and didn't talk patronizingly to teenage girls as if they had nothing but cotton candy between their ears.
Oh, and the fiction was terrific.
I was only thirteen at the time, and I didn't yet have the language to name the ideas I was reading, but I felt that this was a different magazine, and I loved what I read. My cousin graciously gave me a few copies to bring home to the Philippines.
Today I found out that Sassy died a most ignoble death only a few years later. It was bought by Teen magazine (yes, one of "those" teen magazines), become about flirtation and fluff, lost its readership, and died.
How sad.
I wish girls these days had something like Sassy to read.
Related note: I just sent an e-mail to my friends musing about how disturbed I am that high school girls today seem so much more prone to developing eating disorders. (Thirteen-year-olds on the South Beach diet!) It's something however, that they learn at least partly from observation, by seeing how us adults are becoming so obsessed with looking Twiggy-thin. Gosh, I hope that when I have a kid someday, advertising and pop culture in the Philippines will be more cognizant about the different shapes and sizes that people come in.
Kerry's response to the question about abortion helped me to understand his stand a little more. I don't agree with him (I'm very much against abortion), but I appreciate that he gave a reasonable and rational explanation about his stand on it (something like, "I'm Catholic, but as president, I cannot legislate what is an article of faith for me, for all Americans, because I have to represent all Americans"). He didn't directly answer the woman's question about using taxpayers' money for abortion, though, and if I were American I would be extremely bothered (understatement) if my taxes were being used to fund abortions.
Kerry demonstrated the same strengths he showed in the first debate: solid facts, careful name-dropping ("why even this, this, and that Republican agrees with me!"), speaking to Republican swing voters by distinguishing between "bad Republican" (W. Bush) and "good Republican" (Reagan and Bush Sr.). He did lapse into occasional highfalutin verbosity, though (something about Orwellian ideas plucked from the sky).
Something new about Bush disturbed me: Does he have a temper problem? I was surprised at the way he jumped on the moderator and pretty much yelled at him. Is the president of the United States a loose cannon? Is he unable to control his anger? Hmmm, perhaps that would explain his rush to go to war against Iraq.
It might also be argued, however, that Bush's inability to temper his emotions was also his strength during the debate. Bush connected more with the audience on an emotional level, I think. Kerry did quite well, too, remembering everyone's names and addressing them personally. But Kerry's one attempt at humor (the mention of the Red Sox) fell flat, while Bush managed to get the group to laugh several times.
I don't think Bush closed very well, however. He ended the debate by talking about how America was moving forward, how the economy was doing well, etc., and I found myself looking at the faces of the audience sitting behind Bush, half-expecting them to frown and shake their heads. More of Bush's fantasy world.
Update: Oh yeah, what did you guys think of Bush's "third world" comment? Alam mo naman kami dito sa Third World, gumagawa kami ng gamot para pumatay ng tao. Duh!!
Substance: Kerry sounded much more credible because he backed up all of his arguments with easy-to-understand facts and figures. He wasn't able to completely shed the flip-flop image that the Republicans have painted of him, but he did succeed in outlining a very clear plan for Iraq and for the war on terror on the whole.
Bush didn't say anything new. He resorted to more of the same rhetoric rather than giving clear answers about his plans for Iraq and for the war on terror. He spent more time trying to defend his past actions rather than describing his future vision, and his responses to Kerry's criticisms sounded weak.
Style: I've seen Bush perform really well on TV before, playing up his strengths, coming across as warm, relaxed, friendly, and an all-around good guy. He performed far far far below expectations in this debate, however. He sounded defensive, fumbled for words, stuttered, and appeared not to really understand the questions nor Kerry's answers. He looked nervous, tired, and lost in his cutaway shots.
Kerry, on the other hand, was at his best: much better than he has done in some prepared speeches. He sounded confident, comfortable, on the ball. He maximized every opportunity to criticize Bush's performance. In his cutaway shots, he smiled at appropriate times, and nodded or shook his head emphatically.
Speaking as someone living in the SMS capital of the world ....
I found this article to be an interesting reminder about how much the U.S. lags in terms of cellphone use. (Grade school and high school policies here are also a little confused, but the story was news four or five years ago in the Philippines.) In contrast, I just saw a new Globe commercial on TV advertising their latest cellphone plan for kids.
You've got to hand it to Howie Severino. He never disappoints. His I-Witness team did a story tonight on Catholicism in Belgium. They followed the Belgium Boys' Choir from their Philippine tour back to their Belgian hometown, where Masses are only attended by one or two people. Catholicism is dying in Belgium; most of the Boys' Choir know only one priest, their choir master. One of the choir boys teachers Religion in a Jesuit school, where there are no priests at all. In the second to the last segment, Howie brought two members of the boys' choir all the way to Louvain so that they could meet, for the first time, young priests: and the young priests were (unsurprisingly) Filipinos who were doing their Ph.D. at the Catholic University of Louvain.
The irony, of course, is that the Belgians were among the first Catholic missionaries to the Philippines.
The show was a thought-provoking reflection on the Church, on religion, on modernity, and on culture.
It is so, so refreshing to watch a Philippine TV show that isn't afraid to be intelligent, and that dares to tackle issues that go beyond even normal Philippine public affairs fare.
.
Met up with a number of friends last week, among them some whom I haven't seen in a long time.
J, a very good friend from high school, is moving back to the Philippines with his wife, after five years of life abroad, and M and I, along with some other friends, met up with him on Monday. J's wife, in fact, has already resigned from her job and has been here since August, making preparations for a business that the couple will be launching by the end of the year.
On Wednesday, I shared a very nice conversation with A, whom I haven't seen in awhile, but of whom I expect to be seeing much more, as he is returning to the teaching profession beginning next semester.
On Saturday night, CD (whom I had also just had dinner with on Tuesday night) and I attended the wedding of another friend of ours from grade school/high school. The wedding was quite a reunion; several friends from high school whom we hadn't seen in years were present! There was much excited squealing; long after the program at the reception ended, people were still milling around, catching up with one another.
Finally, finally, finally ... it's done! After don't-ask-me-how-many years, I have finally earned my degree. My thesis defense on Friday went well, and Mike and my aunt prepared a wonderful salu-salo for my colleagues and me afterwards. (Thanks, Mike and Auntie W.!)
So I've been pretty ecstatic since Friday, riding on a wave of relief and of a deep sense of accomplishment.
And now, wow, I can actually think about other things ....
I have a silly theory, well-known among my colleagues, that everybody is, deep down, an elitist of some sort. We've even had conversations about this at work, trying to identify what kind of elitist each colleague is: one is a literature elitist, another a nature elitist (looks down on people who don't enjoy nature), another a Filipiniana elitist, another a reverse-elitist (considers people who aren't pro-poor beneath him), another a comic book elitist ....
Well, I've found the perfect quiz to test my theory: The Elitist Quiz (from Tris' blog).
And this is what I am:
From Timbuktu to Tijuana, you know all about world culture and politics. You've seen it all, and what you haven't seen, you watched on one of the "smart people channels." Your friends tell you that you should run for governor.
What people love: You've always got a great story to tell.
What people hate: You make them feel like ignorant plebians. Sometimes you slip and CALL them plebians.
I got home from a dinner with friends late on Friday night, and I caught the breaking news reports on TV about the violence that had erupted in the Russian hostage crisis. The TV images--of half-naked children running desperately away from the school, many of them bloodied--disturbed me more than those of 9/11 had. It was most difficult to watch one particular scene (on CNN, I think) of a crying mother rubbing the face of her dead child that lay on the grass.
Depiscable, that anyone should use children in that way, and there are no words to describe such horror.
AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev
AFP/Viktor Drachev
Let's pray for all the victims--those who died, those who survived, and those who are mourning.
Toni posted a nice, inspiring verse on her blog: very Toni. :) It reminds me of another, similar poem that I and my friend K loved when we were younger:
If I can stop one Heart from breaking by Emily Dickinson
If I can stop one Heart from breaking
I shall not live in vain
If I can ease one Life the Aching
Or cool one Pain
Or help one fainting Robin
Unto his Nest again
I shall not live in Vain.
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Meanwhile, I'm watching ADMU struggling against DLSU, more than twenty points behind. (Though after witnessing the last ADMU-DLSU game, it's easy to believe that it's still anybody's game.) That aside, amid the most heartbreaking losses, I always feel comforted by the way the ADMU fans never stop cheering. Win or lose talaga. (I ought to know, I was in college--often sitting in the bleachers myself--when Ateneo suffered many, many such losses .... Hehehe!)
Anyway, if Ateneo goes on to win the championships, Sandy should get a special award as a true hero, for proving himself against the odds, and to all the naysayers (many, ironically, from Ateneo itself).
The Singapore Jesuits have revamped their site: The Jesuits Singapore. From a message from the coordinator of the site, Fr. Philip Heng, S.J.:
You will find that one of our main features of our website is to provide a Prayer Ministry service to people of all walks of life; without any charge of course....
Thus, we send them a "Daily E-Message" (3 short lines) on the Gospel to give them a daily insight, challenge etc. on the Word of God. At the time of writing, we have around 9,000 subscribers. We also provide very simple, step-by-step guidance on how to Meditate/Contemplate on the Word of God.
The site also includes daily Scripture readings, prayer, and reflections about Scripture; as well as tips for prayer. Check it out.
John Gokongwei Jr.'s Speech at the Ateneo de Manila College Graduation 2004
Some of you may have read this already. It made its e-mail forwarding rounds back in April, right after the commencement exercises of the Schools of Management and Social Sciences, at which he delivered this speech. I was at the ceremonies, and I was telling people about the speech for days afterwards, but I was never able to get hold of a copy of the speech, until today.
For those of you haven't read it, do so. It'll make you feel hopeful about our country once again.
To download a copy, look for the link on this page.
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Commencement Address Ateneo de Manila University March 27, 2004 By John L. Gokongwei, Jr.
I wish I were one of you today, instead of a 77-year-old man, giving a speech you will probably forget when you wake up from your hangover tomorrow.
You may be surprised I feel this way. Many of you are feeling fearful and apprehensive about your future.
You are thinking that, perhaps, your Ateneo diploma will not mean a whole lot in the future in a country with too many problems. And you are probably right.
You are thinking that our country is slipping---no, sliding. Again, you may be right.
Twenty years ago, we were at par with countries like Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. Today, we are left way behind.
You know the facts.
Twenty years ago, the per capita income of the Filipino was 1,000 US dollars. Today, it's 1,100 dollars. That's a growth of only ten percent in twenty years. Meanwhile, Thailand's per capita income today is double ours; Malaysia, triple ours; and Singapore, almost twenty times ours.
With globalization coming, you know it is even more urgent to wake up. Trade barriers are falling, which means we will have to compete harder. In the new world, entrepreneurs will be forced to invest their money where it is most efficient. And that is not necessarily in the Philippines.
Even for Filipino entrepreneurs, that can be the case.
For example, a Filipino brand like Maxx candy can be manufactured in Bangkok---where labor, taxes, power and financing are cheaper and more efficient---and then exported to other ASEAN countries.
This will be a common scenario---if things do not change.
Pretty soon, we will become a nation that buys everything and produces practically nothing. We will be like the prodigal son who took his father's money and spent it all. The difference is that we do not have a generous father to run back to.
But despite this, I am still very excited about the future. I will tell you why later.
You have been taught at the Ateneo to be "a person for others." Of course, that is noble: To serve your countrymen.
Question is: How?
And my answer is: Be an entrepreneur!
You may think I am just a foolish man talking mundane stuff when the question before him is almost philosophical. But I am being very thoughtful here, and if I may presume this about myself, being patriotic as well.
Entrepreneurship is the answer.
We need young people who will find the idea, grab the opportunity, take risk, and set aside comfort to set up businesses that will provide jobs.
But why? What are jobs?
Jobs are what allow people to feel useful and build their self-esteem. Jobs make people productive members of the community. Jobs make people feel they are worthy citizens. And jobs make a country worthy players in the world market.
In that order of things, it is the entrepreneurs who have the power to harness the creativity and talents of others to achieve a common good. This should leave the world a better place than it was.
Let me make it clear: Job creation is a priority for any nation to move forward.
For example, it is the young entrepreneurs of Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore who created the dynamic businesses that have propelled their countries to the top. Young people like yourselves.
Meanwhile, in the Philippines, progress is slow. Very little is new. Hardly anything is fresh. With a few exceptions, the biggest companies before the war---like PLDT, Ayala, and San Miguel---are still the biggest companies today.
All right, being from the Ateneo, many of you probably have offers from these corporations already. You may even have offers from JG Summit. I say: Great! Take these offers, work as hard as you can, learn everything these companies can teach---and then leave!
If you dream of creating something great, do not let a 9-to-5 job---even a high-paying one---lull you into a complacent, comfortable life. Let that high-paying job propel you toward entrepreneurship instead.
When I speak of the hardship ahead, I do not mean to be skeptical but realistic.
Even you Ateneans, who are famous for your eloquence, you cannot talk your way out of this one. There is nothing to do but to deal with it.
I learned this lesson when, as a 13-year-old, I lost my dad.
Before that, I was like many of you: a privileged kid. I went to Cebu's best school; lived in a big house; and got free entrance to the Vision, the largest movie house in Cebu, which my father owned.
Then my dad died, and I lost all these. My family had become poor---poor enough to split my family. My mother and five siblings moved to China where the cost of living was lower. I was placed under the care of my Grand Uncle Manuel Gotianuy, who put me through school. But just two years later, the war broke out, and even my Uncle Manuel could no longer see me through.
I was out in the streets---literally.
Looking back, this time was one of the best times of my life. We lost everything, true, but so did everybody! War was the great equalizer. In that setting, anyone who was willing to size up the situation, use his wits, and work hard, could make it!
It was every man for himself, and I had to find a way to support myself and my family. I decided to be a market vendor.
Why?
Because it was something that I, a 15-year-old boy in short pants, could do.
I started by selling simple products in the palengke half an hour by bike from the city. I had a bicycle. I would wake up at five in the morning, load thread, soap and candles into my bike, and rush to the palengke.
I would rent a stall for one peso a day, lay out my goods on a table as big as this podium, and begin selling. I did that the whole day.
I sold about twenty pesos of goods every day. Today, twenty pesos will only allow you to send twenty text messages to your crush, but 63 years ago, it was enough to support my family. And it left me enough to plow back into my small, but growing, business.
I was the youngest vendor in the palengke, but that didn't faze me. In fact, I rather saw it as an opportunity. Remember, that was 63 years and 100 pounds ago, so I could move faster, stay under the sun more, and keep selling longer than everyone else.
Then, when I had enough money and more confidence, I decided to travel to Manila from Cebu to sell all kinds of goods like rubber tires.
Instead of my bike, I now traveled on a batel---a boat so small that on windless days, we would just float there. On bad days, the trip could take two weeks!
During one trip, our batel sank! We would have all perished in the sea were it not for my inventory of tires. The viajeros were happy because my tires saved their lives, and I was happy because the viajeros, by hanging on to them, saved my tires. On these long and lonely trips I had to entertain myself with books, like Gone With The Wind.
After the war, I had saved up 50,000 pesos. That was when you could buy a chicken for 20 centavos and a car for 2,000 pesos. I was 19 years old.
Now I had enough money to bring my family home from China. Once they were all here, they helped expand our trading business to include imports. Remember that the war had left the Philippines with very few goods. So we imported whatever was needed and imported them from everywhere---including used clothes and textile remnants from the United States. We were probably the first ukay-ukay dealers here.
Then, when I had gained more experience and built my reputation, I borrowed money from the bank and got into manufacturing. I saw that coffee was abundant, and Nescafe of Nestle was too expensive for a country still rebuilding from the war, so my company created Blend 45. That was our first branded hit. And from there, we had enough profits to launch Jack and Jill.
From one market stall, we are now in nine core businesses---including retail, real estate, publishing, petrochemicals, textiles, banking, food manufacturing, Cebu Pacific Air and Sun Cellular.
When we had shown success in the smaller businesses, we were able to raise money in the capital markets---through IPOs and bond offerings-- and then get into more complex, capital-intensive enterprises. We did it slow, but sure.
Success doesn't happen overnight. It's the small successes achieved day by day that build a company. So, don't be impatient or focused on immediate financial rewards. I only started flying business class when I got too fat to fit in the economy seats.
And I even wore a used overcoat while courting my wife---it came from my ukay-ukay business. Thank God Elizabeth didn't mind the mothball smell of my overcoat or maybe she wouldn't have married me.
Save what you earn and plow it back.
And never forget your families! Your parents denied themselves many things to send you here. They could have traveled around the world a couple of times with the money they set aside for your education, and your social life, and your comforts.
Remember them---and thank them.
When you have families of your own, you must be home with them for at least one meal everyday.
I did that while I was building my company. Now, with all my six children married, I ask that we spend every Sunday lunch together, when everything under the sun is discussed.
As it is with business, so it is with family. There are no short cuts for building either one.
Remember, no short cuts.
Saint Ignatius of Loyola, your patron saint, and founder of this 450-year old organization I admire, described an ideal Jesuit as one who "lives with one foot raised." I believe that means someone who is always ready to respond to opportunities.
Saint Ignatius knew that, to build a successful organization, he needed to recruit and educate men who were not afraid of change but were in fact excited by it.
In fact, the Jesuits were one of the earliest practitioners of globalization. As early as the 16th century, upon reaching a foreign country, they compiled dictionaries in local languages like Tamil and Vietnamese so that they could spread their message in the local language.
In a few centuries, they have been able to spread their mission in many countries through education.
The Jesuits have another quote. "Make the whole world your house" which means that the ideal Jesuit must be at home everywhere. By adapting to change, but at the same time staying true to their beliefs, the Society of Jesus has become the long-lasting and successful organization it is
today and has made the world their house.
So, let live with one foot raised in facing the next big opportunity: globalization.
Globalization can be your greatest enemy. It will be your downfall if you are too afraid and too weak to fight it out. But it can also be your biggest ally.
With the Asian Free Trade agreement and tariffs near zero, your market has grown from 80 million Filipinos to half a billion Southeast Asians. Imagine what that means to you as an entrepreneur if you are able to find a need and fill it. And imagine, too, what that will do for the economy
of our country!
Yes, our government may not be perfect, and our economic environment not ideal, but true entrepreneurs will find opportunities anywhere.
Look at the young Filipino entrepreneurs who made it. When I say young---and I'm 77, remember---I am talking about those in their 50s and below. Tony Tan of Jollibee, Ben Chan of Bench, Rolando Hortaleza of Splash, and Wilson Lim of Abensons.
They're the guys who weren't content with the 9-to-5 job, who were willing to delay their gratification and comfort, and who created something new, something fresh.
Something Filipinos are now very proud of.
They all started small but now sell their hamburgers, T-shirts and cosmetics in Asia, America, and the Middle East.
In doing so, these young Filipino entrepreneurs created jobs while doing something they were passionate about.
Globalization is an opportunity of a lifetime---for you. And that is why I want to be out there with you instead of here behind this podium---perhaps too old and too slow to seize the opportunities you can.
Let me leave you with one last thought.
Trade barriers have fallen. The only barriers left are the barriers you have in your mind.
So, Ateneans, Class of 2004, heed the call of entrepreneurship.
With a little bit of will and a little bit of imagination, you can turn this crisis into your patriotic moment---and truly become a person for others.
"Live with one foot raised and make the world your house."
To this great University, my sincerest thanks for this singular honor conferred on me today.
The general rule is a hundred pages, and so far, without the conclusion, my thesis is only 80 pages long. I don't think my conclusion is going to be 20 pages long.
Still busy, but just a few highlights of the weekend ....
-- Despedida for a friend who's going to Cornell for her MBA; we'll miss you, Michelle! See you soon!
-- Discovered a little chapel in Eastwood a budding Church community, thanks to Katz. Eastwood doesn't have a parish of its own yet, but a priest comes every Sunday to celebrate Mass, and the new Church community is slowly growing. :)
-- The U.S. has Farenheit 9/11; the Philippines has Imelda. It looks like there really is a market for documentaries in the movie theaters. Imelda opened last week; Mike and I watched it yesterday, and the theater was almost full. Ramona Diaz's movie, a biography of Imelda Marcos based on a series of interviews with her, was very well done (it won the Best Cinematography award at last year's Sundance), and quite fair, to tell the truth. Filipinos might not learn anything new about Imelda from the film, but then again, the film was made for an American audience. One of my favorite Imelda bite: In the part were she was talking about the assassination attempt against her, "If someone has to assassinate me, why does he have to use a bolo that's so ugly!!!! He could have tied, you know, a yellow ribbon to it or something!"
-- Today: SONA, but I wasn't able to watch it because I was busy cramming some administrative work at school. Back to work, work, work ...!!!
A cousin of mine is reviewing for ths year's teacher's licensure examination, and she's asking for my help. She managed to get a hold of what she says is last year's questionnaire for English and Literature teachers. The questionnaire, however, did not come with an answer key, and so she lent me a copy and asked me to answer whatever I could.
I began reading the questionnaire last night, and it made me really depressed. The questionnaire was littered with typographical and grammatical errors; many of the questions asked for silly trivial knowledge; and worst of all, there were questions that were shockingly poor in construction.
Just a few examples (I'm typing them as is, including the typographical and spelling errors):
117. A good remediation class in reading should have this outlook that:
A. teacher takes her class of 40 different classes
B. a class of 40 can be divded into 8 groups
C. leaders can take the place of teachers
D. the teacher can split the class into two
119. This expression is always quoted: "Justice delayed is justice denied." This means it is a ___________.
A. President Quirino's concern
B. President Quezon's concern
C. fact
D. A quest
142. In the past communications were sent by letters and telegrams. Now, faster interaction is done through __________.
A. telefax machines
B. telephones
C. cellphone test messages
D. e-mails internet
143. Computers have aided test correction. Items are also properly analyzed. Out of generated data the computer puts out accurately a program on _________.
A. standard deviation
B. test errors
C. test mean
D. frequency of score
144. A government office can carry out written orders through a fast approach by the use of _________.
A. radio calls
B. satellite
C. internet
D. telephone messages
145. When preparing test items general and specific objectives are guides in test construction. Which of this is a general objective?
A. Understands the part of an English structure.
B. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of sentence structure.
C. Determines the structural parts of a sentences.
D. Manifest knowledge on idiomatic expressions.
_____
Sufficiently depressed? Send e-mail to Pathways to find out how you can help improve public education in the Philippines, or read up on the Department of Education's Adopt-a-School program.
After two months of the summer break, I'm back in the classroom, and I feel like I'm in my element. Honestly, I do think that I'm a happier, saner, and more centered person when I'm teaching. No kidding.
The rules are...steal it, post it on your site, bold the books you've read and add three of your own!
so let's go.....
1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling 6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee 7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. 1984, George Orwell 9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger 16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame (ooh, love this one!)
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens 18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott 19. Captain Corellis Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Sorcerers philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling 23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling 24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling 25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The DUrbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alices Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll 31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens 35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald 44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell 47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens 48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett(I loved the premise of this book when I was a child) 52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens 64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding 71. Perfume, Patrick Susskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones' Diary, Helen Fielding 76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce 79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho 95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer 97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnights Children, Salman Rushdie
101. Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
102. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
103. The Beach, Alex Garland
104. Dracula, Bram Stoker
105. Point Blanc, Anthony Horowitz
106. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens
107. Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz
108. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks
109. The Day Of The Jackal, Frederick Forsyth
110. The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson
111. Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy
112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13 1/2, Sue Townsend
113. The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat
114. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
116. The Dare Game, Jacqueline Wilson
117. Bad Girls, Jacqueline Wilson
118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde 119. Shogun, James Clavell
120. The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham
121. Lola Rose, Jacqueline Wilson
122. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
123. The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy
124. House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
125. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
126. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett
127. Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison
128. The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle (I've read the Ladybird kiddie version-hahah! But I guess that doesn't count.) 129. Possession, A. S. Byatt
130. The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
131. The Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood
132. Danny The Champion Of The World, Roald Dahl
133. East Of Eden, John Steinbeck
134. Georges Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl
135. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett
136. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
137. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
138. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
139. Girls In Tears, Jacqueline Wilson
140. Sleepovers, Jacqueline Wilson
141. All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson
143. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (halfway-through, with intention to finish)
144. It, Stephen King
145. James And The Giant Peach, Roald Dahl 146. The Green Mile, Stephen King
147. Papillon, Henri Charriere
148. Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett
149. Master And Commander, Patrick OBrian
150. Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz
151. Soul Music, Terry Pratchett
152. Thief Of Time, Terry Pratchett
153. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett
154. Atonement, Ian McEwan
155. Secrets, Jacqueline Wilson
156. The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier
157. One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, Ken Kesey
158. Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
159. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
160. Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon
161. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
162. River God, Wilbur Smith
163. Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon
164. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
165. The World According To Garp, John Irving
166. Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore (again, the kiddie version) 167. Girls Out Late, Jacqueline Wilson
168. The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye
169. The Witches, Roald Dahl
170. Charlottes Web, E. B. White
171. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
172. They Used To Play On Grass, Terry Venables and Gordon Williams
173. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
174. The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco
175. Sophies World, Jostein Gaarder(didn't finish it though, but I think I read enough of it to put this in bold) 176. Dustbin Baby, Jacqueline Wilson
177. Fantastic Mr. Fox, Roald Dahl
178. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach 180. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery 181. The Suitcase Kid, Jacqueline Wilson
182. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens 183. The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay
184. Silas Marner, George Eliot
185. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
186. The Diary Of A Nobody, George and Weedon Gross-mith
187. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
188. Goosebumps, R. L. Stine
189. Heidi, Johanna Spyri 190. Sons And Lovers, D. H. Lawrence
191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera 192. Man And Boy, Tony Parsons
193. The Truth, Terry Pratchett
194. The War Of The Worlds, H. G. Wells
195. The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans
196. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
197. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett
198. The Once And Future King, T. H. White
199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
200. Flowers In The Attic, Virginia Andrews
201. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
202. The Eye of the World, Robert Jordan
203. The Great Hunt, Robert Jordan
204. The Dragon Reborn, Robert Jordan
205. Fires of Heaven, Robert Jordan
206. Lord of Chaos, Robert Jordan
207. Winters Heart, Robert Jordan
208. A Crown of Swords, Robert Jordan
209. Crossroads of Twilight, Robert Jordan
210. A Path of Daggers, Robert Jordan
211. As Nature Made Him, John Colapinto
212. Microserfs, Douglas Coupland
213. The Married Man, Edmund White
214. Winters Tale, Mark Helprin
215. The History of Sexuality, Michel Foucault(Some parts: Hmm, actually, I don't know if I've read enough to earn the right to put this in bold.) 216. Cry to Heaven, Anne Rice
217. Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe, John Boswell
218. Equus, Peter Shaffer
219. The Man Who Ate Everything, Jeffrey Steingarten
220. Letters To A Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke 221. Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn
222. The Vampire Lestat, Anne Rice
223. Anthem, Ayn Rand
224. The Bridge To Terabithia, Katherine Paterson
225. Tartuffe, Moliere
226. The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
227. The Crucible, Arthur Miller
228. The Trial, Franz Kafka
229. Oedipus Rex, Sophocles
230. Oedipus at Colonus, Sophocles
231. Death Be Not Proud, John Gunther
232. A Dolls House, Henrik Ibsen
233. Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen
234. Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton
235. A Raisin In The Sun, Lorraine Hansberry
236. ALIVE!, Piers Paul Read
237. Grapefruit, Yoko Ono
238. Trickster Makes This World, Lewis Hyde
240. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
241. Chronicles of Thomas Convenant, Unbeliever, Stephen Donaldson
242. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
242. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon
243. Summerland, Michael Chabon
244. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
245. Candide, Voltaire
246. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, Roald Dahl
247. Ringworld, Larry Niven
248. The King Must Die, Mary Renault
249. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein
250. A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline LEngle(unfinished, but only a few chapters short) 251. The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde
252. The House Of The Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne
253. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
254. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan
255. The Great Gilly Hopkins, Katherine Paterson
256. Chocolate Fever, Robert Kimmel Smith
257. Xanth: The Quest for Magic, Piers Anthony
258. The Lost Princess of Oz, L. Frank Baum
259. Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon
260. Lost In A Good Book, Jasper Fforde
261. Well Of Lost Plots, Jasper Fforde
261. Life Of Pi, Yann Martel
263. The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver
264. A Yellow Rraft In Blue Water, Michael Dorris
265. Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder
267. Where The Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls
268. Griffin & Sabine, Nick Bantock 269. Witch of Blackbird Pond, Joyce Friedland
270. Mrs. Frisby And The Rats Of NIMH, Robert C. OBrien
271. Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt
272. The Cay, Theodore Taylor
273. From The Mixed-Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E.L. Konigsburg
274. The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster
275. The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin
276. The Kitchen Gods Wife, Amy Tan
277. The Bone Setters Daughter, Amy Tan
278. Relic, Duglas Preston & Lincolon Child
279. Wicked, Gregory Maguire
280. American Gods, Neil Gaiman 281. Misty of Chincoteague, Marguerite Henry
282. The Girl Next Door, Jack Ketchum
283. Haunted, Judith St. George
284. Singularity, William Sleator
285. A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
286. Different Seasons, Stephen King
287. Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
288. About a Boy, Nick Hornby
289. The Bookmans Wake, John Dunning
290. The Church of Dead Girls, Stephen Dobyns
291. Illusions, Richard Bach (hey, I was a kid!)
292. Magics Pawn, Mercedes Lackey
293. Magics Promise, Mercedes Lackey
294. Magics Price, Mercedes Lackey
295. The Dancing Wu Li Masters, Gary Zukav
296. Spirits of Flux and Anchor, Jack L. Chalker
297. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
298. The Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices, Brenda Love
299. Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
300. The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison (ooh, that reminds me, someone lent me this book, but I've only read a chapter) 301. The Cider House Rules, John Irving
302. Enders Game, Orson Scott Card 303. Girlfriend in a Coma, Douglas Coupland
304. The Lions Game, Nelson Demille
305. The Sun, The Moon, and the Stars, Stephen Brust
306. Cyteen, C. J. Cherryh
307. Foucaults Pendulum, Umberto Eco
308. Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson
309. Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahniuk
310. Camber of Culdi, Kathryn Kurtz
311. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
312. War and Rememberance, Herman Wouk
313. The Art of War, Sun Tzu 314. The Giver, Lois Lowry 315. The Telling, Ursula Le Guin
316. Xenogenesis (or Liliths Brood), Octavia Butler
317. A Civil Campaign, Lois McMaster Bujold
318. The Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold
319. The Aeneid, Publius Vergilius Maro (Vergil)
320. Hanta Yo, Ruth Beebe Hill
321. The Princess Bride, S. Morganstern (or William Goldman)
322. Beowulf, Anonymous (parts of it for school--I don't recall if we read the whole thing) 323. The Sparrow, Maria Doria Russell
324. Deerskin, Robin McKinley
325. Dragonsong, Anne McCaffrey
326. Passage, Connie Willis
327. Otherland, Tad Williams
328. Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay
329. Number the Stars, Lois Lowry
330. Beloved, Toni Morrison
331. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christs Childhood Pal, Christopher Moore
332. The mysterious disappearance of Leon, I mean Noel, Ellen Raskin
333. Summer Sisters, Judy Blume
334. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo
335. The Island on Bird Street, Uri Orlev
336. Midnight in the Dollhouse, Marjorie Filley Stover
337. The Miracle Worker, William Gibson
338. The Genesis Code, John Case
339. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevensen
340. Paradise Lost, John Milton
341. Phantom, Susan Kay
342. The Mummy or Ramses the Damned, Anne Rice
343. Anno Dracula, Kim Newman
344: The Dresden Files: Grave Peril, Jim Butcher
345: Tokyo Suckerpunch, Issac Adamson
346: The Winter of Magics Return, Pamela Service
347: The Oddkins, Dean R. Koontz
348. My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok
349. The Last Goodbye, Raymond Chandler
350. At Swim, Two Boys, Jaime ONeill
351. Othello, by William Shakespeare 352. The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas
353. The Collected Poems of William Butler Yeats(Uhh, I've read a lot of his poetry; I don't know if I've read everything in this particular collection.) 354. Sati, Christopher Pike
355. The Inferno, Dante 356. The Apology, Plato 357. The Small Rain, Madeline LEngle
358. The Man Who Tasted Shapes, Richard E Cytowick
359. 5 Novels, Daniel Pinkwater
360. The Sevenwaters Trilogy, Juliet Marillier
361. Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier
362. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
363. Our Town, Thorton Wilder 364. Green Grass Running Water, Thomas King
335. The Interpreter, Suzanne Glass
336. The Moors Last Sigh, Salman Rushdie
337. The Mother Tongue, Bill Bryson
338. A Passage to India, E.M. Forster loved
339. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
340. The Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux
341. Pages for You, Sylvia Brownrigg
342. The Changeover, Margaret Mahy
343. Howls Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones
344. Angels and Demons, Dan Brown
345. Johnny Got His Gun, Dalton Trumbo
346. Shosha, Isaac Bashevis Singer
347. Travels With Charley, John Steinbeck
348. The Diving-bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
349. The Lunatic at Large by J. Storer Clouston
350. Time for Bed by David Baddiel
351. Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
352. Quite Ugly One Morning by Christopher Brookmyre
353. The Bloody Sun by Marion Zimmer Bradley
354. Sewer, Gas, and Eletric by Matt Ruff
355. Jhereg by Steven Brust
356. So You Want To Be A Wizard by Diane Duane
357. Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
358. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte
359. Road-side Dog, Czeslaw Milosz
360. The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje 361. Neuromancer, William Gibson
362. The Epistemology of the Closet, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
363. A Canticle for Liebowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr
364. The Mask of Apollo, Mary Renault
365. The Gunslinger, Stephen King
366. Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare 367. Childhoods End, Arthur C. Clarke
368. A Season of Mists, Neil Gaiman 369. Ivanhoe, Walter Scott
370. The God Boy, Ian Cross
371. The Beekeepers Apprentice, Laurie R. King
372. Finn Family Moomintroll, Tove Jansson
373. Misery, Stephen King
374. Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters
375. Hood, Emma Donoghue
376. The Land of Spices, Kate OBrien
377. The Diary of Anne Frank 378. Regeneration, Pat Barker
379. Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
380. Dreaming in Cuban, Cristina Garcia
381. A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
382. The View from Saturday, E.L. Konigsburg
383. Dealing with Dragons, Patricia Wrede
384. Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss
385. A Severed Wasp - Madeleine LEngle
386. Here Be Dragons - Sharon Kay Penman
387. The Mabinogion (Ancient Welsh Tales) - translated by Lady Charlotte E. Guest
388. The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown
389. Desire of the Everlasting Hills - Thomas Cahill
390. The Cloister Walk - Kathleen Norris 391. The Things We Carried, Tim OBrien
392. I Know This Much Is True, Wally Lamb
393. Choke, Chuck Palahniuk
394. Enders Shadow, Orson Scott Card 395. The Memory of Earth, Orson Scott Card
396. The Iron Tower, Dennis L. McKiernen
397. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
398. A Ring of Endless Light, Madeline L'Engle
399. Lords of Discipline, Pat Conroy
400. Hyperion, Dan Simmons
401. If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, Jon McGregor
402. The Bridge, Iain Banks
403. Practical Demonkeeping, Christopher Moore
404. Promethea, Alan Moore
405. the curious incident of the dog in the night-time, Mark Haddon
406. archangel - robert harris
407. vernon god little - dbc pierre
408. ultimate spiderman - brian michael bendis
409. The Glamour, Christopher Priest
410. The Portrait of Mrs Charbuque, Jeffrey Ford
411. The Third Person, Steve Mosby
412. Psychoville, Christopher Fowler
413. The Street of Crocodiles, Bruno Schulz
414. The Constant Gardener,John Le Carre
415. The Priestess of Avalon,Marion Bradley
416. The Mists of Avalon,Marion Bradley
417: Einstein’s Dreams – Alan Lightman
418. The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread – Pat Robertson
419. Abarat – Clive Barker
420. The City of Beasts – Isabel Allende
421. The House of Spirits – Isabel Allende
422. Ameican Gods – Neil Gaiman 423. Coraline – Neil Gaiman 424. Like Water for Chocolate – Laura Esquivel 425. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – JK Rowling 426. Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code – Eoin Colfer
427. Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident – Eoin Colfer
428. The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway
429. The Invisible Man – Ralph Waldo Ellison
420. Ogre, Ogre – Piers Anthony
421. Franny and Zooey - J.D. Salinger 422. King Rat - James Clavell 423. Fools Die - Mario Puzo
There should be a separate set of markers for "books of which I've seen the movie version." Hahaha!
One of the greatest, holiest men I have ever had the honor of meeting is Fr. Roque Ferriols.
To the Ateneans of the 60s to the early 90s, Fr. Roque was the fiery legend of Ateneo's Philosophy program. He had founded the philosophy department in the 60s, and had transformed philosophy in the Philippines by urging Filipinos to philosophize in their native tongues. His superior had once called him the only true genius at the Ateneo. And his brilliance and originality as a thinker were as legendary as his temper and strong will.
By the time I came under Fr. Roque's tutelage eight years ago, Fr. Roque was in his early 70s. He had mellowed a little by then, laughing and cracking jokes much more often than allowing his temper to erupt (although those few times it did left us shuddering in fear for days) . In his early 70s, Fr. Roque was our sagely guru, and we were his humble disciples, listening patiently at his feet. What struck me most then was his wisdom, the strength of his philosophy, the brilliance of his mind.
I came back to the Ateneo for graduate studies a little more than a year after graduation, and by the time I did, our beloved Fr. Roque had slowed a little in his gait, though his mind was as active and his tongue as witty as ever. Since then, I've sat in a few of his classes, listened to some of his talks, still blown away each time by his brilliance. But in these past few years, a new aspect of Fr. Roque's personality has left me in dumbfounded admiration: his holiness.
To illustrate. Last Friday, a Mass was held in honor of the Jesuit priests who were celebrating their fiftieth anniversary in the priesthood, and Fr. Roque was one of them. Towards the end of the Mass, he was one of two of the guests of honor who were asked to speak. The other priest--Bishop Escaler--spoke first. Perhaps to humor the congregation comprised mostly of Ateneo alumni, Bishop Escaler began his talk with a nostalgic recollection of the old Ateneo in Padre Faura. He continued on about how he had been inspired to join the Society by the priests and scholastics who were his teachers in Ateneo High School, and about how being a Jesuit has always been at the core of his priestly vocation.
Fr. Roque's speech came next. His slow hobble to the lectern reminded us that Fr. Roque was only two months away from 80. But when he spoke, he spoke with the elegance and clarity for which we had always known him. Still, it was the message, and the man that we saw through his message, that left many of the congregation teary-eyed. I can't quote it in full, but Fr Roque's speech began something like this:
"Fifty years ago, the five of us here became priests, and we did not understand what was happening.
"We did not understand why we, who were such sinners, were being given the power to forgive sins.
"We did not understand why we, who were such sinners, were being called to perform the sacrifice of the Most Holy Lamb at the altar.
"We did not understand, but we trusted."
Goosebumps went up my spine, and I had to wipe away a tear. He continued to speak, and I'm sure that everyone was struck, as I was, by his profound love and adoration of God, and by his profound humility and holiness.
Halfway through his talk, Fr. Roque switched to the language that he had taught many of us to think in, Tagalog. He ended his talk with this line, from Dag Hammarskjold:
"Sa lahat ng nakaraan, salamat. Sa lahat ng hinaharap, oo."
Other teachers have inspired me to learn philosophy, or have made me want to become a philosophy teacher. But Fr. Roque makes me to want to become a better person.
I was cleaning my cubicle yesterday, when I found something I had taped to my cubicle wall when I first started teaching, but which had since gotten stuffed into a drawer: my ticket for our batch's Orsem night from freshman year! Amused, I let my eyes wander down to the date of the event, and I got the surprise of the week when I saw it: June 10, 1994! Yes, it was exactly ten years to the day! (Serendipity!) Immediately, I texted my college barkada and I received a variety of reactions, from "Oh my gosh, has it been ten years?" to funny recollections of that night. But everyone had a sense of, "Wow, as friends we've been through so much together!"
Happy tenth anniversary to my college bunch--my home throughout college. I love you guys so much! I've survived so many things because of you guys, and I wouldn't be who I am today if it weren't for you.
When I first started working, the division between professional and personal correspondence was clear. Professional correspondence was a matter of scheduling an appointment, calling someone at their office during office hours, or mailing a business letter, whether to their office or via business e-mail. When office hours were over, one no longer had to be "on call," and would not need to respond to any professional correspondence, except during emergencies.
The cellphone has changed that, however. For most people in my generation, the cellphone began as a personal communication device, an extension of the home phone, and it was treated as such--one's cellphone number was not indiscriminately revealed to people. Now, however, the distinction between professional and personal lines of communication have blurred. Clients think nothing of calling associates' personal cellphones after hours--even in the middle of the night. In my profession, I don't mind receiving text messages to my personal cellphone from my colleagues; they are, after all, my friends as much as they are my professional associates. I do, however, mind receiving SMS school-related questions from students, especially because, in general, I don't reveal my cellphone number to my students in the first place. Yet my students manage to get my number anyway. Sometimes they text me questions which demand discussions so long that I begin to think of the number of pesos I'll have to spend to reply to them. Other times, they text me concerning matters that were already announced several times in class ("mam, ano po ulit yung assignmnt pra bukas? nklimutan ko kasi").
(Business cellphones are another thing entirely, of course, but I'm speaking here of personal cellphones.)
Let me admit, this is something I am occasionally guilty of myself. When a work-related question occurs to me after hours, I sometimes think nothing of texting an officemate immediately about it, rather than waiting until the resumption of office hours to confront that concern.
However, I've had more than one conversation with friends concerning the discomfort with such a set-up. So this is the topic of this post. What strategies do you, my friendly readers, adopt to avoid the dreaded after-hours work-related text/call to your personal cellphone? I'll start the ball rolling by sharing some of the strategies I'm already aware of:
(1) One of my friends has a cellphone-off policy: she switches off her phone at night, as well as on weekends. The trade-off there, however, is that she also misses calls and messages from friends during the weekends and at night.
(2) As for me, for a few years, I simply wouldn't reply to students' work-related questions texted to me via cellphone (again, the number of which I never released to them anyway). I would wait until we saw each other in class, and then I would reply to the student in person. Last year, however, I think a student got slighted when I didn't respond to his text. So this year, I'm planning to spell it out more clearly by telling my students that my personal cellphone is exactly that--a personal cellphone--and that professional correspondence ought to be coursed through my professional channels: my business e-mail address, or via our department.
(3) A strategy I've thought of but which I haven't implemented yet is this: Next time an unwelcome professional text message appears on my personal cellphone, I might simply text back, "Please call me at the office tomorrow, so we can discuss it."
Meanwhile, I'm also going to try to be more cautious about this myself. The next time I feel tempted to make a business call to an associate's personal cellphone, I'll try to stop myself, pick up the landline, and dial the office number instead. Here's hoping I remember that.
_____
Update: Of course, not all texts from students are unwelcome. I certainly don't mind and am actually pleased to receive friendly texts from students with whom I've become friends. :) Of course. But it's business-related texts that are the issue here.
When I was a child, there were a few realities that had been there since I was born, and seemed as if they would be there for the rest of my life: President Ferdinand Marcos, the Cold War (which, if it escalated to Nuclear War, I was certain would kill us all), and Ronald Reagan.
Marcos and the Cold War are history to my current students. And Ronald Reagan has died too.
I suddenly feel quite old.
_______
But ah, Randy David said that my generation (nakisali siyempre, hehe!) is a source of hope.... I reproduce here his column from yesterday's Inquirer, because it is about three things which are close to my heart: my age group, the Philippines, and the Jesuit Volunteers program:
ONE evening almost a year ago, I found my youngest daughter in a solemn huddle with her mother. I immediately sensed I was about to hear a disclosure for which I wasn't prepared. "Jika has something to tell us," my wife said, confirming my intuition. "Are you going to have a baby," I jokingly blurted. "Are you getting married?"
She frowned in mock anger, and countered, "Of course not! But if you give me permission and I'm accepted, I will be going away for a while." Intrigued, I groped for a seat. "I have applied to be a Jesuit volunteer," she said calmly. For a while I thought I heard her say she was going to be a nun. I didn't know how to respond. But slowly, a warm glow spread through my chest and I was moved.
Among our four children, Jika has always been the methodical and deliberate one. I often wondered whether this was due to her training as an accountant or whether she had elected accounting because it resonated her innate rationality. In any case, it was convenient to have an organized mind in a family of solitary liberals.
It's been almost five years since she began working for Unilever, a global firm with a huge presence in the Philippines. Recruited as a management trainee before her graduation from the University of the Philippines, she joined the company right after passing the accountancy board. She worked 10 to 12 hours a day, regularly coming home not earlier than 10 p.m. Worried about her driving home alone at night, I remember talking to her about these long working hours and asking if she was happy at work. My inquiry surprised her; I realized I was talking to a member of a new generation of highly disciplined and driven young people who worked hard and partied hard.
Frugal to a fault, she saved a big part of her earnings for graduate studies abroad as well as for a yearly vacation to some faraway place. She liked going out with friends on Friday and Saturday evenings. She was bourgeois in every way. Watching her steady transformation into a corporate yuppie, I once ironically remarked to my wife that perhaps we were going to have, at last, a real capitalist in the family. Now I know I was way off the mark.
When it looked certain she would pass the tough screening of the Jesuit Volunteers Philippines (JVP), she wrote her superiors a letter of resignation. They asked if she was moving to another firm. No, she said, she was quitting to do volunteer work for a year. Touched by this odd act of selflessness, the company asked her not to resign and offered her instead a leave that would keep the door open to her return.
Having heard so many good things about the Jesuit volunteer program, my wife and I had no trouble giving our consent to Jika's unusual detour from the single-minded pursuit of career to a life of simplicity, solidarity, and service. The JVP program has been for the past 25 years Ateneo's best alternative to a finishing school. Combining faith-driven solidarity with the poor with the challenge of independent and simple living, the program has attracted and shaped some of the finest young people this nation has had the fortune to produce. It attracts fresh college graduates who, instead of immediately plunging into a career, dedicate a year of their lives in earnest service to others, while pondering over the rest of the years that lie before them. Most of the volunteers are in their early 20s.
I remember asking Jika, who is turning 27, only one question, and I was careful not to sound discouraging: "Isn't this coming a bit late for you? I mean, why now, when you are already on a secure track in your career." I kidded her that maybe she was just passing through a quarter-century crisis and needed time to rethink. She protested she was not that old, unaware that at 24 her mother and I already had our first child, and that both of us were by then already fully embarked on an academic career.
Jika left last Tuesday on a slow boat to Palawan where she is assigned as a non-formal educator in Mathematics at the St. Ezekiel Moreno Parish in Macarascas, Puerto Princesa. She will be tutoring and living with about 40 grade school and high school girls from the surrounding communities who are enrolled in a distance education program. She has always dreamed of becoming a teacher. If she succeeds in giving even only half of these girls enough motivation to skip early marriage for a chance at personal growth, I know she will have accomplished her purpose.
I think my wife and I are lucky to have children who deeply love their country and are not deterred by its problems. But I would not say they are in that sense extraordinary. There are many like them from this generation-young, highly motivated Filipinos who without fanfare do what they can to create a better nation.
I've often wondered what it is that keeps many young Filipinos from packing their bags and leaving this country that their elders have messed up so badly. Trite as it may sound, I think it is the capacity to live John F. Kennedy's memorable line: Ask not what the country can do for you but what you can do for the country. Some see it in secular terms, as the active pursuit of citizenship. Others, like this year's 32 JVP volunteers who will be working in the country's most underserved communities, think of it spiritually as establishing a personal relationship with God by being a person for others. I think of it as the culmination of the search for the right balance between the twin demands of self-creation and of social solidarity.
For all the dark thoughts we often harbor about our country, I truly think we are far from doomed as a nation. Our children give us hope.
- Bush's probably-futile attempt to get Catholic votes by visiting Rome, and a well-written warning that the American President ought to listen to the Pope. (From Salon.com.)
- And for graduate students like me: an article about U.S. grad students' woes. (From The Village Voice.)
Update: George Tenet has resigned, according to CNN. Hmmm.
I fell ill mid-last week, with the flu (I think it's been going around), and a bum stomach. I only had two days to rest, though, then, not quite recovered, I spent three exhausting days helping out with the office planning and orientation sessions.
Now, health is of primary importance when you're in education (the school year cannot stop for a sick teacher), and I'm determined to recover fully before I face registration duty at the end of this week, so I'm spending most of this week cooped up at home, trying to resist the very strong temptation to go out and enjoy the last few days of the summer. The thing about me, however, is that when I'm at home--even when I'm supposed to be resting--I always find things that need fixing or organizing. Yesterday, it was my closet. Inspired by an episode of "Queer Eye" (another, um, "chick show"--apart from Oprah--that will get Mike's eyes rolling whenever we watch TV together, heheh!), I did a spring- (or should I say, summer-) cleaning of my aparador. Hallmarks of yesterday's closet clean-up:
(1) I finally decided to confront the physical realities of my age (cf. "Late 20s" post below), bade goodybe to my once-24 waistline, and tossed aside most of the outfits I'd categorized under "Clothes I Hope to Fit Into Again Someday." (I say, "most," because there are still a few favorites that I'm stubbornly hanging onto.)
(2) A page I took out of my mom's book on housekeeping: I brought out my sewing kit and managed to breathe new life into a few old items. I mended a few clothes that needed mending. I also took two old cardigans from the 80s (one was my mom's, another was mine), and took off the awful shoulder pads--ta-dah! New clothes for me!
(3) A few favorite clothes of mine that I no longer fit into, I slipped into a paper bag to give as a gift to my best friend Gen, who's a few sizes smaller than me. Some of these items are more than ten years old, but are still in very good shape, and with the current 80s/90s revival, they're back in style!
(4) FInally, after re-organizing my closet, and coming up with a small pile of old clothes, I pulled out two older boxes of clothes and shoes from previous years' spring-cleanings. I priced each item, then, with the help of our housekeepers, hauled the boxes out into our garage for a mini-garage sale. I hope to some extra pocket money before the weekend is over.
More news from my old homeland. (I've been watching a lot of Channel News Asia lately, hence this renewed interest in Singapore.) Singaporeans can chew gum again ... if they have a prescription.
A slightly more, well, cynical view of this news is here.
Through e-mail exchanges with old friends and dinners with college batchmates, I'm getting a general picture of how my peer group--we who are in our mid- to late-20s--are doing in the world.
For many of my friends, I think the past couple of years have been a period of filling the foundations of stability on which the rest of our lives will be built.
Career-wise, many of us started six years ago in the working world, slaving away at near-minimum wage fresh-grad grunt jobs; now, those years of perseverance are paying off. Most of my friends are now middle-management, in supervisory positions, with the youth and the innovation to have fresh ways of looking at things, yet also with the confidence and clout to be respected voices in their fields. Some are already being groomed to become partners at their companies. The ones who spent those years in medicine or law school are finally done, with the letters "M.D." or "Ll.B." proudly attached to their names. Some have managed, by their own blood, sweat, and tears, to enter a completely different league altogether, entering the high-flying circles of super-success.
Some friends, after weaving in and out of different job experiments, are in the process of discovering their true passions. A number of peers are making radical career changes, giving up the corporate rat-race to start businesses of their own, or to go back to school for a second degree. Several are taking MBA's, hoping to make leaps in their careers and open wider opportunities for themselves.
I have friends in music and in the arts, who, after college, opted to take the road-less traveled by shunning traditional career ladders. They are the ones who are now finding ways of doing what they love and making a living doing that as well. It's heartwarming and inspiring to watch these friends who love what they do so much that they never really need to "work" a day in their lives.
And after all that hard work, many of us are finding the self-assurance and stability to find our true joy in our personal lives as well. Several friends are about to get married, or are already married, or have started families of their own. A number of single friends have, as we say in Tagalog, chosen to "magbukod," to move out of their parents' homes and live alone.
It's all very refreshing. Up until, maybe, 25, many of us still felt lost and foolish, wearing adult clothes in an adult world we didn't really know anything about. I think that has changed over the past few years, though. i think most of us really don't think of ourselves as kids anymore, as we've each learned to take responsibility for our own lives.
And I think that's the basic difference between 20 and 27: By the time you're in your late 20s, you learn that your life really is in your own hands. You no longer feel like a victim of circumstance; rather, you realize that your own life really is what you make it, and you've learned by then to take the resources available to you and shape them into anything you want your future to be.
When we were 17, I thought that that was the best age to be. Now we're 27, and I must say, it's a pretty darn good age too! I can't wait for what the next decade will bring, and I'm glad that the friends I've had for the last ten (and more) years will still be sharing my life with me when we all turn (gulp!) 37.... :)
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