Just a Thought

I filled my glass with orange juice and started reading the chapter about Generative Grammar from Fromkin’s Introduction to Lingustics. My next thought --- this was after I finished my juice --- was that I should go to the Shopping Center before 2 pm to get my readings in CL 100. It was already 1:20. I immediately changed clothes and put on my pants and rubber shoes. When I was about to lock the gate, I realized I forgot to wear my favorite pink cap. I turned abruptly and hurried through the house, opened my closet and grabbed my cap.

Near it, I noticed the small Papemelroti slam book I bought 2 weeks ago because I thought it was a writing notebook I can use as a journal (in Linguistics 110). I opened a few pages and felt an unexplainable urge to pick up a pen and write. Maybe I missed this --- answering questions like “What is your favorite color,” “What is love,” “Who is your first crush,” and so on and so forth.

I sat down, but when I was finally on the mood, I couldn’t write anything at once. I stared at the page again, and then answer anyway.

Name: Ma. Eloisa Villa del Rey Quijano

Age: 19

School: UP Diliman

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…….

…….

I wrote the answers in print heavy stroked letters. I continued.

Favorite Food: Filipino and Italian

Favorite Song: Butterfly

Favorite Book: The Alchemist

…….

…….

…….

I wanted to write M2M in some items, but I think I’m too old to be answering that way still. I turned to the next page.

Describe yourself: (Blank)

What is love: Love is not blind. It sees, but it denies.

Who is your first crush? Melvin

Who is the person you admire most? (Blank)

What is your motto in life? (Blank)

The best advice you’ve received? (Blank)

What is your ambition? (Blank)

…….

…….

…….

At this spot of the sheet, I left most of the items blanked because I noticed it was already 1:50. Straight away I closed the slam book, shut the door, and hurried to ride an Ikot jeep.




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I recognize an irony here. For years, I had been so pre-occupied with my duties and responsibilities as a student, daughter, and citizen, that for 19 years already, I seem to be always working in a hurry, forgetting about the simple things which are actually of permanent and absolute existence in this world. I had a hard time describing myself, defining love, writing the person I admire most, and assessing myself as a whole.


Somehow, I’m ashamed that I never let myself spend more minutes answering the remaining questions left. I thought it was a waste of time. I paused to ask myself, “ Is it really difficult to give at least 15 minutes of my precious time in answering simple questions like those, which all were easy to answer when I was younger? Is it hard to “drive life in a corner” for a while? In a broader sense, why do men nowadays get so frittered away by their personal businesses, that they become to unwilling and hesitant to pause for a while in order to reduce life in lowest terms?” (some terms from Hawthorne's ideas on the simplicity of life)