Roaming the range of Batangas every after five days of summer classes doesn't always translate to a comfy, unwinding experience. First, the trip can really cause backaches plus headaches everytime my head hits the window. The van's aircon doesn't always work. And the list of complaints goes on. When i get home and feel all clammy because of the warm, dusty breeze, all i can ask my parents for is a swimming treat. And although our place is lined with beach/pool resorts and diving spots on its coast, it wasn't until last last saturday that i had the feel of sticky, salty but soothing seawater after one long year. But the tide was high, the sun at its hottest and shores clustered with youths drinking their time away. The setting turned me off so instead of crashing into the waves, i plunged into the pool. I swam like mad, well hey, leisures like this are too seldom for restraint. But if misfortune will get in the way, it really will. It was already 6 pm and dark, there were only few cousins, aunts, and newly found friends in the water with me. I don't have the habit of getting all chummy with strange, though nice people when I'm not in a so good mood (you'll know why, later). So i keep it distant from them and as I swam towards the cute mini-fall, boom! Karma said hi! I hit my head against the brick-hard wall. What a consequence for not being friendly? But see, one of the guys among the group of strangers elbowed me on the tummy after a wrong-angled dive. Though unintentional, it bruised. That's why i didn't want to even get a yard nearer to them.
If a tingling forehead is what i got for such a valid attitude, what will other people get for reasonably avoiding some fellows? Or what will some other fellows get from paving the path for friendship and yet scare their target friends away? Providing light on this circumlocution is left to the blogs of quite a few. Better click on the links found at the left side of the screen and chow down on the issues laid bare for you!
Just sharing. hehe!
UP is such a pluralistic community. (Who doesn't know this?) We're drizzled with several worldviews competing for our minds.What i'm just trying to say is we are left to ourselves to choose what principles to believe in and live by. And finding people with beliefs parallel to ours is just so tough. Thankfully, im not so finicky when it comes to people's qualities and ideologies.
I had a weak value-system before stepping into the university ground. What caused this is my HS experience of winning friends. I was just a transferree in my HS alma mater during 2nd year. i chose that school because my gradeschool buddies were all going there. I was extremely excited to kiss and make-up with them for leaving the country without any notice. To my surprise, those silly friends of mine experimented on forming new networks of pals according to their individual standards. So when i entered the picture, i had a hard time setting my sked so that i could spend time with each group. Kulang na lang mag-draw lots ako. I grew satiated accomodating all factions. I couldn't spread myself so thinly.
I decided to bond with the circle of cool but a lil geeky peeps in deference to my old friends. But whew, i didn't have a clue that getting along with those brainy kikays could dry out my patience. I've always hated the feeling of being rejected especially when there's no reason that could be more shallow than envy. Who doesn't anyway? I wouldn't go pushing myself to any group or anybody. (But eventually, they made efforts to win me.)
That problem was as simple as HS life, which i think is really way simpler than UP-culture. Kaya na-challenge talga ko sa paghahanap ng friends sa skul natin ngayon. Finding all-weather friends in UP is kinda like finding a needle in a heystack.
I can still remember my freshy days when I'd eat in CASAA by myself, (with no one asking what i'd have for lunch); when i'd go to lib (again, alone); and when i'd enlist my subjects without considering anybody else's sked. But the sway of things didn't keep its direction the entire year.
FYI, I was BA Speech Comm then; we had a block dat's nothing like K-6. Amy wasn't my blockmate but thank heavens, we met. If it weren't for our decision to shift out, I wouldn't be as cheerful now (as Klara described me). That year was ok but it was too darned isolating.
Now, I'm in journ and i hope having many friends around wouldn't lull me into complacency that everybody is worthy of close social contact. Tulad ng nasabi ko kanina, UP is a bastion of diversity. we all have our differences. After all, friendship is not always about honeysweet pleasantries like sunken-tambay and its bouts.
I'm quite tolerant but please don't dare mess too much with the people i value kasi that can get the better of me. If you want us to be in harmony, respect my closest folks because anything that stings them, stings me just as bad. We have two ears, and that's nature's way of saying that we should listen twice before we speak. Ayoko na kasi ng mga conflicts na instead magsubside after quite some time, eh lalo pang lumalaki at mas marami pang tao ang naiinvolve. Tanggapin na lang natin na may pagkakaiba tayo, if we can't settle those, let's leave them be. Masanay na sana tayo kasi kung hindi, God knows when kung kelan tayo lahat magiging ok.
I hope I have conveyed my message clearly. That's the most gentle way i could say what's in my heart. I said it all now because I don't want to simmer until I can't say it nicely anymore.
Anyway, naka-vote na pala ko. I really felt my share in the elections especially when i found out that my parents, relatives, and few friends changed their bets last minute after I gave them a piece of my mind about my list of candidates. Hehe! Power of persuasion, that's what i call it.
