A kind of paralyzing inertia somehow settled over me. It’s fancy words for the tiredness that comes from the elephantine teaching workload of always being present, ceaselessly giving and continually keeping all those balls in the air. I was emotionally drained and running on empty ten days into January of 2016. I knew I needed to reset but one doesn’t just tell a...
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Ahh Life,
Heck Yeah Teaching
A Letter To My Crestfallen 10-Year Old Self. With All My Heart, Thirty-Two.
My dearest Ten, Some mornings ago, I couldn’t thank all the stars in the heavens enough for finding a crisp twenty-peso bill inside my pocket just when I needed it most. As I handed it to one of my students who didn’t have a snack for recess, my first thought was you. When she stayed inside the classroom while the rest of her...
Two ladies you secretly want to be in your squad. 😆 To say that I’m “ok” with it is an understatement. Truth be told, ending that one-sided friendship was something I’ve always wanted to do for as long as I can remember. On multiple occasions, I’ve attempted to do so only to fail miserably. Friendship, after all, is meant to nourish, sustain us and often provide our...
As a child, I was called Nanay, a Filipino informal for mother, coined by the people around me who thought I was a domineering, audacious, blustering little 5-year old. Mama conceived me in her katipunera temperament after all and one cannot help but own up to it. Perhaps, I really was a domineering, audacious, blustering little 5-year old. How my five-year old self...
They say if you don’t have haters, you’re doing it wrong. Perhaps. But it sure is something I am never cavalier about. Who wants to deal with haters? I know I don't. But early into 2017, I came to a sad realization that no matter what we do in life, there will always be people in this world waiting for us to lose…...
