Kids, I would not even pretend to have a full understanding of what exactly it is to be like in your shoes. 18 years ago, in the most overrated place one could be in, I got to wear a cap and a gown, walked the stage, received my diploma and shared the moment with my family as my fellow seniors and I concluded...

Continue Reading

Quarantine Life, Week 3 It was already two o’clock in the morning. Sab and I were very much awake like it was only seven p.m. We’re quite dead set on overseeing the virtual instructions that this school year has been reduced to but the suddenness of everything has thrown our daily routine a little off. We’ve fixed ourselves a cup of instant noodles...

Continue Reading

Quarantine Life, Week 2 Three weeks ago, life was hectic. Any teacher can say that the end of school year is one of the busiest, if not, stressful times of the year. Finals, events, performance tasks, grading—the home stretch is a knockout blow. To put it flippantly, it’s tiring. I’ve known that in my brain for a while but as soon as March...

Continue Reading

Perhaps I was way overconfident when I thought to myself, “that will never reach us,” the moment the news of Coronavirus first broke out in 2019. Then, sometime in January, China prepares for a lockdown. I was not so presumptuous as to say that for me, that won't just happen. I felt monumentally positive that Philippines would not get to that point. Now,...

Continue Reading

“Miss Anie is a bitter woman because she doesn’t have a love life!” said a ninth grader I reprimanded for concealing a note during a weekly quiz in 2015. And believe me, that even sound harsher in Filipino. It may have been nicer too if it was said to my face instead of lashing it out on other students who, quite frankly, have...

Continue Reading