Muchas Gracias!

Monday afternoon. I've never been this bored all my life. Me & my mom are in the kitchen table, both hands on our head, thinking of things to do. It's 4PM and I just woke up, well I can't call it ‘woke up' because I didn't really get myself to sleep. I've been in bed for 3 hours with eyes wide open. Anyway, my dad arrived and handed a movie to watch but I didn't feel like watching either. Urgh! What's up with me?! I got a novel to read, opened it but closed it again after a few seconds. I just felt that the words from the book have mouths ready to devour me. Is this some kind of an illness?! I peeped through our window and saw students heading home after their whole-day class. I imagined myself wearing my uniform back when I was in school. I wonder what these students feel when they wake up early in the morning, sit for many hours in a four-cornered room, make assignments at home, and sleep late until all homeworks are done. And same routine for the next day. I'm not sure if that's exactly what they do everyday. Most of these teens still have time to watch those evening telebabads, or chika with their peers 'til dawn. I may not have experienced that kind of so-called easy life, but I never dreamed of being in their shoes.

They say we had a boring school life, but I strongly disagree. Yes, we spent most of our days while nagsusunog ng kilay, as what a tagalog idiom says. There were times that we had to stay at school until 9PM to do group works, sleep at 4AM and wake up after 2 hours to prepare for school again for the sake of some investigatory projects, face the computer for hours and search for out-of-this-world stuffs, etc. & etc. But all of these didn't mean that we forgot sustain our emotional needs. Happiness varies on how you handle and view things in your life. We enjoyed what we were doing during those days. We learned loads of things that other peple failed to know. And between those what they call ‘boring' routine were unforgetable laughs and jokes which sometimes no one can understand except us. We may have looked and sounded retarded sometimes but we didn't care. All we knew was that we're happy despite the misjudgments and wrong impressions most of our schoolmates throw at us. These discriminations and prejudice gave us the strength to prove them wrong. Have we been successful? Definitely! Because most of them now wish they were in our shoes. I'm not bragging at all. Oh well, maybe a bit. It feels good when you've accomplished something even if the world is against you. So I would like to give my deepest gratitude to everyone who helped me in my struggles, including my detractors of course. I'm not saying that I'm already on the highest pedistal, nor am I one of those financial high-fliers. But somehow I've reached some of my dreams and I am standing where I am now because of you. So again, gracias!

Keren Keziah Cajes is a writer for a local newspaper, and is aiming to spread her thoughts and ideas to teenagers and youths. She came from a conservative family and believes that things and decisions should be made with parents' and the Bible's guidance.

http://quezaiah.blog.friendster.com/