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Mic test. Gela here. Is this thing on? =)

Right. Here we go. My last entry. Candy Girls, if there’s one thing I regret, it’s that I have the least number of blog entries among the eight of us. But I won’t spend my last blog entry as a C0C8 girl on regrets (and neither should you. Life’s too short for anyone to regret anything!).

The first thing on my mind are the girls. The Council wasn’t just the Council. They’re special enough to me to be my sisters. Being the youngest in the gang almost automatically marked me as the baby, but I don’t mind—that gives me seven beautiful, brilliant girls as my sisters, and really, that’s not something ordinary.

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So! The feature articles. (And yes, it really is me, Gela, back in the flesh! =D)

Obviously I can’t say much about the part of the articles that I didn’t take part in writing, because I wasn’t there to witness them being born. But I sure can tell you about the part Pat and I worked on, namely the quiz.

It took a lot of idea-changing and a lot of drafts before the two of us finally came up with that. My original idea was “What Type of Explorer Are You?” in relation to the theme EXPLORE! I was thinking the answers would be something like archaeologist-captain-traveler-something (I never got around to deciding on the last option because we thought of a different idea).

The final one came out, I remember, during our Hotspot shoot. I’d asked Pat to ride with us in the Adventure, and the two of us were in the back-back seat while Rubie, Sandra and Mheems (did I get that right? haha! I forgot.) were in the middle-back seat. We both had our notebooks open, and ideas just started flowing right out of us. Funny how that happens when we’re all together. It’s like when we’re getting really into brainstorming, our minds connect effortlessly onto one track, one wavelength, and it all comes together and bam! we come up with something. One time, the eds even said they should have done more brainstorming with us. Haha! Well, going back. Somewhere during that bumpy ride, we came up with the idea of thinking about the gadget the reader uses most and telling the reader what kind of exploring she should do more. Within the span of say, five minutes, we already had a basic outline and a draft of the design, and once that was done, we shut our notebooks and joined into the other girls’ conversation on school and Gossip Girl (although I couldn’t relate with that! =P) as we cruised along the roads.
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People ask me, “What are you taking up in—” and I’d immediately go “Nursing!” even before they finish the question.

Growing up, it’s practically inevitable. I come from a medical family. My mom and her parents are doctors, and my aunt and cousins are nurses. Plus I have countless other relatives from their side who are nurses or dentists or pharmacists. I literally grew up in a hospital. As in literally. The hospital was like my manor, my playground. I went so far as to say once, as a joke, “Sa ospital na ‘to…ako ang batas!” Haha! The building itself has memories that I’m going to treasure forever, even if the meaning of those memories has long since faded. Nevertheless, my environment and my bloodline are only two factors in my decision.

Perhaps my dream was unconsciously drilled into me ever since I was a kid. Ever since, studying the human body has been my favorite science topic. In the school years that we didn’t cover anything about the body, I was admittedly quite bored, but whenever we took up human anatomy, I tended to go all out. At a young age, I had a different sort of vigor for the subject. I mean, while everybody else in my second grade class knew only that eyes=sight out of the five senses, I could already explain how we really see something upside-down and that our brain only turns it right side up. In Grade Three, I knew words like “duodenum” and “transverse colon” in relation to our study of the digestive tract. When I was in Grade Four, I could name all the bones in the body by heart, and a year later, I gave a half-hour long lecture on the skeletal system in front of the entire student body…solo. And for Bio two years ago, instead of doing one report about the body systems, I opted to do two.
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Yes, I wrote this.
Yes, this is written for somebody.
No, I can’t say who it’s for. Sorry. I’m sworn to secrecy…only under threat of torture…under oath and all that…=PPP
Okay. Here we go.

BECAUSE YOU CAME

Your voice plays over and over in my head
Like a love song’s refrain
I’m officially hung up on you
and words just can’t explain
And for this burst of inspiration
I have you to blame
Being alive is infinitely more beautiful
and it’s all because you came
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Today, our Filipino teacher returned the essay we wrote last week. SP has pretty high standards, so I was nothing short of ecstatic when he told me he liked what I’d written. I strayed from my usual style of writing, and I wasn’t sure if the new perspective I tried would sit well with him. My old essay style was very deep, dramatic, and serious. I decided to take a cue from my only Filipino writer idol, Bob Ong, and to write in a light, humorous, sarcastic way but still get valid and important points across. Anyway, the essay is in Tagalog, but I still want to share it here.=) Constructive criticism would be welcome, by the way. Hint hint! Haha! Edited to bring the mature language rating down.

PAKSA: MASARAP, MASAKIT UMIBIG. (kaugnay ng tekstong Sayaw sa Kalipay)
4 talata, 10 pangungusap/talata.

MASARAP, MASAKIT UMIBIG.
—R.A.V. Bambao, IV-Manganese

Grade 4: Unang beses kong “mainlab” sa pambatang paraan.
Grade 5: Unang beses kong maranasan ang break-up sa pambatang paraan.
Grade 6: Mga crush ko puro walang direksyong lalaki.
First Year: Malakas ang tama (crush lang) sa isang delingkwente.
Second Year: Nagmahal, pers taym. Naranasan ang break-up na seryoso, pers taym. Lampas apat na linggong palaboy-laboy na parang kaluluwang ligaw na tulong-tulo ang luha at sipon.
Third Year: Napipikon na sa mga lalaking walang direksyon.
Fourth Year: Natauhan (nadulas yata sa banyo at nabagok ang ulo sa inidoro) at nagpasyang tama na muna ang kalandian—si D (as in Draco Malfoy) at ang mga kapatid ko na lang ang magiging lalaki sa buhay ko.
Ang punto ng lahat ng ito ay…ahh, ano nga ba? Ah, yun! Hindi madaling pasukin ang mundo ng mga umiibig. Napapaisip ngayon ako kung bakit patuloy itong hinahangad ng mga tao.
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