2014 was a fun year for me.
I found my way into the blogosphere. I felt belonged in communities. I met interesting people, work-at-home-moms and mommy bloggers. I was welcomed into the blogging world, by many. I was blessed with many earth angels- who helped and assisted me with:
“error 404″, “your site is down”, “stop-adding-widgets-puede”, “your site is not responding” ( -so please stop googling it, hang kuhlet).
My mommy blogger community taught me to be generous -to share my time and person.
My not so active facebook page, suddenly had loyal reader-friends. Reader-friends who would remind me kindly, to keep writing blog posts na tagos sa puso . I was also grammar nazied galore, like my blog posts really mattered. (mayroon na akong arrive ng slight )
I received emails from a number of people , who told me that I made their day, I made them laugh, I made them appreciate their being Filipino and I made them love their families, even more.
So thank you, for there were at least eight, of The Soapbox Filipina’s blog posts that were well-loved by many in 2014:
( some I have written ,during the latter part of 2013 but continued their way into 2014)
1. Blog post: The Bus: A Public Transport
“Years back, in my kindergarten days, my mom and I would travel several times in a year to visit her family’s place. We take the bus. Back then, the roads were not as paved; the trip from where we used to reside-which was Davao City to Butuan City, was probably 10 hours. As we would stop over one station, vendors would get on the bus and shout, “Itlog, manoy, orange.”
( thank God for commas, – without them, those three words up there, would sound, uhm, funny. As in the book about the “panda who eats shoots and leaves.” ) READ ON: https://www.thesoapboxfilipina.com/bus-public-transport/
2 .Blog post: Roses Are Red
“On my thirtieth birthday, I came to a realization that I was too busy being single. I was also, too busy vying, for the title of “Miss most-number-of weddings-baptisms-children’s first-birthday parties, attended.” So I decided, it was time, I hosted mine.
I could have, you know -let alone one important detail. I was very much single, while sporting a unique birth sign: “the no-boyfriend-since-birth sign”. My love life was not even, a peek to a preview of love, marriage and carriage. I was always stuck in a book, work and church.
Why my single life was NOT defined with, “partying with boys“, came as no surprise. I out-talk, as my mother would say, any guy, any date, any time. Or as in one of my brothers’ words, “maka -annoy“. Yeah, that is me, sometimes.
I had options really. I could have always shut up and taper down my vitamin dosage. I could have stopped talking about tagalog movies and Dingdong Dantes for once, during a date. I could have stopped bringing opinions about the country, while on a blind date.
I could have also stopped arguing with a date and started a real normal conversation, like normal people do, on a date. I could have stopped talking about, how beautiful my family, my brothers and sisters are.” READ ON: https://www.thesoapboxfilipina.com/roses-are-red/
3. Blog post: The Poor, The Taxpayers and The Thieves
All our lives, we were made to believe that our country is poor because Filipinos are lazy.
“Kaya mahirap ang Pilipinas, dahil tamad ang Pilipino.” We were made to think that we are poor because of our own doing.We, The Filipino people believed all that. Then, The Commission on Audit released a special report that a staggering amount of 6.156 BILLION PESOS was poured into 82 non-government organizations that never existed. SOURCE: http://www.rappler.com/nation/36609-coa-special-report-pdaf-misused
( all those money unaccounted for, just like that. )
While corrupt lawmakers of this country shamelessly believed that this monstrous amount of money was all theirs to spend. When every centavo of this pork barrel, ( euphemistically referred to as, The Priority Development Assistance Funds or PDAF) was contributed through taxes, by every single hardworking Filipino.
We Filipinos, seemed to have been under mass hypnosis of sorts, for too long. ( Naniniwala ka pa rin bang mahirap tayo dahil tayo ay tamad? )
Let us wake up from that fallacious belief. We are not poor because we are lazy. We are anything but lazy.
We are the most hardworking group of people in the world. Haven’t you seen our kababayans from call centers, who braved flood waters during the habagat, just to get to work? It was all because they had to be of service to clients, calling from all around the globe. How about our industrious countrymen abroad, who are highly praised by other nationalities? What do the world say about us?
” What will the world do without Filipinos.” READ ON: https://www.thesoapboxfilipina.com/the-poor-the-taxpayers-and-the-thieves/
4. Blog post: Why We Encouraged Our Kindergarten Son to Keep on Joining School Contests
It has been a long time, since I myself, joined any contest. I forgot how competitions like that make one feel. Or how different it is, now that I am a parent. ( something I was not prepared for) Or how it really means to be a contestant, -knowing that someone wins and someone loses.
Right after the Math Contest, my six-year-old son came out of the class room, looked at me and his dad, and with the strongest voice he could muster, said,
” I LOST.” Then he broke down and cried.
It broke his heart for losing. It broke my husband’s heart for having heard him say that. It broke my heart for having not shielded him from that pain. It took all my husband and I’s assurance that it was not ” him winning the contest” that mattered but it was the experience of him joining one, -which not all children could. ( stage mother alert) READ ON: https://www.thesoapboxfilipina.com/encouraged-kindergarten-son-keep-joining-school-contests/
5. Blog post: 5 Filipino Quotes that I I Will Equip Myself With In 2014
1. “A Girl Has To Want It, Kasi…“ –Arnold Mercado of Aces and Queens
2013 is the year, when most of the representatives from the Philippines emerged as winners, in prestigious international beauty pageants -bagging three titles: Miss World, Miss International and Miss Supranational. (It did cross my mind, however, that maybe a breakthrough in science and in beauty products, might had happened -particularly in the Philippines, this year.)
” Anong meron?” READ ON : https://www.thesoapboxfilipina.com/5-filipino-quotes-i-will-equip-myself-in-2014/
6.Blog post: 3 Things I Wished I learned as A Filipino Child
My childhood was filled with opportunities for learning. I read books voraciously -from the Brittanicas to the Agatha Christies and the Nancy Drews. I exchanged letters with pen-friends through the IYS (The International Youth Service).
*The IYS or The International Youth Service was a pen-friend service, for the youth, in the late eighties to the early nineties.
I listened to my maternal grandmother, who was still living that time, tell stories about the past, pre and post-war tales. I was also an avid fan of both local and foreign t.v. shows: That’s Entertainment, Juan Talisman, The A-Team and The Cosby Show.
I was catching gunting-gunting ( a small type of fish) by the suba ( river). I played patintero, chinese garter and takyan ( sipa). I get to climb those mango and kalachuchi trees, near our house. I had the best of both worlds. READ ON : https://www.thesoapboxfilipina.com/3-things-wish-learned-filipino-child/
7. Blog post: Remains of The Past
It was three hundred years, of Spanish rule in the Philippines. The natives, the peasants, the Katipuneros and the masses, continuously revolted against colonialism and foreign dominion.
There were those, who wanted reforms from “Mother Spain”. There were those, who wanted all of the country back.
The people were divided and classified, through names and titles like, Mestizos, Ilustrados, Creoles, Insulares, Filibusteros and Indios. There were also those who fought for their rights to be called, “only as Filipinos”. Some of our ancestors, spent their whole lives, changing the plight of future generation, fighting colonists and raising their bolos, while there were also those, who just stood by and watched.
It was through our predecessors’ courageous deeds (or accidental acts of heroism, as some text books argue) that we now possess the privilege of being called “Filipinos” But was this legacy valued enough? READ ON : https://www.thesoapboxfilipina.com/remains-past/
8. Blog post: I Love Tagalog Romantic Movies
1. Next to E.T. ,it was those movies like P.S. I Love You, My Only Love and Dear Heart that influenced my adolescent years. (while my mom was my movie date)
2. There was Trixie, Cindy and Billy in my childhood . ( My Only Love ) Then there is Miggy and Laida in my adulthood.
3. There will always be THAT line and THAT exchange of words.
” You are my real number 1…” ” Billy naman ayoko nga ng number 1, siempre pag may number 1, mayroon ding number 2, may number 3, may number 4….I won’t settle for number 1 ” Eh ano talaga ang gusto mo…tell me my love?” ” Your only one.”
READ ON :
