Reality is far too better than fantasy =)

When I was a child, I always dreamed about being a princess. I would love to wear a crown just like those in the fairy tales. For sure I’ll enjoy living in a castle having everything I want and just like any princess on each and every story that my mom used to read, all princesses have their own prince that would do anything just to save them from some evil witch that would try everything just to unnerve them. I constantly dreamed of those sweet and romantic happy endings because I thought that in real life, happy endings do not exist. But I was wrong, really wrong. Life is worth more than any magic that Disney has to offer.

I always say that I would exchange everything just for me to be a princess in those fantasy stories every child would enjoy reading. But now, I don’t think I still want my life that way. I may not have a castle just like all those fairy tale princesses, but I have a loving family which I call my home. I may not have those glass slippers just like that of Cinderella, but I have those fancy havaianas that would not be broken into pieces. I also don’t have dwarf friends like Snow white but I have sweet, gentleman, not to mention super cute handsome guy friends that are always there for me during good and bad times. I might don’t have the wealth to buy a golden ball just like the princess at the frog prince; at least I don’t have to kiss a toad just to have my prince because I have mine already. I just realized that my own story would simply put all those fairy tales to shame and I don’t ever want to belong there, those princesses are living nothing but a boring life and I can’t stand a day being them. I mean, in every fairy tale, the princess would only get to meet one prince, only one. But in real life, there are lots of cute guys to mingle and hang out with. A life full of cute boys, what’s a girl got to lose for? So I can say that I don’t need boring fairy tales anymore, because right now, I’m living a somewhat near perfect life, the life I though would not come true in real life is actually happening to me and that I am currently enjoying this sweet carousel ride-like life of mine or to be exact, a fairy tale-like life.



I can say that everyone has the right to enjoy their lives, just put in your mind that we have the power to make every passing day better than yesterday. We are the author of our own lives and it’s up to us to give it a happy ending. Just like Cinderella, she had a great time with the prince, yet when midnight struck she chose to leave the life she dreamed of together with her one true love. Nevertheless, this unforgettable night made her so happy. What I’m trying to say is, it doesn’t take forever for us to be happy. A moment can do it if we really put our heart to it. We shouldn’t think of the future nor the past, all we have to do is enjoy the present and make the most out of it, because life is a one way street, no matter how many ways you take, none of them leads you back.

Do yourself a favor! Fall in love with the right one. =)

~ Love is the cruelest form of affection, and the sweetest form of torture. ~

Playing with love is like playing with fire. You play carefully trying not to hurt and burn yourself; you keep a distance, not too close but not that far either. You want to feel the heat but you try not to lure too much. Just like in love, we don’t let ourselves fall so hard because we don’t want to get hurt in the end. We try to build a wall and sometimes we tend to back off when we feel were almost falling. What we do is just play with love; you flirt, hook up and pretend we feel nothing towards someone, but deep inside, just a simple glance from that person makes your day. Silly isn’t it? We play with love and it’s too late for us to realize that it’s not us who really played with love, its love that played with us. Because the more you try to hide your true feelings, the more it will grow. The more you try to feed yourself it’s not love, the more you realize its love actually and the more you back of from the person you really love, the more you’re drawn to them. So if you think you’re falling, just follow your heart and don’t think about the hurt you’ll get when you let yourself fall. Take chances because it’s better to give it a try even if it hurt in the end, at least at one point you feel happy and loved than not try at all, yeah you don’t feel the pain that goes with love, but you never also feel the pleasure that only love can give.



Just like what happened in the story “Games” The girl is actually falling for the guy but she doesn’t want to show it. She was playing it cool. She made up false name like Tina, Fannie, or Malou just for fun, or maybe she wants to let everyone else think that he’s got one hot boyfriend, a chicker, mr. popular, probably a big catch that every girl would be jealous about. At first I thought she’s not serious, It’s as if she’s a real player, someone whose used to dumping guys easily and after an hour or two, she’s already got someone new. But upon reading further, I can say that she was just acting as if she’s strong, when in fact she’s got lots of insecurities, I figured it out when she was raged with fire when the guy accidentally is just few steps away from her ex-girlfriend. She was boiling with rage, she hate the fact that the guy and his ex actually talked. Right then and there, I realized that she was just showing off, she was trying to tell the whole world that she’s not in love; she’s too shy of letting her true feelings out. Yes, she’s got the nerve to tell the guy she cares, that she loves him, but not enough to show it.

In the long run, when she thought she was doing the right thing of just playing with love to get away from pain, she found out she was the one who get played. That the guy she loves was the real player. He was having an affair with his ex-girlfriend while he was hooking up with her. He’s a sweet talker, he tells her sweet things like he loves her but hell, and he doesn’t really mean it. It’s like the kind of guys that would feed you up with lies just for a girl to shut up and not talk anymore. This thing really happen, yes it’s sad but we should face the fact that love and pain go hand in hand. Maybe it’s really true that no pain means no love. So just do yourself a favor, fall in love with the right person. Everyone is going to hurt you, so the best you can do is go for the one who’s worth all the pain, worth all the tears and worth all the sacrifices. Besides, in the end, it’s not how much you suffered but its how much you loved.

The modern and old fictions don’t differ that much. I find this story a little bit similar with The Corral, it has something to do with guys that are not serious, guys that are show off. Pilar, the girl who likes Gregorio did everything just to get the guys attention, but whatever it is that she do, Gregorio never really care. He was flirting with her probably because he’s aware that Pilar like him, it’s as if he was just playing her game which is exactly what happened in the story by Noelle Q. De Jesus. They played love instead of dealing with it seriously which ended in hurting the feelings of another person. Sad but true. =(

Love isn't about dreams and fantasy. It's about truth and reality! =)

Sometimes we set requirements in love and target specific goals. We choose people whom we can show off to the whole world. The one with the looks, with money and famous and shallow things like that. What we don’t is love isn’t measured that way, we have to look with our hearts not with our eyes and we don’t force love to come our way. That’s why it’s called FALLING because you don’t intend to do so, it just happens.



The first story “Love in the Cornhusks” really inspired me. It talked about a girl who was living a simple and easy life not until she made a very wrong decision that changed the rest of her life. Tinang was not rich but she’s not that poor either. She was more like a daughter to the Señora where she was working. She was looked up by some people because she was always neat, clean and she reached sixth grade before working. She’s very proud of herself that she even laughed at Amado, a tractor driver who asked her to marry him. He was just a Bagobo while she is this semi-educated neat looking girl. But one afternoon, everything single thing changed and it happened so fast. She just woke up one day realizing that she wasn’t the young girl everyone looked up to anymore. She was now a mother and the Bagobo that she undervalued years ago was the father. She thought they left him because he’s afraid of responsibility but he did not. It’s just that his mother died, but he did promise them that one day he’ll comeback for Tinang and their child. She was very sad about what happened but she knew that there will nothing she could do but to accept the truth. The moment that she saw the green snake that was leaning forward to her baby she grabbed the baby and hugged him tight. It showed here that she learned to love the baby more, because at first it’s like she didn’t care that much to the baby, she just let him be hungry and she gets easily irritated everytime he cries maybe because she hate the father. But then, upon reading the letter it gave her hope that someday Amado will come back for them and fulfill his promise of love.

~ He doesn't even know I exist ~



The next story “The Corral” has the same concept. Pilar was just the same as Tinang, she was overconfident about herself. She’s pretty and they are somewhat known at their place that’s why she thinks that she deserve someone better than Mr. Perfecto. She was very irritated with Mr. Perfecto’s stubbornness. She was very certain when she answered she won’t marry him because he doesn’t like him but still he insist about it. He said he’s sure Pilar would change her mind and he sound so positive about it. Then there’s this guy name was Gregorio. The typical tall, dark and handsome guys that would definitely sweep girls off their feet. He was not rich but he’s one great guy in terms of physical appearance and Pilar likes him. The bad thing about Gregorio is he’s aware of His awesome self and probably he also knew that Pilar likes him so he’s sort of flirting with Pilar. He sometimes cracks lustful statements with her, shows a little bit flesh to her and things like that. She did almost everything to catch his attention but no matter how hard she tries, her effort was never paid back, not even a single glance from that guy she adores. At the end, she accepted the fact that Mr. Perfecto was the right one for him, he may not have the looks she wanted but she’s everything to him. She was loved, cherished and respected by him. Unlike Gregorio, very arrogant and he never paid attention to her. He treated her like she was just a piece of crap.

So there, the two stories are all about different faces of love. Sometimes we have to close our eyes and use our hearts to find true love. We should listen to our hearts because only the heart knows where to find true happiness.

To be adored is something, but to be respected is EVERYTHING!

We assume that it is love when a person makes your heart skip a beat, when everytime you look at that special person you want that moment to freeze and just stay that way forever or when the scent of them makes you feel like you’re high. I find the first story “Bread of Salt” very cute. Why? Because in real world this things really happen. You tend to do crazy things for love even if in the long run you’ll end up swallowing your own pride and looking stupid in front of everyone just like what happened to the story. The boy did everything just to get Aida notice him. He did everything to improve himself to somehow bridge the gap between the two of them. He daydreamed of them being sweet together. Yes, it’s sweet but at the same time it’s silly as well. You do everything for a person who isn’t even aware that you exist. Anyway, why am I being too negative about this? Actually I’m thinking that the guy just misinterpreted the girl for her actions. Maybe the girl is trying to be nice with him with the statement:

“Have you eaten?”

I turned around. It was Aida. My bow tie seemed to tighten around my collar. I mumbled something. I did not know what.

“If you wait a little while till they’ve gone, I’ll wrap up a big package for you,” she added.

The guy suddenly felt bad about it without thinking first. What if the girl is just being nice to him? I mean if I were the girl and I told a guy the same statement, I’m not thinking about “napaka patay-gutom naman niya, mag-intay lang siya na makaalis lahat ng bisita ibibigay ko na yung matitira sa kanya” or things like that. It’s more like “Maybe he’s too tired because of his performance and he can’t eat that much because of that or something.” It also happens that sometimes when you talk to a person you like, you forget everything you want to say and you have no choice but to automatically say the first thing that pops in your mind without any other option. Yes, it’s possible that the girl feels exactly just how the boy feel.

See? What if that’s the case, then he just trashed everything that he worked hard for. Those daydreams of him could’ve come true but because of being too sensitive about a simple thing he just threw everything away. Everything could have been a dream come true, what a mess. Well, I think I was a little bit carried away with the story thinking that too young heart could go steady with each other, that’s nearly impossible. Well, All I can say is life is too short to be unhappy. We should take chances and avoid regretting things because 60 seconds of grudge is a wasted minute we can’t get back.

The second story “Summer Solstice” is all about treating women right. I can’t understand why women here want to be adored while men want to respect them? What’s wrong with them? It’s nice and fluttering if people adore you but didn’t they think that every single woman can be adored by anyone but there are few ones that are respected. Those sexy girls are adored by every man but they aren’t respected. To be adored is something but to be respected is everything. What’s another confusing in this story is when the cousin’s husband of Doňa Lupeng is flirting with her considering the fact that she was actually married to his cousin and the girls seems like giving in. If I were in that position, I’m going to slap, slap, slap him for being so rude and impolite. If he don’t know how to respect a girl, at least respect his cousin. They share the same blood then he’s trying to betray him.

But then I couldn’t understand why the husband of Doňa Lupeng is being so calm knowing that he’s cousin like his wife. I thought he was the kind of guy that has side dishes, I mean along with his wife, he also have this girls with him. But in the end, I realized that he just respect and trust his wife so much that he knew she’ll never do anything that would tear their relationship. That he adore his wife but at the same time respect her too.

~ Here is a video featuring some of the unlimited reasons why women of all ages should be loved and respected ~

Well, I don’t have to say anything long about this story because every single point was tackled and discussed clearly. It’s just that every woman should put into mind that to be respected is far more important than being desired because these seven letter word RESPECT is what separates women from TOYS.

The ever famous "Macho Image"!

Men are usually attributed by being tough, strong enough to handle every single situation, someone to lean on and all that. They are expected to do things that women cannot, we rarely see them cry or chicken out or else they would be labeled as gay. To be exact, men are straight to the point and are brave enough to say what they want to say without hesitation; they are like well-built walls that won’t easily break down. There are lots of motives why men act as if they are the strongest person on Earth. It can be that they don’t want to be called coward and they want to show everyone that they won’t back off at any kind of situation. Also, we all know that most girls look up to guys that possess “macho image” but most of the times and what we rarely see is that men act as if they are strong and just keep whatever pain they have inside to protect the ones they love. They always show their calm face most specially in difficult situations not because they also want their love ones to be calmed and feel safe. If men are as emotional as women are who would be the ones that can be leaned on to? This concept was shown both in the two stories both written by Francisco Arcellana that are tackled recently (The Mats and &Divide by Two).

At first when I read the first story which is entitled “The Mats”, I was like “What kind of story was that? I can also write stories about things I like, what’s the whole point in it? What is the author really trying to say? I don’t know, I just don’t get the whole point about it. I wondered what Miss Diane saw in this story for her to share it in class considering the fact that it’s just about a family who gets too excited upon hearing that their father was coming home with Mats with him, and then so what? If I were them, I wouldn’t waste even a second thinking about it. I’m saying this because of all my entire life, I never get too excited like that, I mean my mom worked in another country when I was still in high school and I usually receive different kinds of stuffs from her like cell phones, mp3’s, Gba’s and things like that, I get a little bit excited but I’m won’t go ever and over it almost every night. For me its like “All right, my mom’s going to send me something cool, PERIOD!” After an hour or two, I’m not so excited about it anymore and it’s no big deal.

But then as I read the story again, I realized the whole point. It’s not just about the mat; it’s about the family finding happiness in little things. I told myself that perhaps the father knew that his children and wife is not that happy inside, they have this grief inside longing for persons that are close to their hearts who died. They are delighted by simple things because they undergo through numerous agonies before and they are trying to forget every single pain by appreciating small things. I figured out that for such a long time, the father just keep all the hurt inside for his family’s sake, so they won’t think about it anymore and that they would get over the pain that was left after the death of their loved ones, but what hurt him more is that instead of forgetting just the pain, the family almost forgot about their family members as well.

In his own words “is it fair to forget them? Would it be just to disregard them”.

This statement shows that he was very disappointed that they almost forget them, For me, what he was trying to say is they should forget the pain and move on but they never forget the memory of their loved ones and that no matter what happen, they would always be part of the family.

The next story “Divide by Two” was intriguing and at the same time confusing. I don’t know where they are really up to. Are they talking just about the unfair division of the lot or there are deeper things related to it? At first I find the girl nagger and very selfish. Why won’t she stop talking, it won’t kill her if she just shut her mouth up and get over the miscalculated division of the lot. It’s no big deal; she’s just the one of the many girls in the world who seeks for attention. The guy on the other hand is not “under, probably the reason why he followed what the girl was saying is that he’s tired of what his wife was saying, so he has no other choice but to go after what she want. As I was reading further, It get even more confusing, I was like why all of a sudden it’s as if they are not talking about the fence anymore, they are talking about betrayal and something like that.

“He was only being friendly as I was,” Belle said.
“Oh, Yes” I said.
“He was only being neighborly as I believe in being,” Belle said.
“Sure, sure,” I said.

It was like the fence is just an excuse, that’s not really their point. It’s like they both are afraid to know the truth, the girl was jealous to the other girl on the other house and same thing for the guy. For me, the whole story was not about the fence, it’s about tangled love affair and the fence may be symbolizing something like the other guy realized that they it’s wrong for them to be together because they both are taken. The girls cannot take the truth but cannot say fight for what she want because she knew that it was really wrong so she made up excuses so that she would somehow show the other guy she was upset but she did it indirectly. Indirectly in a way that she made the two guys argue about the fence when in fact what she really wanted was to get back with the guy who turned her down. In this story, it showed me that men are strong enough to say exactly what they wanted to say unlike most girls that can say directly want they want to say as if waiting for the cows come home.

* Best things in life are priceless! *

Attaining happiness out of simple things is just one of the countless traits of Filipinos that people from different parts of the world admire. We strongly believe that best things in life don’t really require money for us to have. For us, just being with our family gives us joy and enough reason to wake up for the next day with smile on our faces. Just a smile could make someone’s day perfect. A short phone call can possibly mean everything to a person. To be exact, for most Filipinos; small things mean the most.

The story My Father goes to Court showed the typical kind of a Filipino family that are satisfied with what they have. They never envied their neighbor although they know that the family living there is very wealthy. For them, happiness doesn’t depend on too much money. They have their own ways for them to be glad and they find it in simple things that don’t cost even a single centavo. This story tells us about the most precious treasure that people can have. It certainly is not money neither power, it is love and care. You cannot buy love anywhere and at any cost, this treasure is exceptional and you would never find anything that would cost more than love.

Meanwhile, the story How my Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife is also about close family ties. This was shown when Leon finally introduced her wife to his family, his mother didn’t help it but cry probably because they are thinking that Leon’s time would be only after his wife and that he won’t be able to make his family feel loved, but later on another Filipino trait which was being loving and understanding was shown when Leon and Maria talked to the father, it was not directly stated that the conversation went well but there’s no sign that it went bad and it’s natural for Filipinos to support the one they love even if it hurts at the start but then sooner or later they can easily take the truth with smiles on their faces knowing that this is what exactly their loved ones want.

~ This clip is about a study that was conducted by some American students which focused on common Filipino traits. ~

Personally, I can say that I’m loving all those Filipino traits. I won’t go too far for an example. I can really feel how much my family treasures one another, we always want the best for each other. My parents and I sometimes argue about things but we don’t let the day pass without resolving the matter. My parents understands everything about me, even it’s about matters of the heart, they are always there to listen but they never forced me to, once I’m ready to tell then my problems they are all ears on me without hesitation. I won’t say that I never made anything that made my parents somehow depressed or sad, the thing is even thought I made so much mistakes that I regret, they always have a room for forgiveness, they let me change for the good. Also, we find happiness in simple things, we are not very fond of gadgets or things that money can buy, and just being together is more than enough for us. Sometimes, problems come but it’s not going to make us hate God, instead we believe that God just want to develop the bond between me and family, another is God won’t give us something that we can’t get through with and whatever difficulty he gives us will just make us strong in the end. I’m very gratifies that along with my imperfections is a family that never grow tired of loving me and this love is something that money can’t buy.