A Thousand Summers 2

Saturday Evening Posts

January 17-23 Edition

A Thousand Summers 2

I love walking, it always clears my mind.

There was a time I walked a dozen miles from the Tikling crossroads in Taytay, Rizal to Sumulong Highway, overlooking the metropolis, in 2004. All the while, I was singing Trav'lin' Boy by Paul Williams, whose music goes with me everywhere. 

I remember my 1996 idyllic countryside stroll to Calantipe village in Apalit, Pampanga from Calantipay in Baliuag, Bulacan, where I stayed with someone who will always be special to me.

One of my trips that took me high was when I a young kid in 1991. I was then in Morong, Rizal, in one of the high schools I went into. I made my mountainous journey from Tanay to Siniloan in Laguna. Then to the woodcarving capital, Paete, then to Santa Cruz, Liliw and other towns. Somehow I ended up in Alabang, Muntinlupa, and little did I know that I would also live there.

Fast forward to October 2012, still in Alabang, is one of the happiest periods of my life.  I was then a call center worker bee in the campus-like Northgate Cyberpark. I was then living in CENA Village, a 5 minute walk from the office, my route under the trees with grassy vacant lots on both sides of the wide jogging lane behind Bellevue Hotel. It always brings me back to U.P. Diliman. Good vibes! I had established my own personal routine revolving around my vampire schedule.

I'd go home at the birth of daylight, my mind playing Umagang Kayganda by Ray-An Fuentes and Tillie Moreno and Al Jarreau' Mornin', and I would spend two hours, just for me, before going to sleep. This is when I'd listen to music on headphones and read.

Umagang Kayganda

Mornin'

See My Favorite Songs of Ray-An Fuentes and Al Jarreau

For the first time in my life, I began giving time to me, giving myself permission to be all I can be, free from the insecurity-driven obsession to please others.

That was just last year. A year. Seems like a thousand summers.

November came, and along with it is a chain of events that would make me see that there is a Higher Power guiding me and that angels brought me to where ever I may end up. It started the night before the morning when I'm supposed to enroll in a gym after being touched to my soul after watching Finding Forrester on cable at the office lounge.

Finding Forrester

See My Story On Finding Forrester

I had been issued a memo because there was an apple on my workstation; it was just there for my past-midnight lunch so I don't have to get it from my knee-level locker. The memo was from my supervisor, whom I had seen in the past eat burgers and rice meals at his station, on recommendation by the power-tripping assistant sup who hates me because I don't suck up to her. For me, a company that values hypocritical rules over common sense is not worthy of loyalty. That slip of paper would affect my chances of getting the promotion I was targeting. Suddenly, I lost the motivation to stay and move up; instead, I wanted to move out.

Of course, that was assuming I would survive the end of the world that coming December.

To Be Continued Next Saturday

Trav'lin' Boy

Paul Williams

See My Favorite Songs From Paul Williams

"I won't say that I'll be back again,

'cause time alone will tell,

So no goodbyes for one just passing through,

but one who'll always think of you..."