BLOGGIE 1

These entries are long overdue. I made these reflection journals for one of my major subjects and my professor was quite smitten over it. I would like to share the original entries and post it here but as you’ve read my previous [entries] I feel really lazy and sluggish and tired to upload and scan the original copy.

You’ll be reading the soft copies of these stuffs, instead.  

Enjoy reading my quirky, perky and lovely inhibitions about life, love and the universe. 

Magkaribal: A Family Tragedy

          I have always been a fan of international TV series but not the local dramas. I don’t know, but I find them too shallow to even watch. For me, local dramas are full of unreal, illusionary and boring details of mundane era tasks of the battered Filipino. However, there are a number of local drama series that would really pinch your heart and make you watch it all throughout. Those shows that instill values to its viewers, those that teach people how to live and accept life’s unimaginable events. 

          Shows like May Bukas Pa was one of my favorite local drama series by the way.

          And so, last night was the premiere telecast of one of ABS-CBN’s newest drama series, Magkaribal.I don’t know why I watched it. It was so banal, I thought to myself. Magkaribal summarizes the story of two sisters who, in search of a complete family, were separated by a tragic fate. Dreadful isn’t it? So why did I even bother to write it down? Because the story is so captivating, I become inspired and saw the other angle of a family tree.

          Anna and Angela are sisters. Their mother is a seamstress while their father is an OFW worker who then had an affair with Vera, his mistress. Though their father had left them, they maintained the close-knit family system.  Anna, Angela and their mom were living happily together. This only proves that a broken family, though incomplete, could also survive even without the other who left. And that the local maxim, “Tumayo akong ama’t ina sa aking mga anak” is indeed true.   
                                                            

         Ate                          

           I once questioned my being the eldest in the family. I always felt that I am the one who  was always left out and ignored by my parents. There were instances where my youngest sibling talked back at me and my parents just told me to ignore it because he was just a kid and I’m the eldest; that I should be more open-minded because I’m older. Yes, older. I have always hated when my parents say those lines. Forget it, ignore it, let him be, let them be. They’re younger than you; they still don’t know what they do. Blah, blah, blah. It’s just tiring. I thought they were being unfair. 
          But I was wrong. Being the eldest, you have a lot more privileges than the younger ones. You’re first in everything. First love of parents, first baby, first to buy new things and young ones only have “hand-me-down” things, and the best thing is, you’re first to learn things. You’re first to go to school, one who knows how to read and to write. It’s just amazing how your younger siblings look up to you with those sparkling eyes and ask you how do you do this and that, how come you can write and they can’t. It’s just wonderful and I think I owe it to my parents.

           Being the eldest gives you much more edge than the younger ones. In my early years, my parents basically taught me everything, and the first thing that I would and could not forget is responsibility. Being the eldest means you have to be responsible. Responsible in everything you do and in everything you say. You cannot just think of yourself because you have younger siblings that look up to you, that you have to take care of, and in some case, that you have to feed when your parents are not around. For me, being the eldest is being a second parent to your siblings. You cannot only think of yourself, but you must also include the younger ones in your life.

           Being an ate means so much to me. Yes, you gotta hate it sometimes. Sometimes I would think I’m being punished. But then, looking back to what I’ve been through, being ate is your edge in life. You’re trained to live life the way it should be-the best.