Butong pakwan (watermelon seeds)

He wears thick gold bracelets and rings festooned with diamonds; he speaks with his big raging voice as though always inviting of a debate; he stands with the military erectness of his body like nothing can make him fall …

… My ever boastful, powerful, and proud father had a sudden death, the cause of which is heat stroke, they say.

THE BOWL WAS EMPTY. I’ve filled it for about the second or third time with butong pakwan (those salted, dried watermelon seeds people pull out from their brittle, roasted rind). Though never addicted to butong pakwan since childhood, I’ve tried them back then, doing the same thing: placing them on a plate, so my sister could actually eliminate their roasted rind using her bare hands for me. This time, however, it felt different. Pouring butong pakwan into the bowl, I felt my heart throbbing—because the serving was for my father’s funeral.

Unexpectedly all of a sudden

To redundantly say that his death is unexpectedly all of a sudden could be an understatement. My father, that debonair (turning) 65-year-old man, is even stronger than I am.

The sunlight has entered my room through the window. From there, I gathered it was time to get up for work. In my peripheral view, I saw my phone was vibrating. The light signal at the bottom part of it was already blinking. I thought it was my daily alarm clock, which wakes me up at around 7 a.m. I picked up my phone to dismiss the alarm, but then I saw it was our home landline in City of San Fernando (Pampanga).

This is weird, I thought. It isn’t yet Friday.

Top 10 skills I have acquired and done best in my 24 years of existence

I turned 24 last April 1st and this is my birthday entry for my 24 years of existence …

… and still counting!

BEFORE TURNING 24, I have joined various organizations and tried numerous activities, including Taekwondo, publication writing, and weightlifting, and even theater acting and singing. In all these, though, I suppose I’ve never been the “best”—a word that I associate with being outstanding in every aspect. Hence, I’ve enumerated the skills I’ve done preeminently, those that I may have learned to master, or at least to get the hang of, from all the things I tried and organizations I joined… or even from experiences, painful and blissful, I encountered.