Brace yourselves. The K-12 system is coming, and everyone is throwing stones. I grew up in the old system of education, where I entered school at age 6, took the chance to jump a grade at 12, entered high school at 13, left at age 16, and then graduated college at 20. I never felt…
Read more
I have never raised children, so approach the following essay with caution. But let me start with the long and short of it: I absolutely resent anyone who attempts to put children’s toys into exclusive boxes, and who pushes the idea that girls should play only with pink dolls and boys should play only with…
Read more
2012 was the year I started teaching a PE class on belly dance. 2013 was the year I started teaching as an assistant professor. I first taught as an instructor in November 2000, in molecular biology and biotechnology. I stopped in 2003 to finish up my master’s degree. In those ten years in between, I…
Read more
I first started training as a belly dancer in 2009. I was going through a rigorous PhD program in the States, under an insane amount of stress, and needing a way to get away from the winter blues. I thought it would be a simple, effortless way of getting exercise and letting my adrenaline flow.…
Read more
Sometimes, you can’t help wondering about people. They gossip, go into backbiting fits, engage in the sport of backstabbing – and then still have the gall to put on a sweet, smiling face. But who am I to talk? I used to gossip a lot about colleagues. I used to talk about them behind their…
Read more
I remember the day that I first spoke up against someone. She had openly criticized me for being a snob. Incensed, I reported her to to the higher ups. I didn’t like being called a snob. Not in public. Not amongst peers. The higher ups told me that people could talk however they wanted, and…
Read more
I was on the Recto platform of the LRT today, as I would be on any ordinary Monday. I had a bad headache, which I tried to stave off with music in my ears and a slow shimmy on my hips. I stood within the lines that marked where the train’s doors would be, in…
Read more
When I was young, all I wanted were medals and pieces of paper to tell me that I was awesome. I still have a whole portfolio of certificates and medals to tell me that I was great in debate, mathematics, science, and writing. When I was young, I loved looking at that portfolio. It seemed…
Read more
Let me get straight to the point, as I’ve been chewing on this idea for a while. Why do people pack themselves into LRT trains? And why don’t people line up? I’ve been riding the LRT since September. It’s the fastest way to get to work. Plus: It’s a great way to stay fit. I…
Read more
(This is in response to broadcast journalist Arnold Clavio’s declaration on TV that the Men’s National Football Team was “pretending to be Filipino” – “in his words, “nagpapanggap na kayumanggi” – a declaration that was not taken lightly by many Azkals fans.) I haven’t written a blog entry like this in a long time. The…
Read more