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“Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways” - (Proverbs 20:30)

I COME from a broken family. And whenever that fact crosses my mind, I can’t help but look back at some pages of my life.

My family used to mingle in the living room and exchange jokes on summer evenings. Mommy would cook supper while Daddy and I watched TV, fought over the remote control. Mommy would act as our referee.

NAKAKITA ako ng isang isda sa may batuhan ng dalampasigan—matigas, tuyot, at tila isa na ring bato.

Sa kinang ng kaliskis nito, hindi ko inakalang minsan ring siyang nabuhay. Anino na lamang ng kanyang nakaraan ang makikita sa ngayon—ang simpleng pagkampay niya noon ng makulay niyang palikpik papunta sa mga korales na kanyang tinitirahan, ang paghahanap niya ng makakain sa kailaliman ng dagat, at ang bawat sulyap niya sa mundong hindi kanya sa tuwing nauubusan na siya ng hininga—ngunit sadyang hindi basta-basta ang pag-anod sa kanya ng karagatan.

For this Thomasian with cerebral palsy, struggling with the disability makes him special not because he is physically different, but because his condition is a blessing from God.

VANESSA Mae has done for this generation what the likes of Niccolo Paganini, the first international violin superstar, whose birthday she incidentally shares, has done for his. At the age of 15, she has made heads turn with her dazzlingly inventive new sound: elegant classical violin fused with eclectic modern stylings, which made her debut album The Violin Player a worldwide smash.

PRE-NEED companies are supposed to anticipate contingencies. But the College Assurance Plan, Inc. (CAP), one of the largest pre-need companies in the country, ironically, is in an emergency itself. Earlier this year, CAP, because of cash-flow problems, was not able to renew its contract with UST, making its subscribers trip over bother land.

PORT DE BRAS (por d brah) – “carriage of the arms”; it is both the general arm movements of a dancer and the designated set of exercises designed to make the arms move gracefully and harmoniously with the movements of the legs.

INCORRIGIBLE.

Last Sunday, I saw a photo in a major daily showing a container van full of stolen parts of railroad tracks that law enforcers intercepted in Bulacan. It’s just unbelievable.

A few issues ago, I wrote in this space that Filipinos just have a way of not helping each other. Again, that incident is another example of how some of our countrymen make life harder for their fellow Filipinos.

I wonder how some of our fellowmen could conscience stealing those parts knowing it could result in “train” derailment.

A few days ago, my landlady, as I sneaked in quite late, asked me what I’m majoring in. I told her that I’m a Journalism student. Her initial response killed me: “Ay, bakit ‘yun? ‘Di ba mahirap naman hanapan ng trabaho ‘yung mga ganyan? Bakit hindi ka na lang nag-nurse?”

POPULATION control proved far more than a Thomasian concern as Senate minority leader Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr. explained the “fallacies” of the proposed two-child policy in the forum, “The Population Myth and Its Possible Repercussions to Philippine Society,” at the Thomas Aquinas Research Complex auditorium last Sept. 24.

Pimentel said the two-child policy may even be called the “two-child fallacy” because it suffers from many wrong premises.

ALAM niyo bang muntik nang maging “University of the Philippines” ang UST noong 1870?

Noong 1870s, pinagbantaan ng mga rebolusyonaryong Filipino at mga Amerikano na buwagin ang UST dahil nasa ilalim ito ng mga Kastila.

Dahil ang UST na rin ang tumatayong departamento ng pampublikong edukasyon noon, napagkasunduan ng mga Dominikano at liberal na panatilihin na lang ang kasalukuyang pangalan nito, sa ilalim ng ilang kondisyon.