AFTER 30 YEARS, WHAT HAVE I LEARNED SO FAR... I've been a teacher for 13 years... what have I really learned to teach my young boys?

Life is too short to mess around with it so if there is one concrete stand that I should take to become a better person each day... that is to live life sensibly.

In my constant struggle to be the best, many times I have manipulated situations and have hurdled victory in all occassions of defeat. I have taken a stand eversince to always see the "whity spot in blackie" and to transfigure the "blackie spot in whity" into a spectrum to give it a better meaning than just a stain.

I'm far too lucky to live life with greater ease and to see the beauty of simplicity very early in life. Young at heart as my students, I've learned how to be contented with the wisdom of simple pleasures and adequately measured life... but I never stopped dreaming and keep life at its best. I have opted to choose wit over vanity and have elected several times to be happy with "subversions".

Being very positive about my outlook , I've outsmarted misery. I've tinkered along the dearth of humanity but I managed everytime to hold a firm grip to what is right because I know the art of transforming crisis into a hilarious situation where people can't afford not to pause and have fun.

I'm into teaching because I love this ministry of touching hearts. I may not have acquired enough material property to plunder as worldly gains but I've scattered fruitbearing seeds to replenish the loses of this earthly jungle. My pre-occupation is not too unique because I knew for a fact that there are a million teachers like me. While we are not so few, I rejoice with the multitude because there's a tall order... as teachers, we've got a lot to do and the space is too enormous for us not to link and share each others colorful experiences.

Life is a big classroom where everybody has to deal with ambiguous lessons. At the end of every session, assignments are given.... homeworks are willful exercises, whether you crawl, walk, fly or swim doesn't matter because a greater question is paused everytime the "teacher" announce that there is going to be a test. Such question is a qualifying querry on whether you will pass the test or not. "Did you do your homework?" That is the number one question in facing life's complexities...

Many people would label me as deep and I realized that it is right and wrong... I maybe deep because I hold on to radical and utopic virtues. I strived many times to fight for what I believe in , I've asserted a dozen times for those who cannot assert for themselves and that left me pregnant with countless opinions about people who has this fine habit of toiling adversely on the weaknesses of others. i must be deep because I cannot tolerate injustice, I must be deep because I cannot bargain my principles for any worth.... I must also be deep because, my depth is not seen from a snappy glance. I have lived a spiralling trajectory in all my struggles and have proven many times that I am in control of every situation... maybe in those ways I am deep but I am not....

Indeed, I scourged a shallow pit for happiness. unlike the hedonists who rejoice in living a life of pleasures.... I am happy with smelling flowers, belly-dancing with butterflies, whispering experiences to the birds and dreaming atop the mountains or simply rejoice in finding my way out of a dungeon in a jungle.

I am an amason laced with a politically correct bias on women. I appreciate my being a woman and have always equated this with my lateral thoughts. Men are born out of women so if there is one thing that every man should learn that is how to accord due respect in the name of the mother.... and of the father... and the daughter and the son. In life, women and men are partners not competitors because they both came from the same human species.

Many people are also turned off by these strictures of ideas that I hold consistent in my thoughts and actions but to me , it doesn't really matter. People are entitled to their opinion and I am entitled to mine.

Until now.... I still keep on chasing the wind of hope... of hope to learn more about life, as I grow old and have acquired mosaic of experiences... I have not learned enough...the more I know, the more I do not know... the more questions I ask the more windows are opened... I am not a teacher, experience is the real teacher... I am just a learner....*tilit 092598