My past revisited

Valentine's day is coming. You'd notice it by all the red heart designs splashed all over. Love cards are out and dozens are being sold everyday. After the busy Christmas season, it's now the day of hearts that people are busy with. Flower peddlers will be abundant in the street. Motels will be fully booked and restaurants will be filled to their capacity. Men will be spending a lot of money to buy flowers, chocolates and cards for their love ones. Sometimes even women do the same. All these for the so dubbed 'Day of Hearts'. For an unattached person like me, Valentine's Day doesn't hold any special treat. In fact, you won't catch me dead having a gimmick on this day for fear of being labeled a baduy. Sure, you'd say it's because I have no special someone to celebrate the day with. When someone gives me a retort like that, I usually answer 'Sure, rub it in. Why don't you just take a knife and plunge it in my heart?' I am, of course, j...

Fear gripped my heart. My palms were sweaty and I felt cold all over. I was in Mine's View Park looking over Baguio's losing battle against urbanization. My friend asked me to step up to a rock no higher than one foot. But I was frozen in place. I can't seem to move without my friend's help. He held my hand and helped me overcome my fear. It is funny how something so easy seemed so hard for me to do. I envied the children I saw playing around without a care, without fear. I am afraid of heights. I cannot look down from tall buildings without feeling dizzy and cold all over. When I saw Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino in Devil's Advocate, daring life itself by standing at the ledge of a high building, boy, did I envy them ! There must be something about some people that makes them fearless in handling what I fear. When I was in New Jersey, we went to an amusement park there called Six Flags. There was this ride that they aptly call as the 'Dare Devil Dive' or D3. A...