5 Realizations Before Turning 10

I love mornings.  Everyday while I'm preparing breakfast, I can look out of our kitchen window and see our neighbor's help doing about their usual morning routine.  At around 7:15 am a lady will go out from a smaller building behind the main house which I assume is the kitchen carrying a huge tray with some food on it.  It is probably food as it was covered with shiny cloches.  Then after some time a man will also walk by from another small building still at the back of the main house carrying a big garbage bag, he'll take the service gate which is near the servant's quarter going outside the compound to throw whatever he was carrying.  Like clockwork, I witness the same routine every morning.  Its nice watching them do their chores unaware of me watching them.  After typing this I feel like I'm already invading their privacy.  Oh well.

Where was I? Yes, mornings.  I love it.  It reminds me of waking up in our house in Davao city.  At 5:30 am our house is already bustling with ordered chaos.  We have a bakery attached to our house.  So pandesal and a lot of other noises greet us in the morning.  Pandesal served piping hot for only 0.50 pesos.  At least that's how I last remembered it.  *Sigh* Simple life.  How I long to have those days again.

In a few days from now, I'll reach my coral year.  Yes, I am way up there already.  And the number just reminds me a lot of things, like simpler things.  Back then before I turned 10 years old there are just some things I should have not taken for granted.

Realization No. 1:  I am a girl and not a boy.  Before I was introduced to dolls and kerokeropi, I like playing with guns and running around with the boys in our village.  My Tatay made me this wooden toy gun which I put inside my pockets like you do to a holster.  I would wear a maong jacket and a fisherman hat and chase the boys like Fernando Poe Jr. or Erap Estrada would do in the movies.  (Sorry Robin Padilla and Jeric Raval came into the picture at a later year.)  My nanny would chase me while I ran and climb the gate to play with the village boys in the afternoon just to skip afternoon naps which then leads me to my realization number 2.

Photo taken from the Net

Realization No.2:  I should have taken those afternoon naps, maybe I would have been taller than I am right now *wink*.  Before the time of cable televisions, iPads, Xbox and what not, playing outside the entire day until its dark is the most important part of my daily life.  But this realization took quite some time because while in elementary I was tall.  I mean, I'm one of the tallest girls in class.  When we line up for the flag ceremony I always stand at the back as I am taller.  While my grade level increase my place in the line moves further in the front.  I ended up as one of the smallest in our class by the time I graduated high school.  Bummer.

Photo taken from the net (I'm not this cute)

Realization No.3:  Remember I mentioned above that we play until it was dark?  Part of my activity then was also reading outside.  Not books of course but comics!  And when I say comics not Archie and His Friends comics but those comics with 10 pages that are sold in sari-sari stores.  A small store near our house sells cigarettes, candies and other grocery stuffs display this kind of comics.  For those born during the 80's I guess the Tagalog Klasiks, Pinoy Klasiks, Komedi will sound familiar.  I'd stay outside that store pretending to man the store for the old lady, and if she's not looking I'll take one of those comics and read it under a very dim  street light.  I ended up wearing glasses at an early age.  Realization conclusion, I should have ran away with it and read it inside our brightly lit house.

Photo taken from the net

Photo taken from the net

Realization No. 4:  There are boys and there are other kind of boys.  In kindergarten, I think I had my first crush.  He was this frail looking boy who sits in front of me.  In preschool, we are required to sit on the floor cross legged and since I was a bit "taller" I sit at the back.   I stare at the back of his head everyday and it makes me smile when he turns around and looks at me with those big round eyes.  I remember one time he touched my hand while he was talking (I can't remember what we were talking about probably something to do with boogers and all), I can still remember my face warmed when he touched me (yes I developed those feeling early on, I blame the Filipino comics).  He was a talkative boy and laughs a lot and dances a lot.  One time because we were so noisy our teacher wouldn't let us go home so the girls started crying and he, well he just started doing the same but in a chicken-dance way.  My teacher was so angry she pulled him using her wooden cane ( I think that incident should have been reported).  So he cried more.  Among the boys he was the only one who cried.

Realization No. 5:   Never skip on eating rice.  You know how are kids are during dinner time.  Very unpredictable.  One minute they like fried chicken the next time they think its poison.  I was one of those kids.  One night, my nanay won't let us drink our Milo if we didn't finish our dinner.  I don't feel like eating rice then because well, I'm a kid.  My sister, good girl that she is, cried while she forced herself to swallow spoonfuls of rice and chicken.  While scheming me, got another plate took a tablespoon of rice smeared it on the new plate and ran to my nanay to show her I finished my plate.  She clapped happily and was about to make me some Milo when she saw my original plate.  Yes, I got an earful of loving words.  Now, as much as I want to eat as many rice as I can cook, I just can't anymore.  No, I'm not allergic.  Let's just say rice makes me swell like a balloon.