Roots

There’s something different about this day. Like a new shoot is pushing it’s way out of an old trunk. I have seen so many old trunks in my life; the result of strong typhoons that wrecked my hometown every year. Every storm threatened what remained of my hope — or the hope of my family. I have seen these trunks, almost uprooted and their dismembered branches strewn around. But I have witnessed how they struggled with what’s left of them. They do two things: their roots all the more clung to the ground and shoots reach out to the heavens. They never say die.

For the first time since the termination, I don’t miss UP anymore. I realize I will never lose UP. It will always be near the Ateneo, almost a walk away. I will not lose the students and the people who have loved me there. The students will graduate; they will build their lives and weather their own storms. Somehow, they will remember me. Like Alex and Chino who visited me today. But most of all, because I love them, they will remain with me forever. And this is what matters.

I can let this storm pass, like all other storms in my life. And let the dismembered parts of my life take its course. Branches naturally die, what matters is where you’re rooted.


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