Trip to ten and trunk

I read some where that one way to make the most of our daily lives is by consulting the past. Which meant going back to as early as ten years old. I've thought about the things that really gunned my engine and fired me up when I was ten-ish.

• History and pop culture, imagine having to memorize 100 Philippine history facts per day and then keeping up with the latest names in the national government. Even though I cannot remember how our teacher chose the candidates for the interschool quiz bee, I could not have thanked her enough for choosing me to be one of them. Back then, it gave me a sense of pride, a sense of responsibility.

• Dance is probably one of my oldest passions to which I don't remember having a beginning. Memories of my toddler, elementary and high school years were peppered with photos in various outifts doing all sorts of dances. I've been a trained folk dancer in high school but have also done my share of pearly shell, mr boombastic, macarena, and let's get it started. I've danced to ethnic songs, gospel songs, and a live rondalla. I'm not a great dancer. I just really love to dance so much that in another lifetime, if all choices were mine to make, I would want to be reborn a hardcore dancer. I could be a ballerina in one lifetime, a hiphop dancer the next, a jazz dancer in another.

• Old stuff, think Maria Clara dresses, capiz windows, four-poster beds, and wooden trunks. I don't know why, I just think they're elegantly beautiful, soulful.

• Taekwondo or just about any form of martial arts. I remember keeping a yellowed instructional booklet or was that just a figment of my imagination? But fact is, against my Dad's wishes, I egged my brother to coach me. Unfortunately, he didn't have the will nor the patience, despite my annoying persistence.

• Playing tindera at a neighbor's sari-sari store. I've lived in a closely-knit neighborhood for most of my life. My parents were close with some of the neighbors and that meant where ever my parents were at, there I was. Of the many houses and families we'd go to, I'm fond of at least two households because they owned a sari-sari store. Everytime there's a customer, I would feel so happy just by simply asking what they needed and being able to give the item to them. I had silly fun at peeling sachets of toothpaste, and shampoos, getting coke or beer inside the ref.

Then my mind digressed to what I'll do when I become a mom in the future. That will be to remember buying a wooden trunk for each of my kids. A trunk, or anything that can hold memories of my kids' childhood. That trunk will be their very own time capsule to hold things they've created, wrote,or took home. Maybe it will be something they can go back to when they come of age, most especially on a time when they are trying to find themselves. Probably back to a time when they had their most innocent desires, were in their happiest state.