Grade school was uneventful, except for me getting into fights with the school bullies. I am proud to say I bullied the bullies. I tried to avoid them, too, but for me, it was difficult to just sit down and pretend nothing’s happening. I never hesitated to defend someone when I could see the disparity between the bully and the victim. The only thing I was afraid of was if my parents would find out, they would not let me continue with school, but thankfully they never did.
High school was different. Your way of thinking is different, more matured, more defined. I stopped being a tomboy. In school, I had always been in the shadow of my big brother who was more intelligent, more artistic, reserved, and good looking. But in high school I came into my own. Although I was still referred as Erick’s sister, I excelled where he didn’t and the comparisons ended. It wasn’t that I competed with my brother. At the outset, I knew my capabilities, I knew my limitations, I knew what I wanted. Although I tried to best him, it wasn’t really a competition between us. I was more determined to show my father what I was capable of achieving but there was no pleasing him so I just stopped trying to do that. So when I won the school’s oratorical contest, I didn’t tell him, but later got mad that I didn’t tell.
I was in a private high school because I passed a scholarship test that paid off my tuition. But we were still too poor for us to afford my joining the school’s extracurricular activities. I learned to play the guitar by just reading a magazine. And then a classmate and I played as the ‘opening act’ at a beerhouse. We told the manager we were both 18 when actually we were only 15. We’d come in our school uniforms and we’d fold our skirts at the waist so the hems would reach to mid-thigh and we ditched our socks. One day, a payday, one of my friend’s neighbours came to the beerhouse. In the middle of a number she hid her face behind her guitar. When we finished the number she ran backstage, I followed. She explained what was going on. We told the manager we couldn’t continue and we had to tell the truth that we were under-aged. He was supposed to pay us fifty pesos but he said we cheated so we settled for thirty and split it between us.
Those were the years when we developed crushes and became infatuated or fell in love every second week. I had a big crush on a scout leader who mocked me and called me ugly just because his girlfriend was pretty. (see
http://365project.org/summerfield/365-still/2013-01-11 ) But at the same time, boys also started to notice me, especially in my last year in high school when the basketball star of the college would ask me to come see him play. I couldn’t believe it at the time, and thought it was a prank. He was handsome but shy and he got intimidated by my scholastic achievements. Still that never amounted to anything because I was afraid to go off course with my studies and my goals. All my girlfriends started to have boyfriends, some even went on to marry after graduation.
-o0o-
see my ugly picture. i have never shown this to anyone before!!! :-P
