Leaving without formal goodbyes
I went to the nearest grocery store to buy a storage box. I had assumed two backpacks and a suitcase...
Malaise within gated communities
There’s a famous allegorical story by the late essayist David Foster Wallace where two fictitious fish in the ocean have...
Season of goodbyes
This story originally appeared in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on November 22, 2008. Happiness is a choice, I’ve been told....
Fifteen, eighteen, twenty-one
I once was certain of what lay ahead, even when it was still settled within the vast plane of the...
The smell
My parents never taught me how to walk through floods. I would just sit on our old house’s declining wooden...
That grounded feeling
The thing about seeking professional help is it can make you reliant on your meds. The thing about this statement...
The return
This story originally appeared in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on October 25, 2005. When I see old childhood friends in...
One out of 11,000
There is inherent skepticism among those who perceive education as merely a way to produce skilled but mindless workers for...
Behind the shadows
In a world where social hierarchy persists, societal barriers often overshadow individuals of small stature. From an early age, as...
Eating with two spoons
There is a sense of survivor’s guilt I feel for having made it out of there alive, appearing almost unscathed....
