How people change beyond our expectations!

Just met a friend this afternoon. First thing that came into my mind is this: How much he has changed! I actually commented the difference to him. Sometimes, we just think too squarely on how people are. We tend to put them in a box and expect them not to get out of their little comfort zones and remain how they are from the first day we meet them.

We really can't size them up in one sitting. Man is a mystery as I always say. People continue to surprise us with the little tweaks in their personalities. BUT! There are only two ways in which we can tweak our personality: to make it worse or to make it better. Surely, we all strive for the latter. We can't help, however, to give in to our selfish wants and make a turn for the worse.

It's really our choice to take the "road less traveled by." I'm glad that I know some people who also take that road I'm trying to tread on. I'm glad I realized I actually got company. :)

An Old Maid Crisis

Single women reaching their 30th birthday experience an immense crisis of becoming an old maid.

Though not yet 30 and still consider myself far from it, I think I am already in it! However, I see the crisis in itself as actually a crisis of vocation. What does God really want from me? What is He calling me for? Is He really calling me for a marriage vocation or to a single blessedness?

At the moment, I would like to think I am called to single blessedness until maybe I fall in love. So far, I have not fallen in love yet. Some people say that when you fall in love, all your standards crumble down. So far, it hasn't crumbled down so I presume that I have not exactly fallen in love yet.

Right now, I just continue doing what I ought to do to please God and wait until I fall in love. :)

Am I losing my grip on culture?

Just had lunch today with two of my college friends at ebun, this Kapampangan restaurant at Greenbelt 3-and boy!-what scrumptuous bangus they have!!! I have a new place to crave for now. :)

Anyway, in passing, I mentioned to them my "discovery" of Korean romantic comedies particularly My Sassy Girl. My older friend's immediate reaction: how cheap! Whoa! Both of my friends were surprised I can stomach such movies, and how much I have changed in my taste for movies. (That means that I have actually LOST the taste for good movies.) Well, I didn't let them put me down by their comments. Besides, those were their opinions.

Then we continued a conversation about the last good movie both of them watched, "Finding Neverland." As the two of them analyzed how the film was made and the sized up the overall value of the film, I was left dumbfounded by the tons of insights they had. I started reflecting: how come I cannot share an insight on it anymore? I used to "talk like them", giving "intellectual" and "academic" analysis of movies and other pertinent issues. Have I really lost my sense of high breed culture? In the end, did I overrate My Sassy Girl?

Yipes!

I need to work out on my "culture" again. I need some major overhaul and "acculturize" myself again! Perhaps this is what happens to me when I am far from the academic world. The corporate world has probably turned me into one "material girl". Have I forgotten the transcendental values? Have I forgotten the really important and essential things in life? Have we forgotten them?

My Sassy Girl

I wasn't such a freak for Romantic Comedies, but this one got my attention.

Actually, it didn't initially attract me despite the many raves I heard about it from my friends. I wasn't enthused to get a dibidi copy of the movie until the other day when I did some "impulsive" buying. (I originally intended to look for a single dibidi of Dead Poets Society, and I end up getting 4 movies that are unplanned!)

Out of curiosity for the movie that is oh-so-hyped-up by my friends, I played it on our player, and watched. I thought I'd not finish it, and would be willing to stop it in case it will run over my CSI. To my surprise, I find myself intensely watching, I couldn't leave my seat... basically, I was enthralled by this film!

What I find amazing with this movie is that it is actually not one of your typical love stories you can already predict the course of their love-hate relationship. My one word for this movie is: Crafty. (Just a little turn-off in this movie is one scene in the beginning, but with a pure heart, I think it should not be interpreted or imagined more than what it is.) I am quite impressed with the writer and director of the film. How they came up with such ingenuity is simply remarkable. I appreciate - above all - their notion of love. I am impressed with the amount of respect that Gyun Woo has for the girl (It's either she was not named in the movie or I simply forgot her name). I am also captivated by the guy's perseverance and sincere love for the girl. I also loved the way he was able to get to know the girl so well that he knows how to treat her. He simply treated her as a queen.

How I wish I could find someone who would do everything for me! (Of course, I won't take advantage of that.) Pardon my becoming mushy all of a sudden. Honestly, it's not in my genes to be one.

There are a few good Asian love stories, and this is one of them. Filipinos has still yet to come up with a good one. I hope my friend would come up with a similar crafty script and an unbiased director.

Reading through Tranquill Poet

Just read through my other blog or poetry and - boy! - was I amazed! When I am really caught up in a melancholic state, I can't believe such creativity can ooze from my mind. It's amazing how melancholics tend to be more poetic than sanguine types or even a choleric ones. :)

Feel free to browse through my other blog. I would love to hear from you and humble me a bit with your criticisms. I don't mind. :)

Mission: To Help Others

Probably the greatest feeling man needs is to feel that he or she is loved. Just try for once that no one loves you or cares for you, I think you'll go crazy. Maybe we can reflect on this need for love a bit more. Personally, I want to feel loved because it gives me the impression that I am important and that I am useful. How people love us is also one of our gauge for our goodness. Goodness is lovable. Truth is lovable.

So if you want to be loved, be good and be truthful. :)

In this blog, I won't be talking about my concerns of being loved, but my loving a friend. I hope I am not psychopathic to do so, but I feel that I have to solve other people's problems. I delight in helping (refer to the previous paragraph). However, one of the trade-offs of being so helpful is the feeling of failure.

Let's just get it straight: no one on earth can really be called the ultimate problem-solver. (Only God can be rightly called as such.) We may be able to solve this problem, but not that problem. We have to understand that in helping other people, we cannot force the other person to do what we tell them to do. We naturally fail in our efforts, but we should not fall into depression because of these.

Let me share with you the prayer commonly taught to recovering addicts and alcoholics. (Though not an alcoholic or drug addict myself, I found this prayer very helpful.)

THE SERENITY PRAYER

God, grant me:
The serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can
And the wisdom to know the difference.