The Freudian Slip Of A Bacolodnon

In search for something to cheer up my doubting heart, God led me to this song which I came across the internet. The song is most likely playing at the background now as you read this blog (courtesy of esnips.com). The lyrics is beautiful as well. Never Give Up by Yolanda Adams Visions that can change the world trapped inside an ordinary girl She looks just like me too afraid to dream out loud And though it’s simple your idea, it won’t make sense to everybody You need courage now If you're gonna persevere To fulfill divine purpose, you gotta answer when you're called So don't be afraid to face the world against all odds CHORUS Keep the dream alive don't let it die If something deep inside keeps inspiring you to try, don't stop And never give up, don't ever give up on you Don't give up Every victory comes in time, work today to change tomorrow It gets easier, who’s to say that you can’t fly Every step you take you get, closer to your destination You can feel ...

This is the final week before exams. Yesterday, we started the novena to the Divine Mercy. Since Wednesday, I have been lighting a candle every 3 o clock pm. We are already tired. We are already getting bored. We are already geting nervous. We are already getting pressured. We can't do anything now. We have already studied. We have pushed ourselves to the limit. We have done what we can possibly do. The final 200 meters of the race is being ran solely on guts alone. Strength? Not even an elephant dose of epinephrine can provide us with the energy boost. What we are immersing ourselves now are some good vibes from supporters and prayer brigades we have left at home. Yesterday, Melvin, Mac and I went to a Thai massage for a head massage. That 30 mins of relaxing massage was enough to drain the stress away. We needed that. This afternoon, the girls decided to go for a massage themselves. About the good vibes, I have been receiving emails and SMS from friends and teachers who have show...

We are now 8 days away from the boards. We are feeling the weight of the pressure. There have been thoughts of quitting. Prayers are now said more fervent than ever. Some have started developing symptoms of despair. In my case, I am almost in the brink of losing my mind. Some are deciding to go home at least for a day and just re-energize. I am tempted to go home myself. I miss my family. I miss my children. I miss my less-than-complicated life. No matter what and how I study the past few days, nothing is getting inside my head. All I am doing now is just reading and reading. I don't know how much I am soaking in. My prayers are trying to compensate for what my physical strength lacks. Every 3 pm I am lighting a candle before the image of Mother Guadalupe in our makeshift altar inside the room. Eight days to go and as early as now I am having butterflies in my stomach. While going over old text messages in my cellphone, I went over a text message sent by a friend. It's a story ...

I got this email forwarded by a high school classmate and close friend. It is about giving up. All I can say is, I do pray God will grant me the faith of the bamboo and will likewise never give up on me. Don't give up..... One day I decided to quit...I quit my job, my relationship, my spirituality... I wanted to quit my life. I went to the woods to have one last talk with God. "God", I asked, "Can you give me one good reason not to quit?" His answer surprised me... "Look around", He said. "Do you see the fern and the bamboo?" "Yes", I replied. "When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them. I gave them light. I gave them water. The fern quickly grew from the earth. Its brilliant green covered the floor. Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo. In the second year the Fern grew more vibrant and plentiful. And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit...

Who am I kidding, right? I know I would fail. I know I would not make it. Only faith can turn things around now for me. The heart is failing. The spirit is almost yielding to the seemingly inevitable. But somehow, deep inside of me there is that optimistic fool that says, "don't give up." I would like to believe that I am not hallucinating due to stress. I would like to believe that it is the inner soul that is within me, that never-say-die human spirit that tells me to push further. I am going insane. Blogging is but a temporary remedy. I am solely relying on prayer now. There have been moments when I wanted to study but my brain could not just take it anymore. I could not understand it really. I could have made a different choice in the past but why insisted on this one? I am aware that there is a plan for me, a divinely orchestrated plan, but what I am not aware of are the details of the plan. Or maybe there is no plan at all, and I am just deluding myself. Maybe the r...

Yesterday marked the second week of our stay in Cebu in preparation for the medical boards this August. The week was almost similar to the previous week. The entire weekdays were scheduled for studying from sunrise to sundown, even till midnight. The studying was only dotted with lunchbreaks and dinner. This morning, we attended mass at the Church of Our lady of Guadalupe. Guadalupe has been our earnest patroness. The Image of the Virgin Mother which I brought with me and before which we pray our rosary every night is the Image of the Our Lady of Guadalupe. I am a devotee of Guadalupe and I even named my first born after the saint to whom she appeared in Mexico, St. Juan Diego. I named him after the saint because he was born on the year when John Paul II declared Juan Diego a saint. Coincidentally, we started the 3 9-day novena series last Wednesday and the first set of novena was a novena to the Our Lady of Guadalupe. The mass at Guadalupe Church was special because we prayed our 5th ...

I am now on my 8th day in Cebu City and as early as now I am already feeling the symptoms of schizophrenia. Fearing that I might lose myself irreversibly down the path to lunacy, I have decided to blog tonight. Come to think of it, blogging has been one of the things that has been keeping me sane throughout my experience as a pre-board intern. The other things that keep me from going totally insane are my family and close friends. There have been times in the past that it was family and friends who saved me from the edge of self-destruction. These people have been consistent in their attempts to do the same. And God of course! He Who Turns Things Around has always been the Most Dependable of All. He has time and again proven to me that if I only trust Him, He would find a way. There have been moments in the past that I felt He was never on my side. But many times He has proven me wrong, in the smallest details to the biggest details. He Who Turns Things Around does exactly what His Nam...

Today marks my seventh day in Cebu. Three weeks from now, we will be tackling the first set of exams for the physician licensure exams. So far here's what happened to us for the past week: Day 1: We arrived at the busiest and craziest bus terminal in cebu; checked in at our pension house after climbing two flights with our backages with us; had our first night out at ayala mall after meeting up with neil; had fine dining at gerry's grill; highlight: neil reading the menu a la Chinese, from the right to the left. Day 2: Went to mass at the basillica del sto. nino; offered up a stipend for the intentions of Class 2006; went to lunch at SM mall; tasted for the first time Cebuano cooking. Highlight: young girl fainted behind me during the mass at sto. nino, not sure whether it was due to being slained by the spirit or simply due to my cologne. Day 3: went to prc and processed our application; went to lunch at la fortuna; again tasted for the second time Cebuano way of cooking; mott...

The race has officially begun. Yesterday morning we woke up early and went to the Philippine Regulatory Commission Office in Cebu and processed our application for the board exams for physicians. We arrived there at around 7:50 a.m. but as soon as we arrived there, we were informed that the Office was strict with regards to dress codes for those entering the office. Sandals and shirts are not allowed. We must wear shoes and collared-shirts or polo. I was wearing polo shirt but I was wearing only sandals but with socks. The rest were wearing slippers. So we had to go back to our pension house and changed. I was told that I could be allowed to get in since I was wearing a polo shirt and although I was wearing sandals, I was wearing my socks. Nevertheless I decided to go with the group and change to my shoes. When we came back we started processing our papers immediately. Even while lining up for the initial assessment of our papers, we couldn't help feel tense and nervous. For the fi...

I am writing this blog in Cebu City! Yes, finally we have arrived. Actually, we arrived yesterday and today is my second day in Cebu. Early morning yesterday I was awakened by my wife and went for a quick cold shower and immediately drove to the bus terminal with my father. It was a rainy morning just like the past earlier mornings. My other co-interns were already there at the terminal. Upon arriving there, my wife texted me that I left the keys to the lock on my bag. She told me she was on her way to give them to me. I then went inside to look for the other guys. On this 7th day of the 7th month of 2007, there would be 7 of us who would be travelling to Cebu at around 7 am. My wife came just in time before the bus was about to leave. I kissed her and hugged her tight and told her to pray for me and to take care of my two little babies, Robie and Rien. Then the bus went off, to Cebu City, via Don Salvador Benedicto then through Toledo City, Cebu Island. Earlier during the trip, the bu...

Tomorrow, 7:00 a.m., I will be leaving for Cebu along with ConCon, Melvin, Marc, Leah and Mary Ann . I will miss my wife and kids. I will miss home. This will be the longest duration I will be away from them since the time I got married. A month separated from family can be very torturing, but I live it to God now. This morning I attended the Foundation Day Mass at the USLS Coliseum. The place was packed and the homily was inspiring. I am hopeful that the good vibrations and energy from the community mass will push me up and strengthen me throughout this experience. May He Who Turns Things Around keep me in his safety always. Animo La Salle. Animo Batch 2006. You Are 72% Gentleman You are definitely a gentleman. You're very considerate and you have excellent manners. Occasionally, you slip and do something foolish... but usually no one notices! Are You A Gentleman? Your Superhero Profile Your Superhero Name is The Wind Victory Your Superpower is Paranormal Your Weakness is Cotton...

Today is my final entry for this blog before I leave for Cebu come Saturday. Tomorrow will be spent preparing all the things I would be needing and bringing in Cebu. I am planning to go shopping with my wife who is actually doing all the inventory of the stuff that I will be bringing to Cebu. Since Monday, we have been doing mock exams in school and the results are really disastrous. I got low in Biochem and Pharmacology. I did okay only in Preventive Med, Physiology and Legal Med. I have yet to know how I did in Internal Med, Surgery and Ob-GYNE. More mock exams tomorrow. In between the mock exams we were all joking about not taking the boards this August and instead taking the boards August…2008! Surely by then we are more than prepared to take the boards. While checking our answers with the answer key provided at the end of every exam, we were kidding about how not to take the boards this August and tell our parents and school all the possible alibis we could think of. It cannot be ...

I was on my way home yesterday and I happened to pass by a small commotion near a drug store. At first I only saw two men holding a stick of some sort looking down the front of a parked car. Curious, I went around to see what they were poking at. It was a woman, crying, in tattered clothes, with a child lying on the ground an arm's reach from her. I immediately assumed it was her kid but I could not tell whether the kid was alive or not. My attention was brought back to the crying woman when I noticed she was holding something shining on her hand. It was a knife. And she was waving it around, at times pointing it towards the lying kid, and at times towards herself. It wasn't sure therefore whether this one was a case of a hostage drama or a suicide attempt. It was obvious however that this woman was lunatic and that she was a danger to both herself and her child. I immediately took aside and started filming with my cellphone camera. By then, a small group of individuals where a...

I previously featured some of these very hilarious signs which I found in my wanderings here in the city of Bacolod. This means, these signs are real and were never edited in anyway. I did feature some of them in a local daily here in Bacolod. This only shows that 1) we are congenitally a hilarious bunch of negritos, 2) we are in strong need of good instruction in English and 3) nothing does beat the Filipino - especially the Bacolenio Humor. Some of these signs have been posted along public roads, markets, etc. Again, it is never too late to read the signs of our times.

This morning, I came to my parents' place and found out that our store was ransacked. After so many years in the place, it is the first time that something like it happened to us. They told me that when they opened up the place, they noticed that the door to the store was wide open and the small latch for the store was destroyed. It was then that they realized that they have been robbed either late at night after they closed shop or during the wee hours of the morning. Initial inspection of the place led us to surmise that the suspects were probably an adult and a young kid. The spires on top of the gate, the only access they can have to get inside the store, were twisted enough to provide space for at least a thin adult to get in. The thought of another young child as a suspect was due to the fact that the small latch to the store was destroyed. The only person who can get through such a small hole is a child. We immediately called our uncle who is a retired policeman and we were ...