Ever had that urge to just leave everything you are carrying behind and run to wherever your feet would take you? or just start to run during times of confusion, hoping that by moving your whole body you are able to think more clearly and find the answers that you seek?
There are times wherein one would get those urges. It may suddenly pop out due to varying reasons, you just have to follow your instincts and start moving your legs, you can even start by walking, and slowly gain your pace to start running. Personally, I find these urges in times of great depression, confusion and weakness. I know that "running" would not give me the solutions to the problems I am facing, its just that through running, I am able to start something new within this body of mine. It's like having myself engage into a totally new world. The feeling of having sweat all over your body, blood rushing to your head, muscles feeling pain, harder breathing with every step, and the rising beats of the heart, simply makes me feel entranced. By moving my body, I am able to think more clearly, and be more open to the different issues pertaining to the different aspects of life.
Running makes me enter this world wherein I can just step away from all the problems and harsh realities of the world. It makes me feel a sensation that clears my thoughts and makes me focus on the important things. I personally do not know why this happens, it just occurs naturally as I move from 1 step to another.
A few months ago, I came across this song by Ron Henley featuring Pow Chaves. At first I thought the song was purely about "fun" and even considered it as a perfect hit to listen to during road trips. But recently, I discovered that the song had another meaning. A very true to life moral that should be applied to the current generation of teenagers.
Kids or Teens at present time are usually just going with the flow. They join different groups of people, some are a good bunch, and some are bad news. By being exposed to different groups, the children of today develops this tendency to listen to what their friends would say rather than what their parents of guardians would advice them to do. Even if they have parents or guardians that are constantly reminding them of what they should do in life, in order not to experience any hardships and suffering, the teens of today ignore them. They would rather choose to have fun, drink, smoke, do drugs, and listen to their friends over their parents. The song "Biglang Liko" has a jolly beat with a very catchy and true to life lyrics. One would initially assume that the song is about how carefree and adventurous the current generation of teenagers are. But the song has a deeper meaning behind its catchy beats and "happy" vibe.
"Biglang Liko" sends this message that Teenagers have always suddenly changed and took a different track in life. Teens were given this certain path that could have led them to a good life, but due to the influence of different factors, such as friends, vices, hobbies, relationships, and etc., made them take a different one. Some would say that they are happy for choosing to be more liberal and chill over being studious and hardworking. But unknown to these individuals, there are a lot of risks in taking the other path. As seen in the video of the song, due to the influence of various factors, specifically his boyfriend, the main girl ended up getting killed. One would also notice the repetition of the phrase "Derecho Lang" at the end of the song. I believe that repetition was meant to remind the listener of the song, that he/she should stay focused with his or her current path, it may be on his stay in college, high school, or even in work. They should not let the temptations existing in the society to influence their lives too much, since we never know, it might lead to different cases (theft, murder, rape, etc.) that would risk one's life.
The message that the song "Biglang Liko" should always be in the minds of each Filipinos. There are already numerous reports that some girls and boys got raped, mugged, kidnapped, or killed due to the influence of being too much involved with their friends or boyfriend/girlfriend. Our society, being known as one of the most volatile, and notorious among the Asian countries due to its unstable economy which causes a high crime, should let each and every person living in that community be constantly reminded that he or she should be very careful in choosing who to trust, love, and be friends with. We should also resist the numerous temptations that could make us drift afar from our current roads in life, because we never know, if we suddenly changed the track of our lives, we might end up dead or cause someone's death due to an accident.
This is a story of a young boy. A boy who has been known as an average guy next door by many, the guy who always smiles and shows that he is happy most of the time. This boy came from a well known school, achieved quite a number of praiseworthy achievements, but sacrificed the so called "night life" by his generation. He may have studied hard to pass his classes, but missed out a lot in terms of experiences. This boy grew to be exposed in a different type of fun. A fun that most "nerds" or "geeks" would connote as "FUN". This fun is known as the "virtual reality". Being more attracted to the joys offered by the fake world or universe provided by cartoons, gaming, and anime is what made him experience joy and excitement. Being a citizen of the "virtual" world, This boy became one of those "unknowns" or "hidden" faces in his school. Why hidden? Because you would not expect him to be part of this school due to his "different" image from the usual norm of the people hailing from that institute. People from this said school are usually fun, interactive, social, and wild. You will even wonder how on earth would a boy who does not exhibit those attitudes survive in such a school. Probably, it is thanks to the existence of other individuals with the same interests as this boy had. A bunch of young kids who shared a passion in watching anime, reading comic books, and playing various video games became the crowd of this boy. But as the years pass, the boy reached the age wherein he had to face a change. The change of being exposed to a new environment. An environment so radical, that various cultures, lifestyle, and beliefs existed mutually. The environment of "college". Who would have thought that this Nerdy boy would one day detach from his own world and try to face "reality". Unlike the environment that he had in his secondary years, wherein their world was basically limited to the people in his group of friends, this boy had to engage different kinds people with varying attitudes. Some were fun. Some were sad. Some were weird. Some were awesome. This boy tried to carry his old self into this environment. But as the saying goes, "There is no constant thing in this world but the idea of change", this boy experienced a lot of changes. Changes that lead to what he became today. Changes that made his group change their view and impressions of this boy. Changes that broke his ties with his first crowd and opened the bridges to new circle. The boy did not want most of the changes to happen. He just wanted everything to remain as it used to be. Wherein he and his old friends are hanging out and having a good time. He did not want any conflict between his friends to arise. But what can he do? Being exposed to such a dynamic and radical environment affected his personality drastically. The boy who was once a shy and quiet kid who lived in a different world became the "new" boy who got exposed to reality. To the reality known as "life".
The reality of life changed the lifestyle of the boy. He became an outgoing person who had different ties with different groups. He rarely hanged with his previous friends. He left the "virtual world". He basically became someone who is going "out" and lives a life. From having only one set of friends, he now had multiple "gangs" or "barkadas" as they would call it. He had different personalities to interact with the varying groups that he became part of. When with the serious group, he becomes a "serious" guy. When with the the fun group he becomes a "clown". This boy became like a chameleon. One who adapts to drastic changes in his environment. He went under a lot of adapting to different environments to the point that he almost lost trace of who he really was. The only thing that makes him remember his identity is the moment when he is alone. Moments wherein he can reflect and evaluate himself. Moments wherein he is able to ask himself, "Who are you?", "Are you really this type of guy?", "How long will you keep putting different masks?", "Can you still identify your self?" and other similar questions. These moments makes him realize that he has been forcing his own self into different environments wherein he can't be himself. The the boy is slowly shedding the real him from his own life.
Just like other people, this boy has made quite a lot of mistakes. By putting on a lot of faces, he developed a bias and has become too comfortable in some of his adapted environments. He did not realize that he has trespassed into a territory which he shouldn't have. He realized it too late. This is but one of the numerous instances wherein he made such a mistake. Mistakes that made him regret his actions. He knows that all of the things that are happening to him now, are the effect of his own actions. His actions that leads to a lot of conflicts. Sadness. And other mix of emotions. Actions that make him realize how bad he has turned out. That the changes he has undergone only made things worse for him. Though he has experienced tons of things which he would wouldn't if he did not change, the after effect of such changes outweighed the joy he had when he chose to be part of some events. This made him realize that he probably has gone too far. That he had to give himself time to reevaluate himself. That he should pause for a while and think. That "Maybe I should stop adapting to the change in my environment and start on working on myself first". That he should become someone not by becoming "one" with a group, but by becoming "someone" instead. This boy realized that he should not let his environment affect his own identity, instead, the environment should be the one to realize that there is a "somebody" like this boy existing in that environment.
Unlike the nerdy boy whom he originally was, this kid has already experienced a lot of roller coaster rides and has developed drastic changes. Changes that made him experience a lot of things, from the unstoppable joys with a continuously growing group of friends, to the painful moments of realizing that he is truly alone. Changes that made hime view things in life in various perspectives. This boy realized a lot of life lessons as he went by the days of his college. He learned how the rule of society works the hard way. He attempted to be a douchebag to score a girl. He became a naive person as he fell in love. He experienced rejection through his stupidity. He discovered the feeling of being wasted in different ways. He has travelled "high" and fell too "low". He excitedly became part of some big events, some of which were successful, and some were quite depressing. He was able to reach destinations he didn't expect he would. He also felt the various sentiments of his friends regarding his personality and what type of person he had become.
Though this story of a boy is still a work in progress, this boy still truly hopes to find a happy ending. Despite having more depressing experiences over joyful ones, this kid is still putting up a brave front and continue to face the different challenges in life that is being thrown to him. Having learned a lot of lessons from the experiences he has collected, this boy believes that he would not make the same mistake again. Not unless his memory lapse kicks in, he jokingly remarked.
Over the past weeks, I got to be part of some of my friend's weekly shoots. I got to act, as in legit acting, not my usual senseless acting, in her project. I got most of the random roles such as the following:
the guy who suddenly shouts at a building
a very vain person who suddenly drinks water or removes his glasses
some guy who is chillin' then a random person approaches me just to join me stare at the sea
a guy who was caught peeing on a plant
an impersonator of Nikki Gil's CF for Coca Cola
etsetera. etsetera.
Man, looking back to my performance on those random and quite unusual roles, I think I really did a great job. LOL. I'm not trying to boast about my acting skills but, it's some kind of an Ego boost when you know within yourself that you were able to act in a video and produce something quite surprising despite the fact that you are only doing small roles. But recently, This friend of mine made some kind of a short film. It was some kind of a Drama with an unexpected twist. And guess what. I was the "MAIN" dude this time. LOL. It was thanks to the condition of my other friend that made it possible for me to act as the Protagonist a short film.
Well, At first I was quite excited when I heard I'm gonna be the protagonist, but when I learned about the plot or the story of the short film I was like.. "ARAY..". It was kind of ironic. The story of the film was QUITE.. hrmm, no.. was VERY similar to my love life. LOL. If you truly are one of my closest friends, you'll know about this story of mine. So, Upon learning of the inconvenient story of the sort film, I decided to just bear with that kind of plot. Well, since we are already there, it would be such a waste if we don't do what we came for right?
In this instance, I have learned that in life, some things, situations or even problems, should just be faced head-on, one won't be able to move forward if he'll always avoid such situations. Whether this situations would incur him some scars, or some medals, what matters is that, You as a person, confronted all those situations and handled yourself the way you wanted to. Because in the end, you will also be able to say,
