A few days ago, I was listening to a radio show and they’re having a topic about childhood memories. I tried to remember my own experiences and most of the memorable ones happened during my stay at my Lola’s. There’s so much to tell and I think I’ll never get tired sharing our stories to anyone interested (hmm, quite a very few interested people actually).

But, I wouldn’t talk about those really good things right now because I suddenly remembered one silly, but nonetheless, marking incident that happened way back in kindergarten.

I can’t remember exactly how naughty I am when I was a lot younger or how friendly I am to win at least one friend (for the only clear memory of me having someone I can call a friend was in prep). Anyway, since I still went to a co-ed school in preschool, I had a bunch of classmates-servicemates who are boys. Did I ever make friends with them? There’s not a hint of memory about it.

There’s one person I recently remembered though. Since we were servicemates, we played inside the bus with other kids. With our height, we could still play “monkey bars” inside (yung hawakan, like the ones found in jeepneys). Eto na, one day, while I was swinging on the “monkey bar”, this kid stole a kiss. I know (now) it was just some childish prank but then at that time I got so mad at him.

I know I didn’t like that kid even before. He was a bully. I can’t remember how he treats me but I clearly remember how frequently he picks a fight with the other boys. There was even this time that I saw how he hit a boy’s head to a wall and I saw blood dripping from that other classmate’s head. I was so frightened and affected that I also cried (yah, I know, crybaby), threw up and got sick. Just this one incident was enough for me not to like him.

The childhood memory was not the kiss, it was more of the first time I disliked a person so much.
Though I just remembered this recently, I’m now thinking if this incident somehow influenced how I think now (or can I say, in the past, when I was a bit younger?… hehe). I also wonder what happened to him. Well, I’ve heard of persons who turned out to be lot better than most in adulthood despite being notorious as a child (imagine all the experiences he had at an early age). Haha. Sounds silly? Am I over thinking again?

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Is there a lesson here in my story? We’re all grown-ups here I guess so there’s no use telling each other to be nice to one another (because since we’re thinking beings, even “being nice” is subjected to different interpretations…haha). Maybe one thing we can get from this is to remember that there will be another person (or persons) that will be influenced or affected by the things we do (behavior baga) - even those who are mere spectators (such as the readers of our respective blogs).

Oh, parang Five People You Meet in Heaven. Parang lang pero, puwede.

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Hmm, ikaw, do you have some similar experience?