Shh...Secrets

1. When I was 12, I fell head over heels in love with...Robby Rosa of the boy band Menudo.
Yes, you read that right. I daydreamed about seeing that Puerto Rican boy and hear him sing to me, "If you're not here, by my side..." complete with pawis (sweat) streaming down his forehead. And then I would hold out my panyo (hanky) and mop out his sweat like a true-blue Pinay fan. Sheez, what was I thinking? Does anybody else remember these guys? Among the members of the group which first visited Manila, only Ricky Martin is the only one of note, perhaps the only one who has made a visible splash in the music scene. But even his fame seems to be short-lived.

2. When I was a kid, I used to wear really short shorts, even when I go out of the house.
That doesn't seem like a secret, does it? But wait. One time, as I was going outside our house to buy something from the local store nearby, somebody whistled at me and said, "Sexy!" I took one look at the guy, and I shuddered! He was so panget (ugly), and he was intimately looking at my legs - malagkit ang tingin ng damuho! I was so embarrassed, that from that day on I never wore shorts outside our house again. My mom wondered for a while why I would run to our room to wear a skirt over my shorts before I went out on errands. I don't think I ever told her why.

3. My sisters and I rode the public utility jeepney (PUJ) without paying for our fare.
A little background: I was in college, and when I got my scholarship allowance, I decided to treat my sisters to the movies at the local cinema in Monumento Grand Central. A time for some sister-bonding. Well, when we got there, to our dismay we found out that the movie ticket prices increased! I didn't have enough money with me because I brought an exact amount that covers just the movie tickets and our roundtrip fare. We had a dilemma: either we go home disappointed, or we just watch the movie...bahala na si Batman. While we were pondering this over and arguing with each other, the grouchy ticket lady at the counter was already giving us irritated stares, so I decided quickly: let's just watch the darn movie and figure out what to do later.

Our crime: we took two rides on PUJs all the way from Monumento to Tondo, sat as close as possible to the driver, and passed on other people's fares when they paid. As you can tell, we got away. We were pretty scared that the drivers would find out, fortunately, our trick worked. We even made "kandong" so that effectively only two of us were occupying seats. Once we got home, all we could do was laugh about it. Yep, we're pretty evil sisters. But for what it's worth, I did feel bad about the jeepney driver who got shortchanged. I would repay him a hundred times now, if only I knew how.

4. Once, I accidentally burned my finger while using the soldering iron, and I never told anyone about it except Baggy.
I absolutely hate soldering. But sometimes the machine breaks down, I flip over the circuit board, and find that there's a loose connection somewhere. Should I call dah boyz to fix it, or should I just do it myself? Heck, I'm too much of a feminist and I wouldn't be the one to give them reasons to think that I'm the weaker sex (hah!), so I would rather do it. But I simply suck at soldering (and that's an additional weakness (gasp!), aside from computer programming). My hands would sweat and my grip would be very slippery. And yeah, I'm careless, too.

5. I went on forced hunger strikes when I was in high school.
This is a long story, but I'll try to give you the short version. Due to circumstances, my family was forced to go back to Manila and left me in Baguio to finish high school. I was vying for honors, and my parents thought that my chances of graduating at the top of my class would diminish if I transferred to another school. I don't know if that is still true, but back then it seemed to matter. Anyway, I was 13 going 14, and I had to live all alone in my aunt's house. My parents would send money as sustenance, but since we were not rich, they could only send a very limited amount at a time (how does P100 pr P200 a month sound to you?). More often than not, the padala didn't come on time, and I was forced to budget my money. There were many times when I had to eat only once a day. I never told anyone in school about it because I was too embarrassed to let them know of my predicament. I was even more embarrassed to try and borrow from anyone. Heck, no! In times when I didn't have enough money to buy lunch, I would go to the canteen at the university not far away from our school and just stay there, hoping that no one from class would find me there. One time, I just felt so frustrated at having to deal with all those things (shouldn't someone be taking care of me?!!), I burst out crying in front of my classmates. I told them a half-truth: that I was just lonesome, and that I just felt sad about being separated from my family. I didn't tell them the other half: I was hungry, I didn't have enough money, and I just couldn't tell anyone!

There's a silver lining to this story, though. I did graduate as the top of the class. Yay! Maybe all those hunger strikes forced me to concentrate hard, huh? Mind over growling stomach. My, those were the days.

Who to tag now? How about my evil sister Lai, Hazel and Dimaks? Ok guys, the torch is yours! That is of course, unless you've already held it and passed it to others already.