By Tess Superioridad Baluyos
Sunny Side Up

MANY times I thought of writing a column but always, I ended up finding many reasons why I could not. I keep procrastinating and continue to wish that someday, the right time will come.

Days passed, and months and years, and that wish continued to visit my thoughts until one day, without thinking much about it, I found myself bubbling, and the words just flowed, unstoppable!

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As John Wooden said, “do not let what you can’t do interfere with what you can do.” Thank you, Sun.Star CdeO for this opportunity! I promise I won’t disappoint you…

Why SUNNY SIDE UP? Well, through my column, I want to share life’s experiences that would inspire others, and hopefully, will make them happy… things and feelings that they can relate with, and perhaps, something they can learn from, too. I would like to talk about the many beautiful things in this world, and the many reasons to be happy, and to be thankful for. There is so much about life that we tend to take for granted, and in the process, we end up wishing that life were better or happier, without knowing that what we have are what others are wishing they have.

Today, I start that journey of sharing my thoughts and I wish that in doing so, I would also touch other people’s lives, the same way that I endeavor to touch the hearts of my radio listeners. With this journey, I am given another reason to be thankful for my many gifts, especially my gift of writing.

As a warm up, I would like to touch on the topic, “How to Write a Diary?” To me, this is the first step when one wants to venture into the world of writing. All of us have that gift of writing, because all of us are thinking and feeling individuals. We all have our own unique ways of dealing with life, and one’s experiences and feeling may not be the same with that of our parents, or sister, or brother, or neighbor, or friend. Most of us leave our life’s experiences to memory, only to visit them when similar experiences happen again, or when we meet people who were involved in those experiences. Some, however, jot down their experiences… and we call them, diary, or personal journals.

I remember, as early as in elementary days, I was into diary writing already. I enjoyed writing down my thoughts. I would scribble poems, too. I even saved my allowance so that I could buy that hard-bound notebook which became my diary and I baptized her “Tassy.” I now have a collection of diaries, some are named after a friend, or a crush, or a child, or even a flower. My “friends”, as I call them, are witnesses to my life’s ups and downs, my failures and my successes, my sadness and my joys, my struggles and challenges and yes, my fulfillment as a wife, mother, worker, and yes, as a friend.

One thing I have noticed, though, is that sometimes, I am just too lazy to write…not because I don’t have time, rather, I would sometimes grope for something to write about. Happily, I have found a solution to this.

I know I am not alone in this and I think it’s but natural, unless one is like Anne Frank. Thank God we are not experiencing a world war, or not subjected to so much atrocities or have to hide in the cellar of the house to escape being caught by Adolf Hitler’s men. But Anne Frank was exceptional. At an early age, she did something that girls of her time would not have even thought of. And Annie Frank is now a by-word, a legendary, simply because she kept a diary.

Now, we don’t have to be like Anne Frank, but we still can maintain our own diary, or a personal journal. Here are some tips on how to keep a diary: First, when the mood to write strikes you, don’t look for the right place, or the right time. Grab your pen and paper or open your laptop or your PC and start writing. Just let the thoughts flow. Don’t worry about grammar or spelling or even composition. Just write what you think at the moment. Don’t think about perfection, and most of all, don’t even think of being nice. If you happen to have a quarrel with your friend, and you wanted to curse her, do it, in writing. If you feel like crying, cry it out, in paper.

Now, there are times that nothing ‘extraordinary” ever happened to you, or to your day. Your mother did not scold you for coming home late, or your teacher did not notice that you peeked at your seatmate’s paper during a quiz. Or, your boss was not a pain in your neck.

Perhaps your husband remembered to thank you for the nice breakfast, or your friend remembered today is your birthday, and your mother gave you extra allowance for no reason at all. Well, the ‘ordinary’ day is already an ‘extraordinary’ one, and the more reasons to put them in the pages of your journal.

You can also make a list of the things you enjoy doing, or things that you don’t want to do anymore, or maybe things that you want to try, and again, perhaps things that you hate do but has to do them, anyway. How about writing a resolution? Resolutions that are meant to be kept, and not to be broken.

Have you tried “being in the moment”? Those are situations wherein you are enveloped in your own world but at the same time mindful of what’s happening around you. You could be sitting in a jeepney, or in a bus, or sitting in a school campus, or eating at Jollibee, and those fleeting moments are good materials for your diary. For example, at Jollibee, you saw that beautiful girl at the opposite table… and the more you glance at her, you noticed her other ear doesn’t have an earring. You wondered that perhaps she did it intentionally, or maybe without her knowing it, she lost the pair. You imagined how it would be for her once she realizes she has lost it, and that pair of earring has sentimental value to her.

At the school campus, you see one student seated in a bench, in deep thoughts. Why is she alone? What does she look so sad? Maybe she just broke up with her boyfriend. You might ask, “if she broke up with her boyfriend, what is that to do with me?” Well, maybe, silently, pretend that you are the school’s guidance counselor. What will do you if she happens to approach you, and air out her feelings to you? What advice will you give her? Write all the thoughts that pop in your brain…anything!!! Give yourself that pleasure of exploring your imagination. For one, only you are privy to your thoughts. Even that girl doesn’t have an idea you are writing about her.

Or, you happened to sit opposite a guy in a jeepney and he is with his three kids. You observed how he takes care of his kids, seeing to it that everyone is comfortable. He hugs one of them and gives a smile to the other. He pulled the other one and let him sit on his lap, beside another kid who is already seated on that same lap. Your thoughts wandered, “Why is the wife not with them? Where is she? Ahhh, maybe is abroad, an OFW? Then you started to rationalize, “maybe, she has to do it, for economic reason…” Then another thought, “maybe, she died, of cancer….” Then you started to feel pity for the guy….and wish, he would glance at you so you could give him a smile that would somehow let him know that you admire how he takes care of his kids. When you reach home, you have a topic for your diary.

Perhaps, you have had a bad hair day. Your boss was very demanding, or you just feel burned out. You want to change something… not the arrangement of your room, but you want a new hairstyle. Put that wish in writing. You went to the beauty parlor after office work, and had a haircut. Write how you feel after having a new haircut. Did it change your mood?

As they say, it is better to curse a paper than shout at someone. Once you have blurted the words, you could not erase them anymore. And your diary? Well, you can pour out your innermost feelings, or even say the foulest words you could imagine, and it would be loyal to you. And mind you, after you have said what you wanted to say, you feel better, and ready for the next day’s pages. And, just as your diary is an ever-willing outlet for your sentiments, it is also like a friend, ready to embrace you, and listen to, as you pour out all your day’s moments and happenings.

There are times when the mood to write strikes you, but you don’t have your diary or journal notebook with you. Look for a blank paper—the back of a grocery receipt will do, or a tissue paper… or the back of the concert ticket. Just scribble the main points, a term which you can easily recall. It can be an outline, or in bullet type… it doesn’t have to be a full statement, or a paragraph. What you need is something that would catch the moment, notes that you can be transferred to your diary later on.

The thing is, just write, and write… be oblivious of your surroundings. Just focus on your writing, until you have poured out your thoughts. Don’t get distracted by noise or people around you. For a moment, confine yourself into your own world. You can put on a headphone and listen to your favorite music as you write.

Having a diary or maintaining a personal journal is your life’s story and stories of people you love and have loved, or people you hate or dislike, or of someone who may not even know you existed. They are chapters of your life. They are there to be visited someday, to reminisce those days. In fact, before you know it, one day you are ready to write a book! And what a better reference to writing a book or autobiography than your diary!

So start writing your diary now… or if you have started on it already, don’t miss a day without filling a page or two, because every moment of our life is a history, a time passed, a memory, something that we may not even grasp at its peak while it happens. Grab that moment and it will stay with you forever! (superioridadtess@yahoo.com)

(Ms. Baluyos is regional information officer of Department of Science and Technology-Northern Mindanao. Her column, Sunny Side Up, will appear in the Sun.Star on Wednesdays)