IT'S a typical Saturday.
After the long and exhausting class period, at last, the week has come to an end. Students can now go to their respective homes to relax and bond time with friends and families.
It’s this particular time of the day when the sun is below the horizon and the refraction of the sun’s rays from the atmosphere produces a soft glowing light.
The day’s routine starts with standing at the corner of Aldevinco Shopping Center, waiting for a jeep heading to Sandawa. While waiting for the jeep, you see the things around you, a barbeque stick lies next to a girl’s foot together with some crumpled plastic wrappers. Nearby is a dusty small piece of cloth that looked as if it has not been touched for a long time.
Soon, boredom sets in made worse by the foul smell from a garbage bin across the street full of rotting garbage, flies were circling above it. Thus, every time people pass at that area, they covered their nose with a hand or a handkerchief. It is really unpleasant and stinky.
After ten minutes, the wait is now over. You get your ride, a predominantly red jeepney capable of carrying 24 passengers, 11 on each side and 2 on the front seat.
Recognizeable landmarks dot your way home -- schools, churches, fast food chains, dry and wet markets, pawnshops, beauty salons, gasoline stations and many others. The buzz of voices that blends with the city soundscape of cars, motorcycles, trucks, people’s laughter, shouts, and talks and other natural occurring sounds can also be heard outside the jeep. Along Quezon Boulevard, an old male beggar is sleeping on the street, his clothes ripped and dirty. You start to ponder: Where are the relatives of this old man? How can they manage to continue living while abandoning him? Does he really have a family?
These thoughts are interrupted by the driver asking the passengers to hand over their fares. Stepping off the jeepney, you ponder some more. We are brought to life by our parents. They provide us with our needs and wants as well as nurturing us. In return, when they get old, it’s the time for us to take care of them.
Let us not abandon them like the old guy on the street. It may be a cliché but most of us tend to forget the essence of our parents and prefer the comfort of our friends. Our friends who seem to be there by our side all the time, our friends who will give us love advices and make us feel that we belong. But at the end of the day, it is our parents who will accept us for who we really are.
This is no indeed a typical Saturday. It is because it is unlike the ordinary days where what matters is to just look at things as they are without questioning and realizing the significance of their existence. This is an eye-opener Saturday, not a typical one. (Joanna Paula Abasolo Sevillano)
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[Joanna Paola is a BS in Education student of Ateneo de Davao University.]