Transformed Child
Saturday, June 30th, 2007For the past few weeks, I have found it extremely difficult to jumpstart my day. When I wake in the morning, I find worry and despair beside me. On weekdays, when duty calls, I have no other choice but to get up and drag my feet to the kitchen, fix a quick breakfast and head to the bathroom and do the necessary rituals. At the end of the day, when exhausted, I just doze it off and I am successful in shunning away such feelings. What worries me is the idle time that I have (i.e. weekends).
Last Friday, I started working on my presentation in the Economics Seminar Series on Revenue, Cost and Profit Analysis for the school’s lawyers just to tire myself. Now, I’m three quarters done with it and it is due for presentation on Friday, July 6. I have no words for the butterflies on my stomach as of the moment. This leaves me with the weekend to worry about. So, I asked my best friend Lina to accompany me to Makati to watch Michael Bay’s latest masterpiece, Transformers, my treat. And I’m so glad that she said yes!
Saturday morning was a slowdown. Again, I found it hard to get up from bed and face the music. So, I took it one step at a time, successfully defeating such negative feelings that seem to hang around. Before I knew it, I am on the bus bound for the Makati Central Business District. I got off the Ayala Avenue station, went up the stairwell, and entered SM Makati a few minutes past 12 nn. The very first store I saw to my right was Toy Kingdom. What caught my eye was these boxes of Transformers that were prominently displayed upon entering the store. Knowing that Lina will arrive around 2 pm, I took the liberty of checking things out. Lo and behold, I instantly felt like a child again (circa 1984-1991). The feeling of entering a toy store wide-eyed with delight has been alien to me since 6th grade as I finally gave up on computer games and decided to embrace pop-rock music. Transformers like Bumblebee, Astrotrain and much more gave me the needed boost for my flagging self-esteem. Before I 
knew it, the cashier was swiping my ATM card on her register as I settled for my very first Starscream, the Decepticons‘ Air Commander for P699. I even got a poster of Bumblebee for my room. The packaging is so neat that I haven’t even opened it yet as of writing. I remember that I used to have Bumblebee and Astrotrain when I was a kid and they were made in Japan. I remember that the first generation Transformer toys came in Japanese-labeled boxes and were quite expensive at 1980 prices, say P400-P1000 per toy, which equals to, say a month’s supply of groceries at that time. You’ll never know how great it feels to be a kid again. I used to beg mom and dad to buy me such expensive toys and if I’m lucky to ask at a time when they have enough budget then I would get one. Now, I have found (or rediscovered) another reason to work hard–play Transformers again! When I was a kid, all my Transformers come with their original boxes and are in near-mint condition. But my kid brother would play with them and he would just throw them around if he’s done with them, breaking them into smithereens, with the guns nowhere to be found as they slid under the furniture and all. Since I love and care for my kid brother so much, I couldn’t even spank him or shout at him. So, I would just silently cry over my destroyed expensive toys. If you only knew how hard it is for me to grow up immediately and trade such childlike things for more mature ones at age 11. Looking back, I grew up too fast and now a part of me is yearning to go back 17 years later. There were a lot of times when I wished I weren’t the eldest in the family but I guess this is my destiny. I do well being the eldest since I can handle the responsibilities, I do well in putting myself behind, I make sure that family needs are attended to. My life was fast-tracked before I knew it, that it left me with my dad’s shoes to fill at the age of 25.
Moving on, I went to claim my personalized SM 
Advantage card after buying my toy. After which, I decided to browse through some CDs in the record bar section in which I settled for Kelly Clarkson’s latest offering called "My December". The debut single off this album is the rock track "Never Again". Feel free to check out my review here: http://www.friendster.com/review.php?action=all&uid=2468755
Then, I went off to Astrovision to check out some VCDs and DVDs. With not much to offer, I decided to buy the Special Edition of the Season Finale of Friends. Watching this TV series over and over again never fails to bring a smile on my face. With my stomach growling, I decided to eat lunch ahead of my friend so I ate in Mexicali. I had a cheese and garlic quesadilla and a vegetarian burrito. It has been more than a year since I had a filling Mexican meal in the same place and I always loved Mexican food.
I met Lina in Wendy’s Glorietta 4 where I simply had a Frosty for dessert. It is glad to catch up with each other and it amazes me that we have kept in touch 
for so long despite the fact that we worked together in De La Salle Zobel for only a school year, back in the day when I was still a fresh graduate armed with a healthy dose of naivete. The picture on the left shows my alma mater’s central garden. The ground floor used to be our canteen when I was in Grade 4.
It seemed like everyone is lining up to catch Michael Bay’s latest masterpiece in Glorietta 4 so we switched to Glorietta 1 where the schedule fitted us better. It was an action-packed flick from start to finish and there was not a single boring moment. Bumblebee even knows how to crack jokes too which I found endearingly funny. Watching it in the big screen and with a Transformers toy in my plastic bag instantly made me a 4 year-old toddler again trapped in a 28-year old man’s body. Hahahahahahaha! It was a good thing I didn’t wet myself since the movie was bladder buster (> 2 hrs) and I didn’t have my nappies on. I will find time soon to watch this movie again. Lina and I had dinner in KFC in the Ayala Station of the MRT where we parted ways at around 9 pm.
The moral lesson of the story: though life can bring me down at times, it has a funny way of lifting your spirits again…through the eyes of a child.
Child - Mark Owen
Sleep peacefully now my child
I hope that you go away
To a place where your dreams can play
Wipe all the tears from your eyes
There is a sky of blue
This is your time of truth
Like a bird high on the wind
May you fly away
Like a snowfall in the spring
may you cares melt away
CHILD, innocent child
our hope lies inside
your starry eyes
my innocent child
Hero, now that you are free
You have no need to fear
so go out and find your smile
Like a candle in the stream
May you float away
Like a feather on the breeze
May you blow away
[REPEAT CHORUS]
Like a candle,
Like a snowfall
Like a feather
like a bird:fly away
Like a candle,
like a snowfall
like a feather
like a bird..fly away
[REPEAT CHORUS]
Sleep peacefully now my child
I hope that you go away
to a place where you dreams can play
