The
year started with a personal crisis for this blogger. And I seriously
felt that the world would end.
Hence,
I couldn't blog about anything during the first three months of
2012. I was caught between a rock and a hard place, about choosing
between a bad romance and self-respect. At first, I chose the former,
banking on the prospect that things will change for the better. And
it did change—for the worse. More than a month of space turns
people and things around; and ideas we always thought as perennial
would turn out to be fleeting and effervescent, like soap bubbles
that suddenly pop in the air. At the end of it all, I chose
self-respect and began an excruciating and tense walkabout into the
uncharted future.
By
April, I was writing again; and I began with a commentary on the edgy
relationship between President Aquino and the media regarding what
seemed to be the latter’s focus on the former’s misses instead of
gains. One could easily conclude that such tension would pave the way
for PNoy’s rating to drastically slide, but we know he has
rebounded from the backlash and now enjoys the highest approval
rating among all presidents to date.
However,
if there is one group that is perpetually angry at the government
regardless of who is in power, it's the extreme left. We've heard a
lot from them this past year, during their annual Labor Day rallies
(Day of Hate) and during our coverage of the Asian Development Bank Summit last May. My other blog, Pilipinas 360, dug deeper into the
division between the moderate and extreme left (A Tale of TwoLeftists) at a time when party list groups Akbayan and Anakbayan were
bickering about which party truly represents the marginalized.
One
of the most followed posts this year is my commentary on the issue of
Chinese aggression in Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal. I reiterated the
need to act tough in claiming ownership of the Spratlys Islands and
defined tough actions needed to support our claims. In the face
of Chinese imperialism in the West Philippine Sea, this
administration has stood its ground and found its voice without
stoking so much tension. Another sought after post talked about Lady
Gaga's concert in Manila (Medieval Voices) and this author's
criticism of various religious groups who sought to derail the event
through mass protest.
From
June to October, my posts have become rare once more, settling for
only one or two posts a month due to adjustments with this new job I
have and a relationship which I finally closed and sealed with
finality. Mostly, I talked about topics close to my heart such as
teaching (Nobody Likes a Terror Teacher), language (Mother Tongue and the Case of Taglish), and my visit to the Manila International Book Fair. Only when Jessie Robredo tragically died in a plane crash in
Masbate (Robredo: The Magsaysay of Our Time) or when cyberspace went
berserk after the passage of the Anti-CyberCrime Law (Caught in a Web of Crime and Rights) did I make any posts of national concern.
Many
thought the end of the world would happen tomorrow, December 21. For
me, it ended on November 19 when I found out that my ex-girlfriend
had replaced me in just a span of 5 months. But just as the Mayans
predicted, it wasn't an ending in the literal sense but rather a
change in consciousness. I was single again and with a renewed
consciousness in life, love, and relationships which manifested in my
posts such as The Perfect Bow, Imagined Relationships, and The Incredible Lightness of Singularity. It was also at this point in
time that I made the crucial decision to reveal to you, my readers,
my true identity. Hence, a blog which began as a mere social
commentary on Filipino current events and issues had also become a
gateway to the personal life of this writer. Am I worried of the
impression my readers now have of me? I cared less about this
question.
As
the world approached its purported end date, I made three posts on
three topics which I truly enjoyed writing about. The first is on the
implications of the US elections to Filipino society. In this blog,
we've seen a lot of implications being explored upon and I hope to
explore more of these in the coming year (if the world does not end
tomorrow). Another post is my review of John Green's “Paper Towns”,
an awesome book about the life and love of a geek (I guess all John
Green books are). Being single gave me the luxury of reading more
books and I'm in my third John Green book already which I plan to
review and write about this month. Lastly, my post on Manny
Pacquiao's recent loss to Juan Manuel Marquez (Even The Best Fall Down). It sort of epitomizes the entire experience I had this year,
how despite my talent and intellect, I had my share of pitfalls too
relationship and work-wise (A Long Awaited Call).
And
so despite what seemingly felt like the end of the world, here we are
still breathing, writing, and trying to be strong and wiser in
between. I might have been too dramatic for everyone's comfort so
pardon me, my dear readers. Just like me, I'm sure you've picked up
lessons in my ramblings and musings this year. In every catastrophe,
whether actual or imagined, there are lessons worth looking into and
applying. I came out of the wilderness a changed (if not a better)
person. I hope you can say the same for yourself, dear reader.
As
the year comes to a close, I ask that you keep up with me and my
adventures just like Dory in Finding Nemo. In both the virtual and
real world, nobody wants to be lonely; and so I ask that we interact
even more through this blog. I promise to keep on enriching your
minds with unique and better posts, and share with you relevant
experiences we can all learn from. Let 2013 be the start of something
new, better, colorful, vibrant, and everything nice for this blog and
its readers!
Happy
2nd Anniversary, THE SOCIAL SCIENTIST!
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