I’m having sleepless nights these days. It’s been two nights already. No, I wasn’t crying because I was jilted by a woman. Firstly, I don’t cry over a woman. Secondly, I don’t have a girlfriend right now, and I don’t have a plan of getting one. At least, not now.
It doesn’t, however, mean I wasn’t sleeping at all. It only means the hours I allot for sleep have been slashed. I normally go to sleep at eight. But lately, I reached until 10 before I dozed off.
And that’s all because of John Grisham’s “The Pelican Brief,” which I bought at Bookshop—where else, there is a dearth of bookstores in Davao City—last Sunday when it finally opened after undergoing a month-long face lift.
I’m a slow reader unlike Truman Capote who said he could read an average of about “five books a week.” He said, “the normal-length novel takes me about two hours.” How fast! A 400-page novel usually takes me four days to finish, so that’s 100 pages a day. Before I read mostly during the day. Seldom do I read in the evening—evenings aren’t reserved for reading, in our house they’re for watching May Bukas Pa and PBB.
Today, I think I’ll be reading more slowly, in the night, as the day will be dedicated to more pressing and stressful matters: preparing lesson plans, making visual aids, reading on the subject that I’ll be teaching (I heard I will be assigned to third year (World History) and fourth year classes (Economics), and other things that make a single teacher forever single.
Back to “The Pelican Brief.” As usual, I liked it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have bought it and read it in the first place. I liked it only because it involves lawyers and a law student, and I dreamed to be a lawyer.
Enough said.
I will be blogging less frequently from November until March, as I will be giving more time to doing the requirements in my internship: professional readings, learning insights, lesson plans, visual aids, etc.
Although I don’t consider blogging as an extra activity, I figured that I have to be AFK (away from keyboard for the uninitiated) for a particular period of time. And that period of time has just started this November.
If you notice, I have made three posts so far. Four if you count this one. That’s because over the past weeks, I have attended seminars, workshops, and orientations that, our Practicum Supervisor argued, could help us in one way or the other become a better pre-service teacher.
(Here’s the result of following Forrester’s advice. I’m not sure if I pulled it off well, so you be judge.)
It all started with a deceptively simple question, this passion for writing.
“Why do you want to be a teacher?” our professor in Principles of Teaching asked us at the first meeting of the class. We were turn in the essay, she told us, by next meeting. It meant, of course, that we only had one day to write what we think was the reason why we enrolled in Education.
The question got me thinking. Indeed, what is it that compelled me to want to be a teacher? For a while I thought of many reasons. Money? Definitely not. Fame? Only few teachers became famous. Some, who lived an epic life, died unsung. Prestige? Other professions such as medicine and law are far more prestigious than teaching.
After mulling over the question, I was able to fashion out a fairly decent essay. As I was about to read it in front of my classmates, I felt anxious. Would they like it? Would I be able to deliver it without stammering? But my anxieties turned out to be worse than the result. After I read my work, my classmates applauded me. My professor thought it was inspiring. “If Arvin’s essay did not inspire you,” she said, “I don’t know what will.”
However faint that praise was, an idea struck me. If this essay were inspiring, I thought, why not send it to Youngblood, a section in the Philippine Daily Inquirer where young people can send their essays. If the essay’s good enough, it will be published. I’ve been meaning to send to Youngblood, but never did attempt to do so. Or was it because I didn’t have some sensible things to say? But now, bolstered by my professor’s comment, I’ve finally mustered the courage to try to send an essay, hoping that it would inspire others the way it inspired my classmates. read more…
I caught up Finding Forrester at TV5 many days ago. I think it’s a must-see for a novice writer and even for those who have been writing for so long a time but whose well of creativity has now dried up. For it’s replete with lines on how to go about writing, and indeed living. But the one line that has stuck in my mind is that which William Forrester (Sean Connery) told to Jamal Wallace (Rob Brown):
No thinking – that comes later. You must write your first draft with your heart. You rewrite with your head. The first key to writing is… to write, not to think!
I don’t know how many writers have tried it and came out successful. But since I’m a sucker for writing tips and wouldn’t let one pass without trying it, I tried Forrester’s advice. I tried to write the first draft with my heart; the second draft with my head.
The result: a 2,000 plus-word essay chronicling my first foray into writing and blogging. Then on the second draft, I cut it down to about 1,600 words.
I will publish it soon. Maybe tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow.
To stoop when a bullet passes by is not cowardice. It is worse to defy it, only to fall and never to rise again. —Pilosopo Tasio.
If you don’t know Pilosopo Tasio, go read one of Rizal’s novels, Noli Me Tangere.
“Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons,” wrote Stephen King in On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, “and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones.”
Indeed, reading bad prose is sometimes better than reading a good one—it boosts your confidence and also makes you feel superior. That’s what I felt when some months back I was reading the school paper of a nursing college in Davao City.
I’ve really made the right choice when I picked up that paper. I know now how not to write well.
The nearest thing to a law of success is that if you are committed, you will succeed. The strength of commitment can even be quantified—in terms of the time and effort you allocate to your goals, not in sporadic burst, but in a steady state. —Blas Ople, The Work Ethic and the Law of Success
Ok, allow me to make one more post before I’ll go.
Starting today until Saturday, I’ll be leaving the blogosphere to attend the annual Student Assistant Scholars Organization (SASO) retreat at the Benedictine Retreat House, Ulas, Davao City.
The objectives of this retreat are (1) “to strengthen our relationship with God and with one another, and (2) to recharge for us to become more effective in our workplace.”
To me, however, there is one more objective: To catch up some sleep and live like a señorito even just for three days.
