Nagsugod Ang Tanan Sa Wati (Everything Started With The Worm)

Kid-at-heart ;)

Ahh, childhood. A time of careless fun, smiles, laughter, boboo's and petty tears. Where trips to the backyard were such big adventures. Finding whatever resides there amusing, weird and yes, scary. The big fat worm on the kanal trying to escape from the bamboo stick I used to lift it up so I can examine it further, finding it smelly and disgusting, flinging it away as if it were nothing more but a piece of discarded toy. Shrieking with delight when I find house lizard eggs, thinking how it'd taste like if i cooked it, and crying when the fragile eggs break, coating my fingers with its smelly yoke. Jumping over the ruined bricked wall on the back of our house to visit my Ninong (Godfather) to watch TV and be pampered like a princess. Mistaking a jar of red peppers as a jar of candies and eating a handful, crying for hours as the pain of the spice resided on my tongue and throat. Asking for unripe papaya from our neighbor and eating it with soy sauce and salt. Rummaging through my late Dad's drawers and unwrapped a paper that looked like bubble gum, seeing the shiny blades, putting it against my thighs, seeing the blood, rushed to my late Lola (Grandmother), crying. Out on the front yard with my Ate (Older Sister), with our toys scattered, her getting inside the house to get something, me running after her, slipping, and smashing my head on our stoop, and thus, the Harry-Potter-like-scar on my forehead (it's not, unfortunately, lightning shaped, but a scar nonetheless :D). 

What happened?

Growing up. I sometimes wish I didn't have to. It meant me being careful, making a choice between work or school or having fun, smiling polite smiles , forcing laughter, boboo's that can't be healed by Mom's kiss and a colored band aid, and tears that tore bits of my heart.

Yes, i GREW UP, but not really. I just learned how to act the part. Because in reality, no one really grows up. 

Give it a try. Rewind back the years. :)

 

Author's Note

I just had a flashback of me playing with earthworms at our kanal at home and all the other childhood memories of mine came rushing out, wanting to join in on the fun and the pain. :D

Reviews

[paparapapa]

Soy sauce? With papaya? I thought it was vinegar! HAHA. This was reaaaally funny! And the title definitely got my attention. And yes, there have been a lot of times when I wished of going back to the old days when I just played and played and I didn't care about anything but me. :)) Well, this was fun to read. Great write. :)

[Victoria PoetryBunny]

Oh the childhood... miss it, where everything seemed so simple and not so complicated. Nice write. Detailed.

[Kenneth The Poet]

Nice, it's fun to see what children in other cultures did for fun as they grew up. My cousin, a toddler of Filipino descent, will probably not have the same childhood as you did since he lives in the empty central quarter, canals are foreign up there.

Again, nice work.

[NightShade]

The fresh breeze of recollection is refreshing from time to time and these are wonderful in their simple truth. You will know that you've gone too far when you've forgotten what it was like to be a child. Don't worry. Most of the really old folks tend to go back to that more honest experience of living.

[Becky C Strukamp]

Love a story of memories, Great write. Yikes, peppers, no candy,

[anne p. murray- LadeeAn..]

I loved this piece...it's alive with activity, memories, fondness of so many things remembered in your childhood. Very well written luv'

[Dayran]

Gajah mati meninggal tulang, manusia mati meninggal budi. Your poem itself may be a place to start.

[kurdapiaful]

gikutasan ko nag'basa. LFMAO!

[Jeremy Baker]

Quite nostalgic and satisfying. Good write.

[Jane Doe]

Ouchie lol:),
I hate peppers :(,lol


Xoxoxo
~abbie
100/100