THE GREATEST MAGICIANS’ have something to learn from Mr. Mistoffelees’ Conjuring Turn – PRESTO! Or rather, VIVA LA VIDA! Here’s to our youth, that special moment in time where we became ‘fully human’ amid a world engrossed by the practicalities in-between.
Time is a cruel master. He harshly waits for no one and is adamant to walk forward without sharing a glimpse of the rear side in this long episode. Soon, in a blink of an eye, all those days in the sun will fade merely into a nostalgic moment—a subject to reminisce and our own once upon a time.
“While we become ‘deaf’ to the realities of the world as a child, at the same time we become ‘deaf’ to our sense of youth upon being fully consumed by the so-called system of normalcy.”
But that sense of youth continually lingers, like a certain Evan Hansen that waves through a window. When we let the world pass by for forever, our youth remains sitting at the center of the universe, carefully intertwining the special plots of our lifetime.
From walking along the gutters of Legarda down to taking that 9 a.m. Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Metro Rail Transit (MRT) systems, respectively, towards Ayala station, I earnestly wondered if that manong who regularly greets me with a smile upon entering the 7/11 branch opposite to Arellano University (AU) once dreamt of becoming a professional host or a chaperone to the hottest hotels in the country.
Or the Grab delivery rider I saw steering along Gallardo Street in Makati. Did he once yearned to ride ‘the’ Yamaha YZR-M1 to contend within the fearsome race tracks at Clark International Speedway?
And even the strangers with their own plot lines whose stories overlapped in the bustling stations of LRT and MRT. What were they like during their days in the sun? Especially during a time where everything seemed simple enough such that even the most conventional of occurrences, like a mere drop of sweet nectar from the Red Santan flower, was enough to become a story breaking through the barriers of time.
I beg to set the notion that our youth had created an illusion of simplicity and certainty that elucidated our insouciance before the more complex reality we live in; unbeknownst to our six-year-old selves.
Son Jong-hyun’s Twinkling Watermelon (2023) justifies my elected view. With Ha Eun-gyeol being ‘deaf’ to the realities and sacrifices of growing up, then escalating unto maturity upon comprehending the past – mirrors the life of every college student standing at the point of no return.
More often than not, a normative view of a ‘grown up’ is realized at the expense of one’s youth. By grasping life’s kaleidoscope, we come to understand that the real world is not painted merely by bright and pastel shades of colors alone. The black, white, and gray areas in-between are things of marvel which we have to embrace in order to stand within the lines of the status quo.
While we become ‘deaf’ to the realities of the world as a child, at the same time we become ‘deaf’ to our sense of youth upon being fully consumed by the so-called system of normalcy. Life is therefore one heck of a contradiction.
And yet there’s this special moment in time where the lines blur between submission and aspiration. Escaping the conventional, living the dream, and surviving the hurls of life’s roller coaster ride – is, thus, what I believe to be the standard of living, a way of removing that deafening deception and division of one’s self relative to the wider picture.
I do pray, even until now, that we might one day ‘twinkle’ like the radiant us of the past, to acknowledge the lingering sound of youth, and to holistically embrace one’s identity – as being a product of the past, present and future.
Oh! Well, I never! Was there ever a cat so clever as magical Mr. Mistoffelees?
Email me at thebedan_associateeditor@sanbeda.edu.ph