i'm a woman

These are some slogans/ads from NIKE (i think) and these reveal my books truth (if anyone reading this would know what i mean)

"Mary had a little shoe it's sole was full of air and anyone that Mary raced didn't have a prayer". -Shirt slogan 1995

All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough, they'll say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. They will tell you no. And YOU WILL TELL THEM YES.

The prince knelt down and slipped the glass slipper over Cinderella's foot. And it fit just right. In fact, it fit almost as comfortably as the new Nike Air Huarache Plus. Which is built on a woman's last and which has a foot-hugging neoprene upper. So a woman can stop waiting for her stupid prince to come and go for a nice long run instead. -1993

DO NOT RESIST CHANCES. Take them like vitamins. Let go of the brakes. See what happens if you go five more miles. Footbridges be damned, find your own way across. Don't worry about the bumps and bruises. Your body can take them. Don't steer around the bits that scare you, go over them, go through them. Do something the guys in the bowling league would be terrified of. You feel your chin rise up from your chest, and you'll be able to see what's around you. What's ahead of you. And there will be one less thing you cannot do. JUST DO IT. -September 1995

You were born a daughter. You looked up to your mother. You looked up to your father. You looked up at everyone. You wanted to be a princess. You thought you were a princess. You wanted to own a horse. You wanted to be a horse. You wanted your brother to be a horse. You wanted to wear pink. You never wanted to wear pink. You wanted to be a Veterinarian. You wanted to be President. You wanted to be the President's Veterinarian. You were picked last for the team. You were the best one on the team. You refused to be on the team. You wanted to be good in algebra. You hid during algebra. You wanted the boys to notice you. You were afraid the boys would notice you. You started to get acne. You started to get breasts. You started to get acne that was bigger than your breasts. You wouldn't wear a bra. You couldn't wait to wear a bra. You couldn't fit into a bra. You didn't like the way you looked. You didn't like the way your parents looked. You didn't want to grow up. You had your first best friend. You had your first date. You had your second best friend. You had your second first date. You spent hours on the telephone. You got kissed. You got to kiss back. You went to the prom. You didn't go to the prom. You went to the prom with the wrong person. You spent hours on the telephone. You fell in love. You fell in love. You fell in love. You lost your best friend. You lost your other best friend. You really fell in love. You became a steady girlfriend. You became a significant other. YOU BECAME SIGNIFICANT TO YOURSELF. Sooner or later, you start taking yourself seriously. You know when you need a break. You know when you need a rest. You know what to get worked up about and what to get rid of. And you know when it's time to take care of yourself, for yourself. To do something that makes you stronger, faster, more complete. Because you know it's never too late to have a life. And never too late to change one. JUST DO IT.

(features Mia Hamm - "22, Women's National Collegiate Soccer Player of the Year" ) When you were a child your mother thought, As mothers sometimes do, that you were strong enough and sure enough to someday be a dancer. But when you were five or was it six or was it nine You didn't want to dance, you couldn't bear to dance Unless you were dancing in the grass, and dancing in the mud as children often do as children often do. And then your father kicked to you a ball. And the ball was the shape of the whole wide world to you. And now if you see green you can only think of one thing to do. And the world slips away from your feet. And the sky slips down into your arms. And you are free you are free you are absolutely free to be who you want. To go where you can. To be wild to be loud to fly in the mud and run in the rain. Strong Enough. And Sure Enough. Like A Dancer. --July 1993 -

"Jack and Jill raced up a hill to see who was faster, Jack's feet were bare and Jill had NIKE Air, so Jack could never catch her." Jan. '96 -Contributed by Jen jen@bald.cs.dartmouth.edu
It was a bust-relief entitled "Nike Untying Her Sandal". - Feb 1996

A WOMAN IS OFTEN MEASURED by the things she cannot control. She is measured by the way her body curves or doesn't curve, by where she is flat or straight or round. She is measured by 36-24-26 and inches and ages and numbers, by all the outside things that don't ever add up to who she is on the inside. And so if a woman is to be measured, let her be measured by the things she can control, by who she is and who she is trying to become. Because every woman know, measurements are only statistics and STATISTICS LIE. 1994

no MEN is this world

Real MEN are a a rarity nowadays. i say MEN in the context of what MEN ought to be: honorable, responsible... human in the sense that they should at least reciprocate what women give, and are still willing to offer, them.

Here are the only people i considered MAN enough to deserve being called as such:

1. MY GRANDFATHER. He's the "wise man", the "man of honor" in our family... the epitome of all things honorable and manly. i used to look up to him because despite his frequent seriousness, wherein his eyebrows would just knot in concentration and silence, his few words brim with wisdom. before, i look up at him in awe since he's the presence that keeps our family together and sane.

2. MY LAWYER UNCLE. He is success personified. Although he just has a so-so kind of living when one looks at the financial aspect, he's got quite a sum that's better left unmentioned. Working as one of Cojuangco's corporate lawyers in Bacolod, he's more used to living simply amongst ordinary people. his house is open to sugarcane farmers who seek his legal--even financial-- help. With all the inteligence, money, and charity, he's so really "down the right path" (if you know what i mean).

3. MY FATHER. He's the somewhat modern version of my gramps. he's so humble with what he's got although his kindness and sincerity, his sense of responsibility and wisdom, just shows through. unlike my loud and materialistically inclined mother, my father is the silent, hardworking ant in the family. he won't complain with anything. he even inspired me to just persevere and ignore people who don't even know better than to hinder and discourage me in any way.

4. DALE. Since the first time i met him until i gradually got to know him better than most, i found out he's one of the rarest of species called men... REAL men. This is especially true today, after all that has happened to him. what he is now is the product of what he had been through; which isn't something to hope for one's self. It hasn't been easy. But hell, look at him now (literally and otherwise). He survived to blossom into a better person.

But then...

1. Around three years ago, our whole family has just found out that lolo has another kid with another woman. at that time, the 'kid' was 34-36 years old. after all those years... i felt betrayed. lola had been the best lola any lola could be. she was such a petite old lady who have done nothing wrong (at least, as far as she's aware) to deserve the deception,

2. More than a year ago, i found out that my tito has been sleeping with his wife's stepsister. arghh...!

3. Just around two weeks ago, i found the confirmation about this hanging issue: is my father keeping a mistress??? that issue emerged when i gradually picked up bits and pieces that led me to such a thought. first, he bagan being obviously wary of people browsing through his celphone. then , he hides it just so we wouldn't use it without asking for permission.then, he stopped showing his salary and bank account. he come's home from places and events that seemed like alibis.

...and i thought they were principled and all, as if they were kissed by God full on the lips.

Being myself, i rarely like men for being men. maybe i'd just like men for the abs, the biceps, the pysique... that's all.

now, there's only one man i consider man enough to be in my life and to spend my time and efforts with: number 4.

but whether he'd stay to be man enough for me remains subject to Time's test.