Natsu Na Naman!

This entry is based on the spiel I wrote when I was forced to audition for a VJ hunt thingy. I R Ween.

Summer is just around the corner (probably just sitting around, smoking borolights yanno ahahaaherm wtf corny). I mean, how can you miss it when only after 5 minutes of coming out of the house, your collar is already wilted and your make-up has already melted like cheese?

Most people are probably gearing up to go to the beaches, bask under the sun in their skimpy bikinis and/or glorious bilbils and occasionally get wasted on the sand, complete with dried puke on their hair and a cartoon penis drawn on their cheek.

I mean, I’m fun and all and though I can only swim for 5 minutes max, I do enjoy hanging out in the beaches, ogling hot, half-naked guys, which seem to be as rare as kangaroos are in Alaska. But if you would ask me how I’d want to spend my summer, I’d want to go back to my childhood where summer is waking up every single day with a smile on my face, knowing that I didn’t have to go to school or work.

Summer is playing patintero, piko and bahay kubo with my friends for hours on end. I remember my childhood barkada desperately trying to construct a tiny, decapitated house on a manga tree and failing miserably. But it didn’t matter. As long as we had enough texts (the kind that had those Rudy Fernandez movie scenes printed on them) to collect, enough garter to jump on (FYI, I was part of the Ten-Twenty varsity team) and songs of pwnage from Ace of Base to dance to (“it’s a beautiful life uh-oh wohoh”), we were fine and contented.

Summer is flying kites in meadows aka the talahiban beside the village tennis court. It is eating watermelons while watching the tricycles pass by and watching the basketball league at night to cheer for the red team because my crush happened to be the point guard. For some weird reason, crickets sing better on summers and fireflies are more beautiful.

Summer is going to our relatives’ house in the province, climbing the duhat tree and not only getting chased by a walis tingting for it, but getting bitten by nasty antiks and random insects as well. Summer is watching Anna Luna and Cristy per Minute and Batang X and Dog of Landers because hell, there was no cable before. When the Miss Universe pageant was held here in ’94, I was inspired to become a beauty queen when I grow up but that dream vanished into thin air when I realized that there’s more to women than being pretty while parading in their swimsuits like meat in the market.

Summer is writing my first poem on the rooftop (titled “Bulaklak”), my first love letter to the boy next door and my first diary entry about how much I want to make a difference in the world and how difficult it is to find the effing Greatest Common Factor of numbers. It’s joining the Sta. Cruzan, participating in the parish catechism activities, getting infected with sore eyes and tasting grilled python for the first time in Cotabato.

Call me romantic, call me constipated, hey call me old-fashioned if you want but for me, summer is for children and everyone else who believes that there’s a child in each one of us.

How about you, what’s your awesome childhood summer memory?

Ps: Yes, I had a fantastic childhood and I lived it to the fullest. I honestly thank my parents for not forcing me to join any sports, workshops, summer classes or shit like that. My acting skills were honed through watching Eat Bulaga.

*Natsu means summer in Nihonggo. Don’t look at me funny, mmkay?

This, my friends, is Naotaro Moriyama singing Natsu no Owari or End of Summer. It’s the shit. Totez my fave Jap summer song. Be pwned.

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