Thank You God for Today!

I woke up early, with nothing in mind really.
Does life really begin at forty?
Well, that I want to see.

I shake and I roll, to keep the blood circulating through me.
It's rather early, and waking up this time is just not me.
There's that unusual excitement that I seem to be expecting.
But nothings is going to happen unless I make things happen.
This day is going to be up to me.

So off now I go.
To enjoy my day.
Thank God for the blessings.
I thank God for today.

An Affair to Remember: 100 Years of Mary Chiles College

Trying to remember how I ever got myself enrolled in Mary Chiles College brings back funny and warm memories of myself as a newbie in the Manila area and of my grandfather who chaperoned me as I took entrance tests in different colleges and universities in the U-belt area.  Walking back to where the Roxas-Gastambide jeeps would wait for their fares at the corner of Gastambide (now Dalupan) and Tortuosa Streets, Papa would spot Mary Chiles and quip that he hadn't realized that the hospital was still there. He remembers it as a pre-war hospital; and I would just go uh-huh and nod, because I took pre-war to simply mean really old.  He was even more surprised to discover that it ran a nursing school too. And that very same day, I took the entrance test, passed the test, and that was the beginning of a new life, a new school, and a second home.

My Journey on a Gurney

I tossed and turned that night. I found it difficult to find that comfortable spot in that hospital bed. At last, it finally came. But it was a dreamless but restless sleep. Though waking up early is a challenge for me, this day is different and something I've been dreading subconsciously. My pretty nurse came in to get me ready. I was about to take a ride.