ang kinalalabasan kapag pinagsama-sama ang thesis, drama, at alaala ng brokeback mountain - mag-translate ng axis!

(Break muna from thesis printing. Nasa page 6 pa lang naman e.)

I was with Steph and Erika one Friday morning talking about… well, depressing things. We were listening to mp3s stored in my phone. While listening to an acoustic rendition of Crowded House’s "Don’t dream It’s Over," (see my blog entry for lyrics) Steph remarked, jokingly: "Wala na! It’s over!" Erika, who admitted later on she knows only a single line from the song (the line from the chorus that says: "hey now, hey now, Don’t dream it’s over"), said in Filipino: "That’s exactly what the song says; Stop dreaming, it’s over!" I almost agreed with such an overly negative and even more depressing interpretation when i recalled the context of that line: "When the world comes in/ They come…to build a wall between us/ We know they won’t win."

It is only now that I realized how symbolic that situation can be. It reminded me how most events in life can mean two (or more) different things when perceived in different points of view. Erika’s interpretation of the line from the song is not at all wrong; in itself, that particular line can be interpreted negatively. What made me think otherwise is my prior knowledge of the other lyrics from the song.

The same is true for situations we face everyday. We may view things either positively or negatively depending on the data (data…yikee…halatang thesis mode!) at hand. Many things in life - actually, it may be safe to say that ALL things in life - are examples of the famous half-empty or half-full scenario. Many things that happen may be described by either the short but negative term "failure" or a longer yet more positive phrase "learning experience."

Moreover, the fact that we MAY have different impressions on things means that we CAN have different impressions on them. In other words, how we view situations in life can be made into a decision; in fact, in most cases, even while we don’t realize it, it IS a decision on our part. What we believe in is what we make ourselves believe in (labo…ah basta!). It can be funny when applied to physical situations: you’re fooling yourself trying to believe you’re not hurt when in fact you’re wounded and bruised. Well, it really looks foolish, but it works, sometimes; there have been studies on the aid of optimism to physical recovery, showing a little degree of correlation between the two.

On the other hand, it doesn’t look foolish when applied to emotional stuff, the so-called "matters of the heart." In fact, it even looks impressive when you have control of how you want to feel.


(Oops…printer problems. A jam. I’m on page 28 - halfway through my thesis.)

Well to end this mushy entry, I realized I should’ve realized these things on that very same day, when Steph was so depressed and I had nothing comforting to say. Have I thought of these things earlier I probably wouldn’t have told Steph about my own tragedies in (love)life. Oh well…

I’ll just hope Steph gets to read this.

Steph is a dear friend; I don’t mind telling her my secrets after all. Besides, telling my own story is like sharing the load I am carrying deep inside my heart. No regrets. I even have to thank her for listening (nagawa ko na ba? hehe..SALAMAT STEPH!!!)

(Last na talaga:) A physics major may easily understand my point if I use a very familiar analogy. Assume you have data points plotted along an arbitrary axis, say t. What if you have negative data points, the lowest of them having a value (-T), and you want all your data to be positive? Well, you can always translate your axis. Try plotting along (t+T). Or along (t+2T). Or (t+3T). Or…


(Print: From p 28 to p 53…)