Once upon a time Niño dreamt of becoming a Biologist studying whales in the Pacific. He had this vision of becoming part of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as a researcher, being assigned in the Amazon jungle studying new plant and animal species and becoming world renowned as one of his country’s pride in terms of science and new life discovery. He had dreamt of traveling to dense forests and glaciers and oceans discovering new life forms and studying them. It was a life full of adventures and full of discoveries.And so in 2002 right after his high school graduation, he persuaded a degree in science. It took him three semesters to make him realize that his dream is far too expensive, too delusional, and too boring to be confined in the four corners of the university’s laboratory reading a two kilogram physics book.
In 2003 he was offered to act on a play by one of the junior art students in the university. At that moment, he saw the exciting new things these art students do in class. Then another dream came into his mind. A dream wherein he works in the field of media, an exciting life of a reporter, the taxing yet productive life inside a production, and the vast opportunity one can have on that course. And so he shifted to arts.
In arts, he saw wonderful new things one cannot find by reading a physics book or inside the four corners of the laboratory. He has learned the alcohol volume of Emperador brandy, the meaning of a hangover, the fascinating substance they called nicotine, the affordable price of Colt 45, and the wonderful sex each night. He saw freedom. But with that freedom he gained, he eventually felt exhausted from all those desires. He craved a more substantial life.
And then he evolved from those things and delved deeper into society. He volunteered for UNICEF and learned that there are people deprived of those wonderful things he have. He immersed himself with the children in conflict with the law and saw the pitiful situations those children suffer inside the maximum security compound of the Bilibid. He helped out his sister in promoting a presidential act and attended the Palace for its ceremonial signing. He grieved and he cared. He cared so much and hoped so hard that he could change the world.
Unfortunately, fate—no—economy landed him on a call center job after college. There he stayed for almost two years earning lumps of money each month and polishing his tongue each night to have the most perfect twang. It is not regrettable that he had met new friends and learned new things on that career. It is just that during the two years of stay he was in the company, he began to forget—the one crime a person can have upon himself that would make him most regretful in his entire life. He forgot to dream, to be free, and to care. Slowly he deteriorates from all those dreams he had and became a robotic worker each night. Then one day, the three days of darkness came.
A friend approached him to help promote an indiefilm and Niño, getting bored in his sedentary lifestyle willfully obliged. At first it was a shock for him to deal with those people but upon realizing their intentions, he understands. Then he remembered. And so it was the start of another dreaming, another hope, and another adventure. One by one he met again new people he never thought he would know personally. He was reopened to different ideas, different perspectives, and philosophies. He saw the great cause these people are fighting for. On his small, novice way he helped them for he believe and trust in their ideologies. And so, on his call center job, after almost two years of being in the workforce, had resigned.
We see now Niño sitting on the floor of his cluttered room jobless, without any money left in his pocket, and with only 10 sticks of Marlborro Lights on his side. He warms up his fingers by writing this blog, and is now ready to subtitle Manuel Conde’s Genghis Khan.
Once upon a time, Niño dreamt of an adventure in the Amazons, of whales in the Pacific, of becoming world renowned, of being a reporter, a social worker, a catalyst of change. A man can only dream so much until he wakes up and realize that there are realities he has to face and that there are certain dreams only meant for sleep. For Niño, he just wanted to go back and study the glaciers, the forests, and the whales. And to end this fairytale, so to say, he dreams of the far away Pacific and of the singing whales happily ever after.
