Germination

It was in the fourth grade that I began receiving the type of instruction in formal education that made me really, really fond of writing, or so I recall. Our English teacher, Prof. D assigned us tons of activities involving writing and vocabulary. One of those activities was a daily presentation allotted for the first few minutes of class, wherein students randomly called shall present a new vocabulary word. Since the presenters were randomly assigned, everyone had to be ready, otherwise the student who didn’t do homework would receive a grade of zero. Prof. D was strict, and a bit scary, as I remember.

Book Tales

It was through my mother’s efforts that I came to love reading. I don’t remember but I’m pretty sure she taught me to read like Teodora Alonzo to Pepe. While cleaning stuff that haven’t been touched for decades, I found evidence: the letter S cut out from green art paper and pasted on cardboard (totally her style), along with the first books I probably owned as a child. I remember looking at the pictures of those books before learning to read. When we got a piano, I would open them on the piano, and then press piano keys, telling my little sister that that page was played as such.

My mother bought us books althroughout our childhood. There were storybooks of various sizes in either English or Filipino, mini illustrated dictionaries and encyclopedias and other illustrated educational materials. I think I read every book she bought, not once but multiple times.