a letter from my youth

amidst the monsters and dust bunnies that live underneath my bed, i found a folder that my mom had kept containing letters and cards my sister and i had sent her when we were kids. she was in qatar most of the time back then, so we kept in touch through voice tapes and letters written in stationeries such as this. it's from 1987!!!

i was amused to see that my english and spelling weren't that stellar at the time, but i enjoyed giving my mom updates on what we've been doing then. i've red-lined the atrocious grammar and spelling, but here's what my letter (typos and all!) said in case your eyes can't bear my juvenile penmanship:

dearest mommy,

how are you? for us, we're doing fine. we've recieved you're letter. thanks for the 10 pesos. we put it in our little banks. thank god, you liked our poem, i've made that very hard. last sunday, we've go to cubao we buy our books and go to shakey's. we orderd pizza and fried chicken or...oh, i don't know how to call that. then i and (my sister) got free balloons mine is yellow (my sister's) is red. (my sister) want my yellow ones and we've go to rustan's to buy grocery wares but then my balloon blewed up! i didn't felt it. oh, how i was sad. then we go home. do you like another poem? i'll make you, later. that's all, mom you do know we care for you. goodluck!

haha! as you can see, i was traumatized by my balloon loss! cubao was the ultimate (and only) mall destination during my childhood. nowadays, there's a mall everywhere you look in the philippines.

not to brag, but i joined spelling bees and declamation contests (and won!) as i grew older in elementary school, fyi. haha! and a charlie brown cartoon taught me this cardinal spelling rule: "I before E, except after C!"