08.22.06

jeepney rides

Posted in Uncategorized at 4:59 am by cla-uplb

in my undergrad years, i used to walk, along with my sister, munching on chips and talking about mom and dad, our siblings, the construction of our house in the province, her med studies, my crush. but the honest-to-goodness truth is that, we walked because jeepney fare could already go a long way, given our very meager student allowance.

these days, i love jeepney rides in lb. and not because i can already afford the jeepney fare with my meager teacher’s salary, but because i love the sense of freedom these jeepney rides often lend to my work-muddled brain. i love taking  jeepney rides (even if a 30-minute walk to robinson’s can do my legs and figure a whole lot of good) and feeling the wind brush my face, my hair flying almost like in a dramatic, cliche MTV. i especially love hitching a jeepney ride on a weekend afternoon when there are very few students and i have the jeep all to myself. i love taking the long cut, from my place in raymundo, to the dorms, to the freedom park, to ANSCI, to engineering, to the Math building, and out the campus to Grove and Junction. i feel a certain kind of high over the fact that im letting someone else worry about my safety, worry about getting me to my destination, worry about my life, even for a few minutes. feeling the wind brush my hair and face provides me with a liberating, refreshing feeling. add to this the wonderful idea of just sitting back in that one corner of the jeep and enjoying the view while someone else worries about getting from destination One to destination Two. unknowingly, in that few minutes of jeepney ride, i have put my trust and my life in someone else’s hand.

and more than just the feeling of ‘liberation’, my jeepney rides are perfect moments for self-introspection — the articles im writing, the test papers i have to check, the lessons for next week, the attraction of a higher pay in the corporate world, the countries id like to visit, my sister’s med studies, stuff to buy for myself, my family, that nice, wonderful attraction to some obscure writer, the way he talks, he smiles, and so on and so on and so on. and well, before i get to the really juicy parts of my wanderings, the jeep has stopped in front of robinson’s and id have to leave that cozy corner of the jeepney and tackle the shopping carts now. come to think of it, you forget about the traffic, about the smell of the guy sitting beside you, of the old lady handing over her fare, of the child crying and blowing his nose, of the mother scolding her kid in her shrill, high voice.

there’s something about jeepney rides, and its more than just the loud stereo belching out a viva hot babe song and the smoke and the pollution…

…its trusting your life to someone else. its about surrender, about oblivion, about indulging in your private thoughts, about liberation, about the wind and the air and the hottie who suddenly sits beside you and says "Paabot naman po ng bayad." no, unfortunately, its not the writer… hehehe

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