4. Power Dynamics: Then and Now?

For the rest of us, I wonder, how much has social status changed?

I just had a talk with an old friend yesterday, and we remembered, how difficult it was to survive in our secondary school, and how, ironically, it resembled the corporate world.

In business, especially in your typical office where subordinates and bosses rule and don’t rule, how different has it been compared to younger years? If you were fortunate or unfortunate enough to have been exposed to horrible power dynamics, how little and how much is the same?

You still got your ever-present ‘ocheseras’, the numero uno back-stabbers and fire-starters. And then you’ve got your best pal, or at least the person you think who’s got your back. If the relationship backfires, that’s even more disheartening. But in some cases, if not often, you still got your best bud supporting you, or cheering you on in OTs now, or science projects then.

You’ve got your bully, or bullies. (Sometimes the same jocks.) Boy, do they make a reincarnation or what. Worse yet if they’re the same set of people! (the latter idea was inspired by Hollywood, but let it be assured that the first is entirely based on reality, existing in different offices, as discussed and shared with my own friends.)

You have the hot, attractive female schoolmate, future tense, officemate, and the jocks, the bullies and the rest of the office population drools when she passes by. She could very well be the boss, perhaps the executive assistant of the boss, or one of the assistants. She could be anybody, yes; one thing in common though: boys want her, and girls envy her.

But isn’t it strange, how undesirable power dynamics could still exist in the realm of what ought to be the ‘adult’ world? What does it tell us?

Assumptions: that ‘adulthood’, once reached, cannot be equated to maturity.If you find yourself exposed in a scenario where your office feels like a blast from a horrid past, then something’s wrong with the group you’re working with. Or, you haven’t changed one bit.

Then again, is that a bad thing? What you were then, and what you are now? How far have you gone? Changed? Reached? Accomplished?

Are you less forgiving, or even more considerate? Your virtues, values and principles, have they added up, improved, changed? How?

Do you find yourself in a favourable position, where morality is at stake, how did you react before, and how do you react now?

The things is, as much as we want to redeem ourselves from a possible unfavourable past, or a pallid one, or improve further from a great one, we can’t control the growth and reaction of others, not as much as we can control ourselves.

The only sure control and improvement you can reign on is yourself.

So I ask myself sometimes, how was I then, and how am I now?

Quite surprisingly, from separate people, they tell me,

‘You haven’t changed.’

Post 3: Comparisons

I am in fact late with one entry.

As the title and premise of this blog, I'm supposed to post a short memory once a week; and last week, I forgot to. Yesterday, I compensated for that, although I must admit I wanted to keep a religious every-Saturday-short-blog-sharing kind of routine, I obviously ruined that chain now.

However, to keep up at least with the 4 times a month postage, I am on my third.

Post 3: Comparisons

When recalling the days of our teenhood, at least here in the Philippines, people often tell me that high school was their best years.

Personally, I beg to differ.

Childhood was a dream. It wasn't just a fantasy, because it really happened, and I was really happy. But after the primary years, elementary school was brutal. Compared to high school however, elementary felt like the Secret Garden.

High School on the other hand was roller coster. It wasn't just earth smacked right between heaven and hell, it was puberty, and it reigned in all of us supreme.

Primary years in the Philippines start around nursery until preparatory school. After that, we graduate towards grade school, and mind you, we're approximately 7 years old by 1st grade, and that even depends if you were accelerated. The trend before, and even until now, is to graduate as young as possible, and get into college before puberty runs dry. Some kids make it by 17, others by 16. I went to college at 17. Most from my school did.

College was your marriage to reality. For some of us, it was liberation. 'Freedom'. Although not long after you get settled in your first year, it wasn't as 'free' as we previously thought.

I loved/love going to college. Right now, in my last year as a full-time apprentice and taking my last class that only goes along with the practicum. Dating back from 1st year, I daresay, compared to high school, college felt like an overseas experience and you actually bring back what you learned.

Strictly speaking, this blog is for short narratives only. How I'd love to expound, but somehow, I'm finding a kind of pleasure in sharing gists of my past.

However short, gists.

Post 2: Late Nights. Typing Words. Just. Words.

How did I even start writing? I recall those long nights that began in late afternoons, when I'd just returned from school. I was in first year high and I was obsessed with a fanfiction I was making. One chapter led to another and sheer bliss exploded. That was the first time I posted a fictional story in the Internet. And people loved it. Not long after, my father reprimanded me from writing, primarily because I hardly studied at home. I resumed in senior year, where in between I in fact 'snuck' into writing, when the act as I remembered was good and legal.

Too much of anything too bad for ya?

Nah. The good stuff is bottomless. The real good stuff.

Post 1: 'Holy' Days

I don't want to forget; I miss those female bonded days back in Holy, through friggin thick or thin, the girls hung together like dolls in long-sleeved brown uniforms, whether warm or cool. Yeah sure we hated each other every now and then, competition was tight and tough, but we played it real. Sometimes. As expected. It was high school. So much more, never less.