BY JOJIE TIONGCO
BILBO Baggins once said in “The Lord of the Rings”, “Not all those who wander are lost.”
I quite agree with him. Because when I wandered away from writing, I wasn’t lost at all.
I was somewhere in Pier 2 in North Harbor where the shipping vessel, Princess of Negros, had just docked. I perfectly knew where I was. It was my luggage that was lost — along with everything I had packed for what was supposed to be a short trip to Manila.
The only thing that I had left with me after that were the clothes I had on, and the rattan bag on my back.
Here’s what happened: The assault on the senses of that part of Tondo had overwhelmed me to the point that, when I boarded a jeep to get to the nearby bus terminal, I had forgotten my luggage when I stepped down. Realizing my mistake, I waited for the same jeep to come back for another short trip to the terminal. But when I asked my driver if he had seen my luggage, he said no. He added, somebody must have taken it.
That was Tondo, Manila in the ‘90s for you.
Before this life-changing event, I was a local paper journalist in Iloilo City. But it has been so long ago that I forget which news outlet I last worked with. I do remember though that the first newspaper that hired me was Panay News. They made me a beat reporter and assigned me to the Provincial Capitol and City Hall. So in a way, coming back to write for Panay News is like a coming home of sorts.
I remember how passionately I’d bang away at the typewriter keys, rip out the bond paper from the platen every time I had to correct anything, and then reload to start anew. Before I could finish anything worth submitting, I would have already filled up the waste basket with crumpled pieces of paper — necessary sacrifices to the Gods of writing.
Fast forward again to Manila, desperate to not go back to Iloilo feeling like a dumb probinsiyana, I went on a job hunt the first Monday following my arrival. Got hired for a sales position on Tuesday. Then started work on Wednesday. Everything just happened so fast.
I would have wanted to continue writing, but life had other plans for me. Plans that involved putting food on the table, a roof over our heads, and sending my son to college. In the years that I’ve made Manila my home, I traded in my pen for a paycheck, my dreams for the practical requirements of day-to-day living.
Decades later, as my son embarked on his own journey as a lawyer, I found myself with a newfound freedom. A freedom to revisit the passion that once consumed me. A freedom to pick up the pieces of my unfinished story. So here I am.
It’s a daunting prospect. The world of writing has changed so much since I last dabbled in it. New technologies, new trends, new expectations. But I’m determined to give it another shot. To see if the spark that once ignited my imagination still burns bright.
With all that being said, I would now like to say “Hello, again.”/PN
