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The fastest way to get news these days is not through the newspaper, the radio, nor the TV, not even the internet but through hailing a cab and listening to some random driver talk about education, the government system and then some vitamin supplement.

This was what welcomed me as my plane touched down at the Mactan airport this morning. Under the heat of a typical April morning, I hailed a cab. I was trying to get my nerves all calmed down as I went down from a 16-seater jet stream ...

One of my fondest childhood recollections was that of spending summer afternoons at my grandfather's farm. At a young age, there I first learned to be a botanist. I learned to identify the time when a tree is about to give off its yield of fruits. The signs that flowers bloom in a tree meant time for me to look out in the succeeding days the fruits that would come out, much to my grandfather's chagrin because he always finds the fruits that he himself waited to sprout already gone. (I think I could ...

I had the chance to dine at a bayside bistro last night, overlooking the sea before me. While waiting for our orders to be cooked, an assortment of barbecued chicken feet they fondly called "Adidas," chicken liver and chorizo, I had a chance to look at the sky before me that is filled with stars. I have come to wonder how the stars seem to be just within my reach, when back in Cebu, the stars seem unreachable. Then it hit me that it was the first time I actually saw the sky clear that ...

"I don't need to get high grades. I only need to pass in order to go to the next level," so says one student whom I asked about his performance in school. This got me thinking. Gone were the days when our teachers and even our parents would tell us, "If you won't study hard, you'll end up a janitor." Well, I have nothing against janitors and maintenance personnel. I consider their jobs noble. It just so happened that our parents often dissuaded us into doing things that led to ...

It was supposed to be just a 3-hour drive from Nasipit, a town near Butuan, yet it took those 13 people loaded inside a Starex van more than 3 hours to reach their respective destinations.

To the two of us who were not familiar with the place, the trip brought us mixed emotions. I guess it is expected for those who had just been in a new place. We were both excited and anxious. Excited because the trip seemed like forever and we're taking in every sight we see, engulfing them like ...

Kung Fu Panda's Master Oogway once said, "Yesterday is history and tomorrow's a mystery; but today is a gift. That is why it is called as the "present."

Many of us live in a fast-paced world, trying to work, shed sweat, tears and probably blood for what we think is for our future. The fable on the ant and the grasshopper always reminds us to always save for the rainy day.

It used to be that I believed in tomorrow. It appears to me as some sort of mirage ...

I had always wanted to have a hamster for a pet. My friend said they make real messy poops and their urines smell so bad. So I scrapped them off my list. Like a dog, my sense of smell is my most pungent sense. Then, I met a younger friend who talked me into taking care of a guinea pig. Before I got one, I had to research everything I need to know to become a responsible pet owner. I later found out that I need to feed it many times over within the day so that it wouldn't die. But I couldn't. No ...