upon awareness and the power of contemplation
rather than upon mere survival."
-Aristotle
It was my first attendance to the IBT class in my campus, where I was the only law student in the class, separated from my other law friends who take the class in different days, thanks to the campus network problem.
As a typical English-test-exercise class, each of us had to sit before a computer and put a headset and listen to voices of people talking in English. It was all OK. The exercise on "listening" part was fine for me, it even reminded me of my younger years' EF courses.
After doing exercises on listening, the professor told us to work in pair; he wanted us to exercise on "conversation". So I approached this one girl who hasn't got a pair and asked her if she wanted to make a team with me, and she said "OK". Her name was Stella.
"OK, guys, start working on your speaking skill with your respective pair. See, in the PC screen there are simple 15 questions. Answer it in exatcly 45 seconds time, one of u shall speak and the other shall time. Do it in reverse and til you perfect it." the professor said, so I and Stella started to speak and time each other.
These questions were easy peasy, and also quite fun to answer, but we did allow some 2 or 3 minutes for each of us before the speaking so that we could make outlines and put the answers in a good way. The first 2 questions were something like:
1. If you could go on a holiday abroad, who will you bring along with you? Define this person and the reason for your answer.
2. What was your happiest childhood memory?
These were so simple that we didn't waste too much time on them. My answer to the 1st one would off course be "my bestgirlfriends who are superfun to go out with!" and the 2nd one would be "that big fam vacay in my hometown when we children jumped from ships and ate fresh-fished seafoods". After perfecting our timing to comply with the 45 seconds rule, we proceed to the 3rd question.
I read it in my PC screen, and for a moment I was stuck. It read:
3. "What are your favorite week-end activities?"
I faced Stella and said, "Can I have a moment? I had to think on the answers," and she said "sure."
I read it again. My favorite week-end activities? What's my fave week-end activities? The question was in a PRESENT TENSE, so it demanded a present tense answer.
Seriously, this question was no doubt one of the simplest questions in a whole world. People love week-ends, they do. That's why we have TGIF--Thanks God, It's Friday. People love to be freed from their daily routines and just do whatever they want to do on weekends. Week-end is so loved that answering what u love to do on it might take more and several minutes--you can come up with every ideas of things you enjoy to do.
But, what about me?
Well, don't get me wrong. I am a normal human being. I love it when Saturday comes and I don't have to wake up early to get to campus. But, lately, these past few months, due to some unlucky circumstances, I kinda hate weekends. Weekends mean "leisure time". Mom and Dad wouldn't be so demanding they won't tell me to do to many things, beside, off-course, the daily "feed the dog!", "wash your own dish!", and "this is Sunday, tidy up, we're going to the chuch." I mean, see, these things, they don't take much time to complete, and when it's all done, I just don't know what else to do. When I'm jobless, my mind wanders. And that, I hate so much. These past few months, I love working days more than week-ends. On working days, I have routines; classes, mootcourt mentoring, lunching with the bestfriends, piano exercise, doing campus assignment, team studying, fetching up my sist at her school, and several other things that happen occasionally between them. These activities absorb my energy and thinking and kept my mind of things I don't want to think about, that when I get home, I can just take a bath with warm water, curl myself in the bedroom with my fave books, read til tiredness come, turn off the lights, and go to sleep. And when the morning comes, I am ready to do them all over again. But week-ends? So many times are wasted just sitting and watching the TV. Sure, as a normal person, i do have friends who call me on weekends, asking me out to lunch, movie, karaoke, or to hit the club, and my family always have barbeque every weekend. These are fun, and sometimes, super fun, I admit.
But to be a favorite?
Well, a "favorite" has got to be more than just "fun" or "superfun", right? It's got to be the thing you love to do best. So then I asked myself, what do you love best on week-ends, Sunny?
The answer came instantly, a very honest answer from a voice inside, but I just REALLY hated to admit it, and I mean REALLY, I didn't even want to believe it. However, in the end, the answer prevailed.
I really wanted to say: "ask me this questions just a few months ago, and I'll come with my very honest answer."
The truth is, if I am to examine my PAST fave week-ends activities, they used to be going to this "specific place", and do the things I used to do with this "particular person"... way back in the past. That would include, me surfing through a great collection of comics--mostly boys comics (shinchan, one piece, etc), reading them in the owners couch, and us being together even tho not speaking, just spending times together. I read, and the other played football game on the laptop. Then, when we were hungry, we'd order McD. It's our very habitual eating style that anytime we order we didn't have to ask each other what he/she wanted to eat, it was always the same meals every time..
After lunch we would just sit in the TV room and changing channels, commenting everything and laughing on the funny comments we made. And when we got bored, we just laid back and talk about stuffs, and shared some jokes. I was always the one who laughed the most, my companion, in the other hand, could always come up with the most brilliant joke that could make me laugh to death.
Oftenly, we bought some DVDs and watched them together. I loved sad movies, my companion, in the other hand, would protest and said that I was such a mean girl to bring such sad movies to our week-end DVD ritual and also said that those movies had the ability to drown the souls of everyone who watched them. Yet, this person let me buy all the movies I wanted to watch and still agreed to accompany me to watch them, even tho he hated it. And I loved what he did. Sometimes I brought the sad movies to our DVD watching routines just so that I can tease him when he said "I hated this!" but kept on watching cuz he knew I hated to watch alone. (hehe)
Oh and when I was sleepy it would be alright cuz I would have myseld curled up in arms and my hair played with until I fell asleep. And when I was awake, it was finally time to go home, and I knew I had spent my weekend doing things I loved the best.
So, yea. Ask the question like, 5 or 6 months earlier, and this would be my very answer.
But the question in my PC screen demanded me to answer it in a present form. So I asked myself: is it still your fave weekend activities?"
and I might keep my dignity and said, "no, I have much better and more fun things to do."
or, I'll just go with pure honesty and said, "yes, it still is... but with several amandments to make."
These will still be my fave week-end activities. But a few amandments are in order. There is no name in it, just "me" and "my companion". So I'm not stuck to one particular companion. There is no specific place mentioned, so I can have the fun everywhere. Yes there was a name on it, and there was a place. It happened, it ended. And as much as I want to replay it, I don't want to be stuck on the ground. I might am not currently in the best shape to be doing this all over again. But later, in the future, I'll do it again. There will be a new place to go to and to do these things, and finally, most importantly, I will be able to add a new name in exchange of "my companion". And once again, I'll do the things I love to do best in week-ends--just with a brand new partner.
So, without notes and outlines, I faced Stella, told her to time me, and gave her my answer.
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