Symptoms of an Ex:

Congratulations! You are now officially an Ex! Expect these symptoms anytime soon:

1. Asking friends to search through their circle of friends and refer you to the single, "good" ones.
2. Regularly checking your ex's ym status, friendster shoutout, profile, etc. to see if there's something about you.
3. Getting urges to inform your Ex that you're sick hoping to draw out some sympathy/guilt/last traces of love from him/her.
4. Listening to sad mp3s.
5. Cleaning out. Putting away pictures and stuff your ex gave, deleting him/her from all address books you have… cellphone, e-mail, ym, friendster, etc.
6. Getting sudden attacks of crying.
7. Getting sudden attacks of catatonicness.
8. Mourning. Especially on weekend nights.
9. Waking up later than usual/Finding it hard to wake up early.
10. Slacking off/getting lazy to do simple things you had no trouble doing before.

Not fair

My gay Literature professor Ralph Galan once said that it is not fair to be a woman for we just get to choose our partners from the men who will choose us. Meanwhile, men can choose their partners from all the women in the world. Moving on from a break-up is similar. If you’re a guy and you can pick girls easily, then it will be just as easy to enter another relationship with a girl and move on with life, because for me –no matter how many people say that time is the greatest healer- Another Relationship is still the greatest healer. I know he will soon find his girl sooner than I find my boy. He might even get married earlier. I know this and I know… That being gurl sucks!

How can 1 year and 6 months not hurt?

As a child, whenever I scraped my knees, or everytime I have to take down yucky tasting cough syrup, or endure injections whenever sick, my parents would always egg me on and boost my faltering spirit by telling me “Tapang yan eh! Dali, mas matapang ka pa nga sa kuya mo eh! Antapang o! Pakita mo na na matapang ka!” Then glowing with pride for my supposed bravery and feeling that I have to live up to my image as their “braver child”, I would take deep breaths, hide any traces of fear I might still have from my parents, then take the damned medicine/endure the injection/swallow back tears that are about to come.
Now that I am all grown-up, I still try to put up my “braver child” façade. And because they’ve stopped telling me those encouraging words the time I stopped being “bulol”, this time I do the cheering for myself. Every time I am reminded of a happy memory of something that is no longer a part of me, and when moments come that I yearn for this old friend, I just stop to console myself and internally whisper “Sssshhh… Tama na. Tahan na. Tapang yan eh!”