HALLOWEEN 2005!

I LOVE THIS SCHOOL!

Yesterday was a special day for all of us who already made Maple School a second home. It was our traditional Halloween Party.

It was almost four years ago when Darla, my eldest child, entered that small room with cute little chairs beautifully arranged around a mattress where our kids would gather during story time. Darla then was so frightened that she would cling to me so firmly telling me not to let go.

But those moment were brief. I asked her a year after her first day in school to choose where she would rather pass her time, in school with her friends or in our house with his little brother. She chose to be at Maple with her friends and her Teacher Ivy.

Now, my little boy, Mak, shared the same outlook as her sisters. He would really be gloomy if you tell him that it is a Saturday and that he will have to wait for a day more till he gets back to Maple.

Yesterday, was an expression of my two children’s love for their school. You could never see so much passion and joy in any workplace I had ever been to that could ever come close to what I witnessed last night. I even texted a friend, while I was close to tears, that I feel an incomparable joy and fulfillment whenever I watch my kids so good and so happy at what they do.

It would be pessimistic yet real to say that when they go through life as they mature, this joy that they are feeling now would be swallowed by the world’s onerous madness.

Because our children love the life that they have at Maple, we parents, have the longing to share the world that they see. I think that all the parents present yesterday would agree with me in saying that however costly we have prepared for that Halloween Party, it is of no value at all, compared to the pride we felt as we watched them dance and sing. It is simply priceless.

I was also moved by the parents’ participation and show of camaraderie from the planning stage, to the preparation of booths and floats, to the presentation of the “painstakingly” conceptualized production number. That was really a moment for me. I am a very busy person and I know that a lot of parents are busier than I am in their professions. Thus, I know that a lot would agree with me that last night’s affair was a sweet vacation of what we’ve been used to be doing monotonously in our entire existence. We attached so many titles and labels in our sleeves because we spent so many years working for what we have become, but yesterday, everything just vanished. I am simply Cel, the mommy of Darla and Mak.

One thing that makes me so proud of this school is that there is really no need for us to impose or to show off our positions, our religious affinity, our political prejudices whenever we gather. We are all equal and on the same footing whenever we wrap the goodies, or crumple the old newspapers for it to replicate a stone or gather ferns and weeds from who knows where to come up with a creepy booth. Life seems so simple.

One would feel a tinge of disgrace if he or she could not let loose of the bondage they strongly submitted themselves into as a result of years of hollow and bleak existence just to have fun for our children’s sake.

I could go on and on feeling and writing in riddles just to be able to impart what I feel right now. But there is simply no words that could suffice. I am in awe, I am a proud mother, I am a big fan of this institution. . . that all I can say now to end this is. . . Thank you.

-cerella ( written: october 2004)