iamsuperbianca

tHe pAsSioN oF tHe cHriSt.

not for the faint-hearted.. and remember to bring tissue.

gRaDe sChOoL kiDs aRe tHe wOrSt..

grade school kids are the worst at hurling insults and discriminating other kids..

we were persuading gerald (the chubby 9-year old son of our maid slash our little brother na din) the other day to have his head shaved cause his hair is so long and hot and yucky na. he said he didn't want to make pakalbo. we asked why. he said, "inaasar nila ako eh, mukha daw akong keso de bola."

such a shame. this sad event made me recall the names i was called when i was in grade school.

i remember it clearly, i was in the fourth grade, and i was classmates with the pretty and popular girls of my batch. they were fond of calling me "negra", "negrita", and "baluga", due to my melanin-rich complexion. i recall feeling bad about it, even wanted to cry at times, but thanks to my friends and family, they kept me secure enough with my tunay-na-dalagang-pilipina-look.

it continued on til high school and kids got more mature, or so i believe, and nasty insults turned into carino-brutal comments by friends. i have a rather unique middle name, malasmas. there were lots of times classmates teased me about this, and then, being more mature than grade school, or so i believed, i took the teases less seriously and learned to laugh at myself. a common joke recurred every december. "o, bianca malasmas, let's go to the christmas-mass!"

erick vergara.

i had a classmate for five years back in zobel, and his name was erick vergara. he is one of the nicest and most fascinating and fascinated people i've ever met and to this day, i loathe every person who has discriminated him. he was your typical "nerd". he brought a briefcase and coleman everywhere he went, he lined up half an hour before the bell, he was always alone, he liked listening to classical music in christmas parties, he read and memorized every book on egypt, he often quoted lines from the movie "titanic", wore thick glasses, stood upright 24/7, never smiled, and so on.

but erick wasn't always a "loner". he was, as we remember from grade school, a jolly kid who played and studied like any other kid. it was in the fourth grade when the batch bullies ganged up on him til he couldn't take it no more, and this personality change happened. he was never the same.

we didn't go to the same college, and the last i saw of erick was high school graduation. though he doesn't know this, he was a big inspiration to me and my other classmates. i often wonder how he's doing now, and i've always felt bad that i never could do anything to help stop people ganging up on him. i've also always dreamed that he hit it big someway, somehow, some day, to prove to everyone what a great person he is.

what's your worst discrimination story?