Free Hug

The new cast: Nikka, Louie and Jamie

Around the same time last year, I was drinking in such warm and appreciative comments about my very first play which ROC (thank you ROC for allowing me, and my fellow students the opportunity) staged for their 13th playfest. It was one of the finest moments in my university life and up to this very day, I could still feel the anxiety one feels while watching the very first performance of a play I've written and had a pretty deep tattoo in my heart. People liked it cause it was, I don't know, probably simple...But the reason why it was so huge for me, even when I didn't win anything, was the mere fact that having to share a slice of who I am to people takes effort, courage and a lot of hard work, not for them to like it, but at least to present this side of me to people that they never---if not rarely, see. And the highest point I guess I've achieved (and had wanted to achieve) was to touch lives, at least for a good five minutes post-play. I mean, this is really the driving force I ground myself with whenever I write, to be able to strike a chord, leave an impression and hopefully be remembered for doing so.

For this year's playfest, they invited me to write one...I had one ready, but giving it to the upper heads of ROC felt like giving them half-baked pie. Plus the fact that this last stretch of college is starting to weigh on me like Atlas carrying the world, I told myself I have to face this head-on. And I also thought that occupying one slot for a number of writers again felt selfish. There are so many of us who want to tell stories, I've been granted one last year and it's time others told theirs. 

So, there...Even when other people, those who liked FREE HUG, would kind of sigh at my resignation this year---and I'm telling you, hearing or seeing people who feel a little bad that I'm not writing anymore feels ten times worse for me, I still felt that this isn't the year for me to go back and do a play. 

Then again, reading such a nice review (thank you Cindy) from a student I personally don't know, makes writing, in general, pleasurable. Don't you worry, I've been butchered a lot about my writing and I still credit it as helpful in a billion ways. After reading this, I felt good about myself and my work, but most of all felt relieved that people still do find inspiration in stories...For a minute, somewhere in my recent life, I thought people were slowly giving up on stories...Well, I was wrong.

"And if inspiration is what the play intended to stir, it reasonably achieves it by its bare, uncompromising demonstration of love for others" So she writes...This bit, I really loved. Thank you, again. Read more of the review here.

-Gerard