Publisher's Note

Publisher’s Note
HAPPY NEW YEAR! HAPPY THREE KINGS! As we are now in 2019, new year, new beginnings, new challenges and new opportunities. Everyone is entitled to make their new year’s resolution for as long as they keep it in mind and make sure that they do it to the best of their ability. When I was young [...]
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AN OPEN LETTER TO A YOUNG DAUGHTER

L. Encarnacion

Perhaps you will be surprised to know that this letter came from me, your Mom. The surprise, I believe, is not so much as to where this letter came from as to why I wrote you this letter. Try imagining your Dad sending me a letter without any significant event to relate it with and you will see the picture, though it could be said that I would be exhilarated to read again your Dad’s old-fashioned love letters just like in the old days.

The question now is why would someone write a letter to somebody if face to face communication seems not at all a problem. I guess it is because that it’s kind of ackward cornering somebody in one’s room and telling her without sounding artificial that she is appreciated and cared for. Mood and timeliness of such a setting is very important especially so when delicate, tender loving words are to be spoken.

During your retreat, you will be away from us for a day – perhaps not a big deal to you, but it is to us. I know you will be having a great time with the people whom you are comfortable being with. Again, like many other times, you will be enjoying the freedom – that very precious freedom – of temporarily cutting your link from us and be the total boss of yourself. I love to think that you are a responsible person now who is starting to orient yourself with the world that is yours to command, unbound by our protective rules of do’s and don’t’s and free from the seemingly overburdening pressure of our constant vigilance. However, when all the laughter and excitement die down, you will find it easier to embrace the truth that home is where your heart is, for our friendship and your sister’s and little brother’s friendship is the greatest friendship there is to find.

Ah, sweet words. I know you will be smiling. Isn’t it that you love to write and read beautiful phrases, wonderful figures of speech, and unforgettable words of wisdom? You have said many times before that you want to be a journalist. Just like your Dad when he was your age. He believes that the written words are the purest expression of the soul, the highest form of the arts. But his dreams were nipped in the bud by his parents who believed that writing does not feed an empty stomach, and that most writers almost always ended up being a wretched poor.

We want you to know that we are giving you the freedom to choose whatever career you wish to pursue. Your Dad’s parents might be right but a full stomach does not necessarily translate into a fulfilled human being. I know he would rather languish in poverty if it would mean he could express the very essence of life through the magic of the pen.

I know you have the ability and aptitude to be successful in any endeavor if you put your heart and mind to it. Realizing your dream, then, of expressing yourself as a career is not a difficult task.

AN OPEN LETTER TO A YOUNG DAUGHTER

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