no es jahr

"What do we leave behind when we cross a frontier? Each moment seems split in two. Melancholy for what is left and excitement for something new."

"Life is pain... You've got to fight for every breath and tell Death to go to hell."

-- Ernesto 'Che' Guevarra, The Motorcycle Diaries

Wow, another year is over -- and I haven't even blinked. And while everybody is busy completing their resolutions without even having the slightest idea of how to accomplish the list, planning how to get rid of gained weight after overeating in back-to-back feasts, throwing out old things and organizing the new ones courtesy of exchange gifts over Christmas parties, etc., I busied myself on some leftover documentation, organizing a class get-together -- and my favorite part -- scouring the hidden pirated-DVD labyrinths of the city. Over the past 3 weeks, I already amassed over 15 copies of pirated DVDs.

I found The Motorcycle Diaries the other week. I had downloaded it from Limewire way back, but alas, there was no English subtitle so even though I love listening to people speak Spanish, the downloaded copy wasn’t of any use. The film is based on the memoirs of the revolutionary leader Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevarra while he was traveling the South American continent along with his cousin-buddy Alberto Granado. It was this phase of his life that was pivotal in his radical transformation. (I’m beginning to wonder why almost every critically acclaimed movie made by a Spanish-speaking director stars Gael Garcia Bernal.) I saw the DVD on the very corner of a shelf, almost hidden by an adjacent shelf. I immediately grabbed it and finished the whole movie only after 12 midnight last night. It was January 1, 2007.

Finding Diaries was by any indication indeed prophetic. I happen to catch two lines in the film that captured more than anything else the year that was– lessons, realization, or whatever you call it – personal motto perhaps?. It’s those two above.

The year was terrible – politics, calamities, death, but there were also shades of victory – sports and yeah sports. If the sense of unity of this country is going to be redeemed by back-to-back victories in boxing and billiards, and more missions to Mt. Everest, so be it. Then we need more Pacquiaos and Alcanos to uplift this nation, not another crop of senseless artista-wannabes who cannot even construct a sentence.

It could have been bad if I would like to think of it that way, but there’s always the other side. You know that side, where they say you can still look at the brighter things. It could have been bad if I did let the realities that confronted me this year sink in. I seem to be learning a lot faster every year. It’s a sense of learning about life and understanding its shitty-ness that helps you get through another year of shitty situations and the bunch of assholes standing along the way ready to ruin your day.

Yes, I will continue to make the most out of it.