I recently learned that my friends of more than two years are not really my friends. They told me themselves that they really don’t see me as a friend; that they can’t be friends with me and that they only go out with me because it’s always my treat.
I used to have a very big crush on a teacher during elementary—it bordered on an obsession. I sent him cards, letters, poems and copies of songs everyday! He politely responded by writing letters to me as well, and gave me a pen. He also treated me and my friends to lunch or snacks and kept me company during graduation and recognition day. I was 12 then, which resulted in gossip in school at the time.
I’ve been in love with a man from the time I met him when we were boarders in a house for two years. We became close friends, and I was the only one he invited to his wedding a few months after he left the boarding house.
Christmas is the time of the year when being alone gets magnified. I am separated and my only child is abroad. At my age, and by choice, I can count the number of friends I consider family in one hand. They have gone through fire like me.
I’ve known this man since I was 10 and he was 15. I am now 27. He’s my eldest brother’s best friend and classmate from elementary through college. He’d sleep over on weekends, and vacation with us here and abroad—that’s how close he is to our family. He has an older married sister he is not close to.
We are seven children in an upper middle-class family. We went to top universities despite my father’s death early on. Though I’ve had my share of well-to-do and educated girlfriends, I married a poor country woman who couldn’t go to college after her father died when she was a teen.
“You chose the wrong bitch!” These are words thrown from the corner of the ring opposite that of the Big C, words that resound with every intention to overcome, indeed, in this case, words reinforced with confidence and resolve: After I beat you, I’ll write my story of triumph.
My husband and I have been living separately for 18 years, since he left me and had another family, with two children. I did not file any legal separation or marriage annulment, as I knew this would affect my work in a school in our own barangay.
I married a wonderful man, and our relationship is envied by many. He is God-fearing, a good son and brother, great father, a good provider.
My boyfriend and I have been living together for six years. I am 36 and he is 37. We are business partners, manufacturing food products that are exported abroad. We both started it, but I have the majority stake while he is my industrial partner.
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