Quest for the True North

So I shall blog.

Filed under blogging

It seems that everyone is still talking about the iBlog4 Summit. I was there, actually, although it was like I wasn’t.

I skipped the morning session and dozed through most portions of the afternoon session. I was late, I left early, and I kept going out in between talks, thanks to my friends who were outside and texting me every now and then so we could eat, stroll or just hang out in the Sunken Garden. (I hope none of the organizers ever read this).

I’m the kind of person who can skip anything except a good night’s sleep. I had worked until the wee hours that morning, and only had time to go home and pack my clothes before I left for the airport at 3:00 a.m. Yep, I had to fly in from Cebu.

I got in on the first flight, so I thought I could go to the summit early. But as soon as my head touched the pillow for a quick shut-eye, I lost my resolve to go and forgot about the summit.

It it weren’t for the beep of an sms I received at around noon, I wouldn’t have woken up. I dashed to the venue to find out that they were having lunch already. I didn’t have the guts to show up and claim my free lunch, so I stayed in the Sunken Garden and watched the Team Sunburn Garden play football.

I was finally able to give Frank, who had been asking about it for years, his cherished Malapascua sand. It was the first pasalubong he wanted from me when I relocated to Cebu in 2006. Malapascua island is on the northern tip of Cebu, which is far from where I live. I didn’t have the chance to go there until last month. (The trip was over six hours away on a speeding motorcycle. I burned badly on that trip.)

The afternoon session was just starting when I went into the summit hall. Because I was fashionably late, they ran out of kits for me, and I didn’t have the stub that they used for the raffle draws at the end of the summit. There was no hope for me to get any of the prizes that the sponsors were giving away so I left early (I learned later that they had pictures taken) and hang out with my blockmates.

I didn’t meet anyone new at the summit, I didn’t get to meet any of my blogmates in person, and I didn’t expand my network whatsoever. Boo.

I also missed the blogger’s party that night at Katips, because, well, I slept again (you must know by now how important sleeping is to me). I got up around midnight, and when I got to the party, the program was long over, the band had stopped playing music, there was no more food, and only a handful of bloggers were left.

This only shows how committed I am as a blogger, huh?

That last effort wasn’t a waste, though, because I met two bloggers at the party: the Jester, my friend Maya’s classmate, and OneTamad, her officemate. I finally met the Jester, who told me he missed my blog. I used to be a prolific blogger, and used to be active in the political blogosphere two, three years ago. I didn’t know anybody cared to read my opinions in the intarwebs, much less know who I was. I was just a kid, and probably didn’t know what I was saying then.

But they convinced me to blog again, or at least… try. I know my blogs are accumulating cobwebs, and this new one is starting to go with that trend. I had been crawling with projects at work. And after two years of writing nothing else but “Click OK” “Press Scan,” “Insert the adapter” I think I lost my flair in writing. I can still string sentences together, but it wasn’t like before. I don’t know how to write anymore, much less blog. I am not familiar with the latest issues, much less make intelligent opinions.

My life now is all about food trips, road trips, beaches, gadgets, shopping–shallow topics, as they say. It’s embarrassing that I turned out this way. I imagine my journalism professors shaking their heads.

I miss having opinions, though. I miss saying what’s on my mind. I miss thinking and analyzing. I miss caring about other people. I miss fighting for something.

And I miss writing. The last one is the most sad because I used to say that I would be a writer for life, and now I don’t even know how to write.

I read somewhere that if you write everyday, you get better at writing everyday. Well, I am going to try.