I love retelling my experience in Grade Four, when the inevitable “passage of manhood” happened in school: A few classmates of mine started wearing long pants. Suddenly, they looked so mature, so grown up, so guwapo (handsome) – while all of us who wore the uniform khaki shorts were so totoy (childish). So I pressed Mom to buy me a pair, but she kept on saying, “Later, Bo.” The following year, I was in Grade Five, I was the only one wearing shorts. It was humiliating. In Grade Six, I was the only guy wearing a bikini. That’s what my classmates called my shorts as I had already outgrown them.
Believe me, I have never again been so sexy in my life.
Finally, on graduation day, I wept with pure joy when Mom gave me my very own pair of pants. Oh, I didn’t care if the fold at the bottom of each leg was 12 inches long, even reaching up to my knees. (“So that I can adjust them as you get taller,” my mother explained.) To me, they were the most beautiful pair of long pants in the world.
But ironically, after a while, the thrill faded away. Because I started wanting to wear jeans.
“Mom, everyone has at least one pair!” I pleaded.
When she bought me one after a few years of begging, I soared to cloud nine and romped off in them like a prince. I thought my happiness would never end, until my high school classmates told me that their jeans were Levi’s and mine were Ludy’s.
But to this day, wearing Ludy’s has been my happy lifestyle.
In fact, people ask me, “Why do you have so few desires in your life now?” The answer comes from my bikini experience: I’ve realized that all human desire never quits on you. We just keep on wanting more and more stuff. Nothing ever satisfies.
Never believe your desires when they say, “After this, I’ll be satisfied.”
Sanchez, Bo. SIMPLIFY and Live the Good Life. Shepherd’s Voice Publications, Inc.
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