aysabaw.com

I usually get annoyed when keyboard warriors post ‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’ whenever the month approaches although, surprisingly, I didn’t see much this time. I’ve seen more memes of Jose Mari Chan than this. But annoyed as I was, I played Greenday’s September Anthem on the evening of the 31^st of August.

September is the start of autumn for places with four seasons while the end of summertime or monsoon for some tropical countries.  It’s like a transition month. A time for metamorphosis. A shift of colors from a bright summery mood to deeper, paler Earth tones.

It was this month fourteen years ago when I first left the country thinking I’d go back after the two-year contract ends. Until now, I’m out of the country.

It was also this month when Ondoy wrecked the country eleven years ago. I just came back from my three-year ordeal in Dubai.

‘That’s a grand welcome back party for you,’ my mom would always say whenever this topic comes up, a family joke that everyone would laugh about at the beginning until it becomes a case of harrowing memories of phone calls left unanswered due to weak signal, grey mornings and deep dark nights lit with cheap wax candles and kerosene lamps, a house filled with the moldy smell and knee-high mud which contained trash, missing pair of a stiletto, dead insects and rodents, old photos, collection of scented stationery from high school days, hand-made birthday card with pop-up banana, sweet dedications and wishes, and memories damaged by water and grime.

This September didn’t have anything much exciting instore for me except for additional tasks given that could either lead me into sinking further under the chair that I currently sit on now or take me somewhere better in the future, but that is something only time can tell.

I started the month singing the same old anthem and ended it obsessing with the music of Cigarettes After Sex.

Change is good albeit not easy.

* featured image not mine