I, your humble blog-writer Prince Cliff Vincent Gitgano was born on the 10th of November 1999 in Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center at Cebu City and was raised in the humble city of Carcar. It is the heritage city of the Lechon Capital of our country and the hometown of my father's relatives.
Years later. my parents went to Manila with me to look for job opportunities. We lived at Santa Mesa, a district surrounded by the Pasig river. My mother was once a saleslady from a well-known shopping mall and my father used to be an employee in Magnolia back then. We stayed there for some years until a fire incident broke out. We transferred to Marikina and found ourselves a new place to stay.
Initially, I studied at Ma. Succor Nursery Learning Center. I was a very timid kid, almost not uttering a single word. I remember myself having stamped by numerous purple smiling suns with wide eyes and long eyelashes. I immediately went to an elementary school at the age 6. I was a consistent honor student, not ranking below third for six consecutive years. In my sixth grade, opportunities queued itself in front of me like hungry students waiting for their turn at the cafeteria. I used ti study at Ateneo De Manila as part of the Tulong Dunong Program of the said university. I personally believe that that program greatly helped enhancing my skills, solidifying everything that I've learned for the past years. I took several entrance exams and fortunately, I passed in each of them. The decision was hard because I wanted to study with my previous classmates, however, I chose to study at a private school as a scholar. Having a passing mark was really not a big challenge, but the important thing is to learn and give the best that I can. I had been welcomed by a group of professional and accommodating individuals who helped me at times of trouble. We were so close and attached to each other to the point that I hated every obstacle that happened in my life because I had to leave them to study here, at my current hometown, Lasam.
Staying here in Lasam was very different. There are no shopping malls, Mcdo where I can eat with my friends at 12 midnight, 7-11 where I can hang out and drink their famous, delicious and mind-freezing Slurpee, Starbucks wherein they serve overpriced coffee that almost tasted like instant coffee, Puregold where I can buy almost everything at a very fair and cheap price -- the list goes on. All I saw (and see) were greens, trees of different kinds, varieties, plants, and leaves. The schools were not even as large as the smallest government schools in Marikina, and the roads, instead of cars are filled with motorcycles. I do not even think that most people here in Lasam understand why pedestrian lanes exists, because they just cross everywhere, while motorists seldom slow down while pedestrians are crossing. The internet speed is very slow and unstable unlike in NCR where I can download large files in just a couple of tick tocks. I never was excited studying here until, ironically, I finally did. There are lots of kind people, and I can argue that Lasamenos are comparably a lot more honest than Manilenos. You can leave a twenty peso bill on the table without losing it unlike there where you can experience being robbed at without even noticing.
I thought that staying here in this 3rd class municipality would be a nightmare but fortunately, it turned out a lot better than I expected. I am glad that I got the chance to be with the people I am with and I want to be with them, helping each other until we meet our other halves.
