A prologue that's supposed to be funny, enumerations of my extraterrestrial activities on Earth within the year, epilogues with charming if not annoying epiphanies... This was the format of my recent summations (not to mention the ones I did not post via Internet). All I can say to them: They are so 2008!! (2007, 2006, and so on...)

Each and everyday we learn a lot of stuff. We don't live just for the sake of breathing, we live for the sake of learning, and I'm not zeroing in on schooling. So this year, there are a lot of realizations that I don't need to create a summation with a number of epilogues (I still cherish my "The Crinkle Incident" epilogue though). So instead of telling you Earthlings about the things that happened to me this year (which I doubt that you care about unless you're a voyeur), allow me to deliver stuff that I learned in 2009:

1. Professors will always use your failing to graduate to make you do what they want from you. There was always that sense of running (Amazing Race style) around the campus for a mere sheet of attendance and those occasional "We're sorry we weren't prepared" which entails tasks which summons your inner super powers.

2. Attend your board review--especially if you belong to the same school as mine. There's something really great about spending your summer inside an air-conditioned room with the lullabies of your review masters. Chill. You'll pass the exam. All you have to do is get the reviewers and lie around the venue of the review.

3. Always remember: the best contraceptive of all is your best friend's advice. My friend may have ended up pregnant, but she had a hell of a time with her family and her conditions. The relief here is that she's now more than proud to have a very charming son. (There is even a temptation of us adopting it)

4. A relationship will never be complete without arguments. Yes, it happens--FACE IT. Even the smallest things (Like the front seat of a jeepney or a pack of Gummy Worms) are triggers of huge misunderstandings. Don't think you can't solve it anymore, space is the best solution when you can't untangle the crisis. After singing "All you need is love", you'll start belting out "All we need is space" in a a relationship.

5. Never spend your anniversary with your loved eating your favorite food as much as you can if you're house is not two feet away from the restaurant. This checked the box of GLUTTONY in our Accomplished Seven Deadly Sins list.

6. Never trust as easy as declaring someone as your friend. Sometimes, with even petty things, they will plot the most evil method against you or you and your partner. Trust is carefully earned. NEVER EVER TRUST easily even with your best friends.

7. Teaching is not a profession: It's a devotion. If you can't handle the tasks, quit. Signing a contract is not really as easy as putting ink on paper. But the hell one knows what he was in for? There's more than what you think you must do as a teacher. In the next millennium, I predict Octopuses become teachers so that they could handle everything at once. (The students are just the best part of it, they keep me going... The rest are bull.... Give me the memo).

8. Never trust your siblings when you have a fugitive at home, especially if you have a siblings who thinks he/she is so popular that he/she can say whatever he wants even if it really means life and death over someone very important to you.

If I were to tell you ALL of my realizations this year, I'd be having 364 bullets to fill in. Tonight, everyone will watch fireworks, burn their hands with fire crackers and turn up the volume as loud as their neighbor's. You say good bye to 2009... Look forward for a better next year coming. No, it does not become as how you look at it. You have to work it out. Start over if you think you've done things which are not righteous. The important thing you do today is you reminisce what YOU'VE LEARNED throughout the year. Or else, you need to go back where the chalk is dusty and the educators carry whips.