MMK in the Making

Having been jobless for months now, I spend a lot of time watching my favorite Kapamilya shows day in and day out on TFC. Two weeks ago, I was able to watch an episode of Maalaala Mo Kaya (MMK) with Angel Locsin potraying the role of a intelligent woman who has turned into a club dancer then to a vagrant and eventually into a mentally impaired. It was one episode that I really waited to see the moment I saw its plug. I really like Angel Locsin eversince she became a Kapamilya. But more than that, I was fascinated by her character's story that I felt I owe it to myself to watch it because it could very well inspired mine.

Hope. Desperation. Indignation. Insanity

It was shown here in Dubai past midnight, though we knew it would take a toll on our schedule the next morning, it didn't matter at all. All my housemates were glued to the screen because we didn't want to miss a single scene. We wanted to know how someone so intelligent like Angel's character couldn't afford her a job that she had to work as club dancer and eventually and sadly she had to lose her family and sanity. Honestly, it's not just about her that we really wanted to see. The story was kinda reminiscent of the life that I have lived and the journey that I could be heading for in the coming days. In between gaps, I just couldn't help but got embarrassed everytime they would relate the scenes to me. It was funny as it is real though at the same time, I was worried and hurt.

In that episode, Nemie's (Angel's character) parents persevered to send her to school despite their financial difficulty. They thought that with her intelligence it would soon be worth all their hardworkd and sacrifices. When she graduated from college she immediately went to Manila to find a job. As a UP summa cum laude graduate in agriculture, the heroine could have applied for a job right there in her school. But no, she had ambition, she had hubris, and thus she aspired to find work in Manila, believing that the Big City alone held the key to solving their family’s poverty. Unfortunately the concrete jungle of so called opportunities reserved no place even for someone as brilliant as her. Her degree didn't seem to find its way to the corporate world. As her depression and desperation grew stronger as her resources run out, she soon found herself bare onstage the red light district dancing the pole. After a few months, she went back home only to find out that her father was ill. She was forced to go back to Manila again to save for his treatment. Sadly, when she got back, it was all too late. Her father has died and her mother disowned her. That how she started to blame herself and thus begun her tragedy. A story of big dreams that have never taken off.

Nemie's story maybe a little too dramatic to believe, especially the part that she couldnt' find a work considering that she's a summa cum laude graduate, whether it's because the writer has opted to make it more cinematic or the show has failed to verify the representations of the letter sender, nonetheless, the story itself is moving and gave a lot of lessons to be learned.

NOW SHOWING

Honestly, there were parts of the film that I could totally relate to. I am also a farmer's son and I know exactly how it feels when your entire family counts you to give them a better chance of living. The pressure is bigger than having yourself submerged hundred feet below the ocean. I had my big dreams too. Dreams that I have made even before I entered college. When I graduated from college ( with the highest honor too), I immediately went to Manila to find a job. Fortunately, things turned out to be easy getting employed. I started realizing piece by piece the things that I have wanted for my loved ones. I have even set aside what my heart really wanted to do just to ba able to give them that they would need. To the point that I have decide to leave the country to work abroad so I could earn better and send more.

However, fate sometimes doesn't know how to play it fair. Just when I thought I'll be okay fulfilling my dreams for my family, suddenly I just found myself disrupted and desperately jobless. Now I couldn't find a job though I know that I am more than capable. I don't want to think that I am overqualified, that would just hurt me more than to blame the global financial crisis. Sometimes I walked the streets of Dubai with empty thoughts, hoping I could find something to give me some piece of mind.

NEXT ATTRACTION

In Nemie's story, her desperation has led her to the nightclubs and had her stripped her clothes and her dignity. She felt she nothing else to lose. If I am in Manila right now, I could probably be thinking of bravely doing the same thing as Nemie did, as an act of desperation and hoplessness. Me as a stripper o macho dancer? What do you think?

Am I better dressed or undressed?

Nemie eventually lost her sanity after her father died waiting fro her help while her mother threw her away. Sometimes, my housemates would tell me that I often talk to myself. I don't want to think that I am beginning to show the signs. It's just so early. But when the time comes that I have to, I just wish that you all watch my own MMK episode.

Cinematic effect. Taong grasa, pero saan ako kukuha ng grasa dito sa Dubai, puro alikabok lang dito?