Travel and Pain

These past few days I'm constantly going back and forth between Antipolo and Katipunan for my advanced accounting lessons. It is only this semestral break that I was able to commute again that far, since I am staying at a boarding house during school days.

Travelling can be very stressful, since there are many things that you need to keep in mind like constantly attending to your belongings, knowing where you are already during the course of the travel and even struggling to just have a ride during rush hours.

But there are other things that caused me more stress during travel. One of these is the seemingly unstoppable infestation of the smoke-belching vehicles on major roads. Being in an academic institution that is very concerned about the environment just made me more concerned and even paranoid to this situation. I wonder when will people start actually doing something about it and other things having similar effects to our environment. Truly, a lot of institutions are already doing something for these, but all their efforts are useless as the majority simply ignore these pleas.

But the pain is yet to be intensified as I finally arrive in Katipunan. Truly, this is one of the places in the country where some of the richest people reside, but this image is yet to be completed by the poor people walking along the streets, bringing along with them their small treasure of collected plastics and other recyclables to be sold at a small amount to nearby junk shops. There are also beggars who can be seen staying at the sidewalks, eating the food which they got from trash - their sumptuous meal for the whole day. Some do not even look that they have eaten for days. And there are these children constantly running after the commuters and other well-off people walking in the street asking for money, as if they are playing habul-habulan with them.

I guess our nation still needs to travel farther to overcome all these obstacles.

At the end of the day, I was able to do nothing, but go back to my little yet warm home, where my caring mother and kind sister wait. I looked fine upon arriving home, but the wounds I got from my journey are still stinging.


When will travelling be more enjoyable then?