Close your Eyes and See (Revised Diagnostic Essay)

Close your Eyes and See (Revised Diagnostic Essay)

I can still remember the best vacation that I ever had. It was a trip to my mother’s original town in Visayas, which is in my country, Philippines. I was 15 when I, together with my mom and her sister, went to their town of Borongan. My mom’s visa immigration was approved so we had come to visit her family before she would fly over to America. That was also my first time to be there and meet my mom’s family.

When I was small, my mother used to tell me a lot of horror stories about their town. She told me those supernatural creatures that lived on their town. My mom told me that they are real especially the ‘manananggal,’ a creature, mostly woman, that is half body that flies with wings like those in bats.

It was a 24-hour travel. The road trip was fantastic. Although I had this motion sickness, I was surprised that I didn’t throw up during our road trip, I assume it was because there was no that much traffic on the road we were traveling with and the bus was travelling fast. We rode on a bus, since air transport was not that very well-known yet, very expensive and had a limited airport station. Philippines is an island and there are more small islands, Visayas is one of them. When we reached the boundary of land, we had to ride on a ferry boat, a small ship. The ship could fit 10 buses inside, which were on first floor and all the passengers were on second floor. When the boat was already in the middle of the sea, all that I could see was water and sky, while the breeze of mild wind is touching through my face. I enjoyed the view. After crossing the sea, we already stepped on Visayas region but it is still quite far from my grandparents’ place so we rode back to the bus. This time, the road that we are traveling is smooth and winding. All the views were hills and mountains. It seemed that we were traveling in the middle of a mountain that was broken apart. We arrived at noontime on my mom’s place, since we also left noontime the day before.

I was again surprised with the cleanliness of the town, which was a lot different on the city where we lived in the Philippines. I couldn’t imagine towns like that where some supernatural creatures lived, so I did not totally believe that such creatures still existed. From the main road, you could already see the beautiful view of the ocean which was just less than a mile away. We went straight on my grandparents’ house, a nipa hut, a house made from bamboo skin and roofs from tall grasses. Most houses were nipa hut on that town. There was no pollution so no doubt of breathing fresh air. The next day, I went to the ocean right away together with my cousins. We rode on a fishing boat we called ‘bangka’ and then we swam in the water. The second day, we had a family gathering on a resort called ‘liliputan’. The water in that sea was very clear like crystal that one could almost see anything that’s underneath it. My mom and I walked through the shore and picked up some shells. Then, we reached a cave and went inside. Inside the cave, I could hear my voice every time I spoke. I let my auntie took many pictures of me because I really enjoyed the place.

On the third day, we went back home. Unfortunately, my motion sickness attacked. However, I just ignored it and just reminisced all the happy moments that I experienced. I really had a great time on our stay. Moreover, I was also happy to meet my grandparents, aunties and cousins over there. I really love that place and I will visit again that place in future.

Imase source can be found here.