Published in The Philippine Star

Learning Early by Phillip Kimpo at The Philippine Star

Just as I was looking for something to blog about this weekend…!

My piece, Learning Early, won this week’s If My Life Were a Book essay writing contest held by National Book Store, The Philippine Star, and Globe Telecom. You can read it at today’s Sunday Lifestyle section (1st of 6 sections, page 2).

It was a pleasant surprise, because I just submitted then forgot about it (as I’ve been engrossed in balancing my time between work and Tagalog poetry, which I’m beefing up for several upcoming contests).

However, I have some nits that need to be picked. Not to insult the intelligence of the essay’s editors in any manner, but I must disagree with some of the minor revisions they did. First case in point:

I believe that should’ve been “Like any respectable 10-year old capitalist”, singular instead of plural. (Update 03/13/07: Come to think of it, singular would also be wrong! See comments below. Hehe!) Also:

Armies, yes, FOR which we made alliances and fought wars, invaded other nations and created vast empires.

My original line was “Armies, yes, WITH which we made alliances and fought wars”. Hehe. Still, my deep gratitude goes to the editor/s for choosing my essay for this week’s contest.

Just to share, I toned down the original Learning Early before submitting it. For example, one passage reads:

There were the sickening snickering and salacious gossiping that went unabated for days when two boys supposedly assaulted and molested their classmate in the restroom.

If you’ve been around this blog for some time now, you’d know how ‘offensive’ my words can be. I changed “assaulted and molested” into “harassed” in the published essay.

As a weekly winner, I’m also eligible for the grand prizes to be announced at the end of the year. To win one would be great, but I’m already happy with this one. On to other contests! (Four deadlines in the next month or so.) As my graphic storyteller friend Garro told me over YM, “into hyperspeed na ‘to”!

UPDATE (03/12/07): At Ia’s behest, I looked for an online version of the published essay, and here it is — straight from PhilStar.com. Should’ve done that sooner!

The essay is also the second piece I produced with my moleskine notebook. Mwah to my mol-eh-skin-ah!

44 comments so far. Subscribe to comments feed.

Congrats! (I’ve been saying that way too often to you lately.) ^____^ Do post the essay (or at least link to it when it’s up at the PhilStar site) soon.

Thanks! I won’t get tired of hearing that, for sure. Hehe.

And…link to the PhilStar online version added! ;)

[...] More info and pics can be found at Slip of the Pen. [...]

congrats, philip! very well deserved. and i must say too that i agree with the nits you picked. I’D handle your piece better. but ssssh, am with the other paper. :)

Funny, I read through the paper yesterday and didn’t notice your picture. :p

Funny too, I caught wind of your article/essay/publicity (hehe) through Ia’s Flickr.

I find the grammatical error funny. They’re editors, they should be masters of the word.

Congrats! Wala bang libre diyan? ^.^

congrats congrats. :D good thing you posted exactly where it is in the paper. tamad ako maghanap eh. hahaha.

post mo rin yung sa Siluet! :D

gibbs, thank you very much ;) inform me when your paper’s having a contest, too, hehe! btw, it’s great to see you’re already using your own domain!

thanks, tweety! the prize money’s just small, unfortunately…di pa nga pala money. gift certificate, hehe. :P

garro, thanks man. the siluet entry…maybe a little bit in the future. will wait until i’m ready to go full-blast with the plot/novel. btw, looking for a graphic novel idea? haha.

nice nice! congrats! :) (now i gotta get me one of them moleskine notebooks Ãœ)

gets ko na kung bakit “capitalists” ang nilagay nila at hindi “capitalist”. yung next sentence kasi e nagsimula sa “we”, impying plurality, thus the “s”. pero kung ginawa nilang “capitalists” yun dapat tinaggal nila yung “any”. (don’t mind me, i’m just green with envy :P)

sulat ka na kasi ng novel! hehe.

Regarding Olrayt’s comment… Still, the editor should have been in the proper mindset when he did the editing. :) Funny.

olrayt, you hit the jackpot! :P yeah, the problem’s with the “We” and “any”. which puts me also at fault, mwehehe. thanks for the heads-up. as they say, multiple minds are better than one.

nobela? hirap! may trabaho pa eh, tsk! ;)

still, your versions a lot better than theirs. :)

ano pala yung “other contests” na nabanggit mo? pasawsaw naman :D

Good for you Corsarius! Congratulations. It also means I must have good taste.

djb, thank you so much :)

olrayt. palanca is due april 30, and a Tagalog poetry contest held by the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino ends this friday (argh i still have to go to san miguel in manila to submit my entries!). the others are Tagalog poetry workshops (Rio Alma’s LIRA, for example), which i’m treating as contests, because entrance is based on the quality of works submitted ;) i’m a long shot in all of these, hehe…subok lang!

Hi! I am Felize Mendoza, a 2nd year student from Philippine Science High School. I just want to show you our project in Social Science (Pisay Meets World), We Hold the Future. It shows how students like us can make a difference.

Please click the link below (my teacher’s blog) and please also click the video frame which links to YouTube, please leave a comment there, you need an account to comment (in YouTube). We need comments.

The video will take only about 5-6 minutes of your time.

Would you mind putting our video on our site? It would be very much appreciated.

Thank you very much. Ãœ

http://sirmartin.wordpress.com/2007/03/12/pisay-meets-world-featured-project-5-we-hold-the-future/

Congrats Phillip! :)

I’m not surprised at all that you were chosen the winner. I have always admired your writings.

Good luck on the other contests!

Thanks for nominating my site, Corsarius. Not sure about my chances of winning, but if I did win the top prize, you and Ia will be having lunch with me at one of the Chinese restaurants in nearby Banawe. My treat. Promise!

felize, well-done video! you guys make me proud to be a pisay alumnus. kudos :D

michael of Basang Panaginip is here? thank you very much. and another thanks for the visit!

senor eric, thanks for the vote of confidence ;) don’t thank me for the nomination — if i hadn’t nominated you, i’m pretty sure someone else would have!

good luck with the blog awards. it looks like the judges are going to have a difficult time deciding — all talented photobloggers! :P

i’ll take you up on the treat, especially since banawe’s near our house (i live in cordillera street hehe). good luck again — i hope both you and ia will bring home the bacon!

Congratulations - what an achievement.

hi jay, thanks a lot!

Wow! Galing, congrats.

Link kita ha?

waw! congrats manong!! ^_^ GaLiNG tlga! suLat pa :)

[...] Don’t bother looking it up on medical books — it’s simple enough. My PAS is a period of depression — short and shallow if the achievement was small, long and deep if the achievement was great. Shortly after a personal achievement (such as getting published on the newspaper), I pat myself on the back and treat myself for the day. However, after a good night’s sleep, PAS swiftly kicks in. [...]

leah, thanks. sure, go ahead with the link! :D

jenjen, nadalaw ka! hehe. thanks a lot, cuz. ako, sulat pa; ikaw, aral pa, oki? :P

ang galing mo naman… kahangahanga. :-)

maraming salamat po, chen :) baka wala silang mapiling iba noon. (aysus, pa-humble pa.)

[...] I can understand not receiving payment for my written works from a distinguished publication. I’m even perfectly okay with it. The writer’s ‘payment’ comes in the form of honor, prestige, exposure, and writing credits. Being paid is better, but just getting my name into a well-read and respected publication (as in this case) is still great. [...]

[...] Both of us have a “you win, I also win” mentality, and I’m happy that her efforts with Stellify (which is less than seven months old) have already been recognized. This kind of nullifies my disappointment at not winning a recently-concluded prestigious Tagalog poetry contest (too bad I couldn’t follow up my being published on the newspaper — that would’ve been a great birthday treat this coming May!). [...]

[...] The first ‘activity’ of the week involved going to National Book Store’s headquarters at Mandaluyong to claim my prize for the If My Life Were a Book essay writing contest. [...]

[...] Now, I’m looking back at a year that produced my biggest volume of written works, refined my wordsmithing, and hammered out my perspective on what a Filipino writer should be (in a gist: go ahead, write fantasy, write flowery poetry, write fan fiction, but don’t forget to write Third World literature from time to time). It was my first year of taking lit submissions seriously, and I was rewarded with two print publications. [...]

great work phil! never thought this blog ever existed. i just chanced upon it on tito jones’ pc. i was just scanning his bookmark when i saw the link. i clicked on it as i was curious about the name (thinking it might be one of those you know what sites). while waiting ten years for the page to load, it just dawned on me that the site’s name is your pen name. i have not yet read the whole content of your blog but i intend to finish it. it may take a while but i’m sure its worth all the time in the world. i just didn’t imagine that you have this in you not that you don’t have talent but i just think of you as one of my little cousin who uses the internet for plain entertainment. continue your passion and you make us proud.

manong, thanks a lot! :) nagulat naman ako napadpad ka dito. you might not like my earliest blog posts, too childish and angsty hehe.

i still use the net for entertainment (wink wink), but i owe my writing’s improvement and my jobs (all net-based) to it.

thanks again, manong! all for kimpo pride :D

great essay, man!

(i like your style of writing very much…)

shame…your link to the essay’s online copy is inaccessible.

“the page cannot be found.”

radueriel, thank you very much. yeah, it’s unfortunate that PhilStar Online doesn’t keep deep archives. i’ll probably post the essay here early next year. by then, the grand prize round for the essay contest would’ve already ended. :)

hay i want to read your article but i forgot to buy philippine star yesterday and i can search the net so how can i read your article because it really sounds interesting.. thnx for answering my question. more power and keep on rockin!! god bless!!

aiya, thank you very much! unfortunately, the newspaper doesn’t keep its online archives for so long, and i can’t republish the essay here until the contest for the entire year is finished (or else i’ll get disqualified).

rest assured, though, i’ll reprint the essay here in january/february 2008. again, thanks a lot. God bless you, too! :)

[...] My early enthusiasm for cartography rubbed off on my grade school classmates; days after I petitioned them to create ‘nations’ to populate our ‘world’, they turned in colored maps that detailed their kingdoms/republics/empires’ boundaries, cities, and landmarks — complete with flags. (For the record, months later we were participating in a ‘World War’. As can be expected, the conflagration culminated in my side’s triumph and ‘annexation’ of the make-believe lands. The makings of megalomania? That is why I titled my Philippine Star essay, Learning Early.) [...]

i have a photocopy of that actually. i’ve been collecting good compositions from that section. yours was the first one. galing galing mo talaga. promise. i learned that u also make poems. wow! regards ako.

kristel, thanks for dropping by my blog! this is a very, very, very late reply to your comment, but as they say, one can’t be too late…especially when expressing gratitude. :) i’d just like to say thank you very much for your kind words. I won’t forget where they came from. pramis din, hehe.

ingat!

Hi! I’m a stranger who happens to fancy the Latin-infested sidebar with much verve. LOL. I was looking for essay contests ’round here but I fortunately stumbled upon this blog! First off, I must say congratulations for winning that contest! I wanted to join that but time didn’t give me the leeway! but i got to say that i have not read it - but would look forward into, judging from this Latin-invaded blog! I like latin although I know very little. btw, i hope to post the longest comment here. I’m already a fan!

Aspiring novelist,
Catherine.

hey catherine, thanks a lot! like you, i only know a sprinkling of Latin, but i’m looking forward to fully learn the language soon (as if i have the time).

i’m betting that Star and NBS will be tying up again next year for another contest, so you still have two months to be one of the early birds for that edition :P i wrote my essay a week or so before learning of the contest. i found the topic to be ‘compatible’ with the contest theme, and so i just inserted a line or two about books and bam! i submitted it, hehe. if you have some old essays, there’s no harm in going through over them and picking which fits the contest.

good luck with your writings and novels! please let me know once you release a book — just remember, it’s a case of when, and not if!

Congratulations!!! :) I used to blog with pansitan before, if you remember.

hey abster, thanks! long time no see ah. siempre i remember you :D

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