I’ll Fly Again

This is the full text of my Basic Speech Project No. 3 – Get to the point, delivered on May 19, 2016 at Club Filipino, Greenhills, San Juan

Spreading my wings again as I look up to the sky
I’m gonna fly again and I’m gonna fly so high
It’s been so long since I’ve been here on the ground
It’s been so long and now I’ve come around
I’ll fly again, feel the wind blow against my hair
I’ll fly again, I’ll take my chance and this time I’m gonna win

I wrote this song in 2008, a few months after my wife “went home.” When she left to prepare our place in heaven, I was so down, lonely, and I felt so alone. No, I did not sulk, locked myself in a room, nor isolated myself. I continued living. I needed to attend to my children.

But there was no drive in me. I was like a boat without a sail and I was just letting the ocean drift me away.

I was 40 years old, a professional and yet jobless. I was practically living on subsidies from my family and friends. You can just imagine how flat my ego must have been. My self-esteem was so low, but I did not even care.

What I was doing then was write… I was writing poems, songs and blog posts. One evening while I was playing with the guitar, the song just came out. Perhaps there was something within that wanted to tell me I needed to pick myself up, and this song was the wake up call for me.