Introducing – Frank A Hilario, “The Happy Blogger Who Talks Trass!”
September is my birth month; on the 17th, Friday, I will be 81 – and I must not forget to thank God! I have been asking Him to let me live up to 120 – at least 100!
The above image states the date (in 2018) and suggests “1940”
when I was born. I am beginning to celebrate with a new blog, where you are
reading this: Tradition, Science &
Sense (Trass), https://traditionsciencesense.blogspot.com.
This is the first essay of The Happy Blogger Who Talks Trass! (See outline of
face above?)
The Hilarios are Roman Catholics. As was required by the parish priest at that
time, the name of a newborn came from the Roman Catholic calendar, that of the
saint that birth day, and the 17th of September is the Feast of the Stigmata of St Francis. Localized,
the name “Francisco Hilario” was registered in the archives of the Roman
Catholic Church of my hometown Asingan in eastern Pangasinan.
“Francisco” did not last very long because in Elementary,
when I wrote my name “Francisco Hilario” on top of the Grade 1 paper, the designated
line-space was too short! Solution? My
father Lakay Disiong (Dionisio Hilario)
requested Mrs Bautista to change
my recorded name from “Francisco” (9 letters) to “Frank” (5 letters), and she
consented. Problem solved. “Frank” was the name of an American soldier who
became a family friend during World War 2.
2021. I have been writing essays more than half of my life. Based
on the “Multiple Intelligences” theory of Howard Gardner, I have Linguistic Intelligence, which I would
consider “idea smart” rather than “word smart” – an essay is not a list of
words as in a dictionary but a string of ideas expressed in one’s own manner or
style of language.
I will tell you now how I discovered my smart. I attended a
private high school, the HS Dept of the Rizal Junior College (RJC), located in
the town proper of our hometown. Asingan is mostly Ilocanos, migrants from the
Ilocos Region. Even before Grade 1, I had already found that I loved reading
the Ilocano monthly magazine Bannawag,
but it was in the RJC Library that I discovered I loved more the English language. The RJC had the whole downstairs
of a medium-sized house turned into a library, full of books and magazines,
British and American classics, and the American magazines I liked: LOOK, TIME, Newsweek, and the Reader's Digest. I particularly enjoyed reading
the classics and the Digest.
In 4th Year High, our Tagalog teacher Ms Constancia E Cruz gave a writing contest
to find out who should be the Tagalog Editor of the RJC Newsletter proposed, and I won – surprise! This Ilocano won
over the pure and lovers of Tagalog! When I found I had won, I said to myself,
more or less, this: “So this is where my talent lies. I will be the best writer
I can be!”
At
almost 81, after blogging at least 5 million words since 2005, I can tell you
that I fulfilled that self promise.@517
Congratulations brother.Praying that your wish will be granted.
ReplyDelete