Young Blood: Coterminous

By Jo M. Mendoza
Inquirer
Last updated 02:19am (Mla time) 07/24/2007
Every day, my mother and I take a cab on our way to work. I’ve probably met half of the population of taxi drivers in this country. Before I hail a cab, I pray that I will get a decent cabbie, and then switch on my X-ray vision when a taxi pulls up, trying to look into the driver’s soul before getting in.

I spend an hour every morning inside a taxi bound for Roxas Boulevard in Pasay from Quezon City. Each weekday morning I get into a cab, I make eye contact with the driver through the rearview mirror, give him the directions (to mom’s place first, then mine), settle down, pull out my makeup kit and make myself presentable. When mom gets off on Taft Avenue, I repeat the directions to my office, zone out, iPod in hand, take my wallet out when we pass the Cultural Center of the Philippines and pay the driver when we reach my destination. Every morning is a scripted affair, and I should have a mind to tape the instructions to be played in succeeding trips.

Inside my cubicle at the office, I can’t see how different sitting in my swivel chair from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. each working day is from riding a taxi along the same route for an hour every day. I am amazed at how I can bear being sedentary for so long. I have whiled my days away by being a robot. Inside a taxi, I am just a depressingly empty person going from one point to another. As part of a company that is in transition between two owners, I am a dispirited employee finishing task after task. My restless spirit is muffled, my passion diluted.

I can’t be like this forever. I have a type A personality, which makes me a go-getter, a competitive individual, one who never says die. Cab drivers only know me as someone who spews out a complete paragraph of directions and shuts her mouth during the rest of the trip, except if to correct wrong turns or protest reckless driving. My boss and my colleagues only know me as their younger sister, who nods understanding to commands and wants also to please both head and subordinate.

When I sit in the backseat of a taxi, mum and indifferent, I frustrate the driver’s effort to share his life with me, and give up a chance to learn something new as well as our opportunity to make a difference in the way we live our lives. When I get off in front of my office after failing to connect with the person, who brought me safely to the place where I make a living by routine, I fail to exist. In the few moments that we are with our families, our friends, our mentors, our neighbors and strangers, we do not live to pass each other by. Clichéd as it may sound, it is true that all things are coterminous. We should not live for the past but for today, and all things in our future will fall into place. We have to make the most out of now.

Every day the sun goes down on what you were able to accomplish. It also sets on what you failed to do. Then one day, the sun will set for good. When that day comes, will you be happy with what your life has become? Or will you beg to be turned into a phoenix, rising from the ashes?

As I settle in the backseat, I catch the eye of the cab driver in the mirror, and smile. "Manong, kamusta? Sinong ibinoto niyong nanalo?" [How are you, sir? Who among those you voted for won?"] The national elections are a popular topic of discussion and he launches a tirade about election fraud and corrupt officials. I take my headphones off and switch off my iPod. I take a deep breath. "Oo nga po, narinig ko din sa radyo kanina…" ["Oh yes! I also heard earlier on the radio that…"]

Jo M. Mendoza, 23, works with Mirant Philippines.