hit the alarm clock

Going to speak at Jean's Rhetoric 1B class tomorrow morning. I figure if Jean can truck it from Santa Cruz, I can get there too. But I am decidedly not a morning person unless I want to be. So tomorrow, I will be a morning person. It's an 8am class and Jean is kind to have me at 8:45.

They've read the Pinoy Poetics' essays of myself, Oscar Peneranda, and Tony Robles and are blogging about their responses to the reading.

I wish there was a class like Jean's when I was in school. I took an Asian American lit writing class and they wanted me to tell them about Filipino authors. At the time I was 18, just out of high school and I looked at them like, "um, why don't you tell me?" At the time I had barely heard of NVM and Bulosan.

At the time I resented the fact that just because I was Filipino that I was supposed know everything there was to know about Filipino lit. I'm actually still kind of resentful. Because I think it's the presumptions by Filipinos and non-Filipinos to assume that all Filipinos know everything about being Filipino (the language, the food, the literature, the culture, the history), that hides that very same culture from us. I think Filipino culture is much more complex than that. And our presumptions close us off from really discovering more about ourselves.

Alot has changed and not enough has changed since then.

I rarely interact with students though I'm on campus all the time. I only step in now and then and for the most part let them manage their own lives. I've spoken to quite a few classes over the years: stunt work for a drama class, kali to a history class, but I think this is the first time I'll be speaking about my writing. This is going to be fun!