About The Blog

I have many nicknames. But it’s “Onyot” that survived the test of time. I don’t mind if you call me Onyot. I have become used to it anyway. In fact, now I like it when you call me Onyot. It’s as if you and I have known each other for so long a time.

So I’m Onyot, and ito ang trip ko.

Trip, in English, denotes a “voyage,” a “journey.” But from the dingy and squalid kanto and looban of Philippine slums to the posh and bongga subdivisions, the word “trip” takes on a different meaning.

It refers to the things you do to break your humdrum routine, to express your in-ordinariness in this ordinary world, to wean yourself from a stressful work, or to try things for the sake of trying them.

Someone’s trip might be food, manicure, or, uh, saving Mother Earth.

But sometimes if you do something as outrageous and bizarre as the acts of Jesse Caigoy,”Master of Pain,” something as outlandish as having a Winnie The Pooh tattoo on your back, something as banal as planking, people would ask you this standard question, “Anong trip mo?“

“Wala lang!,” or “Walang basagan ng trip!” is, of course, the standard retort.

When I started teaching, in 2010, I thought my teaching experience would be a fodder for my blog. I thought the bouts with students in particular and school life in general would be a well from which I can draw inspiration to blog. But no, I was caught in the thick of making lesson plans, preparing slide presentations for class, making test papers, checking test papers, recording and computing grades, reading essays, accompanying students to contests and conferences, meeting with parents, and complying with a host of other paper-works.

As a result, blogging became less frequent. Blog posts were sparse, mostly limited to announcements, slide shows for students to download, and a few lousy write-ups—lame attempts at reminding people who stumble upon this blog that its owner still exists. Soon, all I wanted was not to blog more often, but to have a goodnight’s sleep.

This has been exacerbated when I started studying law.

Still, I continue to write. Sometimes, if I have time I write about school life. I never write about sleeping. Most often I write about my activities in between—mga bagay na trip kong gawin.

That explains why I found the name of this blog—Onyot’s TRIP—most fitting because this blog has been, is, and will always be about my trip: trip as a journey and voyage, and trip as wala lang, I just feel like doing it.

So welcome to Onyot’s TRIP. And please walang basagan ng trip!