I TURNED my laptop off. I was rubbing my forehead as I heaved a sigh. Another Zoom meeting would have made my knees buckle.
Suddenly, I heard a tapping on my window followed by a pitter-patter on the rooftop. Why was the sky the darkest it had been in years?
There was a time when the sky blushed in vibrant gold as I joined the Welcome Walk during my freshman year. As deafening cheers filled the air, I could not stay still when I entered the Arch of the Centuries. I chuckled when my blockmates whispered about how we should never pass out of the Arch or else we would not be able to graduate.
I thought of an afternoon in Dapitan, craving the taste of Mang Tootz’s turon and Angkong’s siomai that kept me going whenever I ran out of fuel. I thought of a breezy day in Lover’s Lane, and how hands could freely clasp while being surrounded by paved walkways, swaying trees, and stone seats. I thought of late-night travels from España to my home. The lights gleaming from the Main Building used to illuminate the streets I walked on.
When I opened my window, I smelled the petrichor in the air. I long for the day when gray clouds would finally pass and the sun would settle. When I thought of UST, I longed for the afterglow. F
Puwede po ba itong sulat na ito ay magawan ng illustration? Balak po kasi namin gawan bilang requirement sa isang subject. Sana po mapansin. Salamat po!
[…] “Afterglow,” a literary piece by Ghemarie Labsan, and “Thomasians reminisce, move forward during return of onsite Paskuhan,” an article by Aubrey Shane Lim, former The Flame editor-in-chief Dawn Danielle Solano, associate editor Prince Ernest Eugene Ronson Sabado, news editor Zoe Airabelle Aguinaldo, Shayne Lee Andreas Macaraeg, Katherine Chan and former managing editor Matthew Dave Jucom won in the writing category. […]