It is easy to forget it is our first time living. The biggest illusion of life is time. It is unstable, unrelenting, and easily our most scarce commodity. It is easy to find yourself hidden behind the comfortable convenience of forgetting. At the same time, forgetting is the great double-edged sword that hits you with nostalgia at random.
Our childhood is the greatest source of nostalgia, for good or bad. A random memory from when you were five years old, running down the stairs to greet the old manong who sells taho for cheap, can hit you mid-day during class. The pang of nostalgia from passing the elementary school you grew up in sends a rush of memories flooding back after years of repressing it. A jolt runs down your spine when a door shuts a little too loudly, pulling up a vague dread from hearing so much of that growing up with your mom and dad.
Vignettes on the nuance of childhood, fervent and forgiving, depending on who experiences it. Truly, there is no way to universalize the feeling of childhood nostalgia, yet Dr. Micky Macorol attempts to capture a perspective that is both resonant and specific in Just Believe, weaving together the immigrant experience of being Filipino in Vietnam with the complexities of childhood.
It is an odd brand of nostalgia that holds everything together: the good, the bad, the worse, and the great. It walks through these areas with patience, clarity, and understanding for any type of reader. A child may read through this and find new emotions spoken through the declamations and poetry that drip in youthfulness. An adult, on the other hand, may read through with fondness and the hindsight that only time can give. Yes, some of these pieces are simple and straightforward, but in the tumult of adulthood, that simplicity is a respite from the complexities that come with it. The orations feel most compelling as a bridge between both of these readers, a place where they can meet and tell each other what they needed to hear most. Do not grow up too fast. It will pass soon. Courage is the key to life. Never forget where you come from.
No matter where you may grow up in this world, whether as an immigrant Filipino or born and raised in the Philippines, there is something in this book that can bring you home, with all its ups and downs, hills and valleys.
Just believe in nostalgia. It never hurts anyone.
Written by Eowyn Leila Punzalan