PasikBlogan Challenge #9: Taught by a Toddler
Blog about what you’ve learned from toddlers.

“Favorite”

It’s funny when I’m with my old friends. They exchange stories about their kids. In the meantime, I don’t have many stories about kids. I sometimes share about my pamangkins who, by this time, are already teens. I jokingly tell my friends: “habang kayo ay nagkukwento tungkol sa mga anak ninyo, mag-ku-kwento nalang ako tungkol sa mga magulang ko.”

Nevertheless, here’s a lesson and reflection from an experience I had with a pamangkin, the son of my cousin Kookie and his wife Ylisah.

I have a pamangkin named Keith. He’s a very active and cute kid, , chubby, long curly hair, around 5 years old (oops, sorry, don’t know exactly!).

One time they visited us at Baguio. During dinner, we had some ulam, let’s say it was lumpiang shanghai. Keith says out loud “Lumpiang Shanghai is my favorite.” After dinner, we decided to roast some hotdogs. He goes saying: “Hotodog is my favorite.” Then his mom explains to us that lahat daw ng gusto niyang kainin at the moment, that what he calls his favorite.

I remember when I was a kid, I referred to tortang talong as my favorite ulam. I also remember that misua was also a favorite. I remember also making a decision that “Dennis” was one of my favorite names.

So, what’s with this word “favorite”. I have an impression that the word “favorite” is something used more often by kids. I feel that it’s easy to pick a “favorite” when your experience of things is limited to a few. Example, it’s easy to identify a favorite place when you’re a kid who has gone to just a few places in his life, right? It’s more of a challenge when you’re an adult and asked to identify a favorite place when you’ve gone to hundreds of places.

It’s easier to choose a favorite when there are just a few choices.

I also feel there are two other reasons adults use the word “favorite” less often: Being very open to more possibilities, or being very closed to just a few.

I feel I don’t choose a favorite restaurant because there are just sooo many restaurants out there, I’m actually very open to trying out as many of them as I can.

On the other hand, I often dine at a nearby Inasal resto. And probably 8 out of 10 times, I have a usual order: dalawang baticolon, isang plain rice. Is it my “favorite”? Hindi ko na alam! hahaha! Maybe it is, although I want to believe that it isn’t.

What’s the point of all this? I don’t know! hahahaha! kailangan ba may point? :D

I just found it refreshing and pleasant hearing from Keith, my 5-year old pamangkin, how he is able to shift from one favorite to another. Perhaps that’s something that I can do too. Wouldn’t it be fun just having a whole lot of favorites? If today my favorite is “cookies and cream”, does that in any way prohibit me from making “mango chocnut” my new favorite tomorrow?

No limits. Want to change your favorite? Go ahead! It will be refreshing! Get away from the usual, change something today!

Edwin “Ka Edong” Soriano
www.edwinsoriano.com

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