By Izah Morales

She’s 57 years old and is blogging for two years now.

“I’m not embarrassed to say my age because it proves that I’m still kicking and blogging,” says Marianita Girlie Villariba, educator, feminist and psychologist at the Education for Life Foundation.

Yes, Villariba is not your ordinary golden-aged woman who is afraid of technology and would rather stick with what is conventional.

“Parang may kulang sa araw ko ‘pag hindi ako nakapag-blog or nakapagbasa ng mga blogs [When I have not blogged for a day or have read others’ blogs, I feel that something’s lacking],” says Villariba.

Blogging has indeed become part of her daily routine aside from reading newspapers and magazines.

Her conversation with a friend who is into the study of babaylan or priestess led her to blogging.

“She asked me about my blogsite. Sabi ko, ano ‘yun? [She asked me about my blogsite. I asked, what’s that?],” Villariba recalls.

Villaraba became interested when she learned that blogs can be a venue of her articles about babaylan.

“I want to blog about babaylan because I want to find out about other women and culture,” she says.

She began writing blogs at blogger.com but then she realized that she doesn’t want to be confined by just writing about babaylan. Hence, she put up two more blogs at Multiply and Wordpress and writes various topics, such as spirituality, sexuality, culture, women and Filipino psychology.

Writing blogs also allowed her to reconnect with friends whom she has not met for a long time. But not only friends communicate with her but also other bloggers who can relate with what she writes.

“I learned to phrase my ideas that it resonates to other bloggers. It makes you part of a community,” shares Villariba.

Though Villariba blogs to express her ideas, she values feedback from her readers because she learns whether she got her message across when someone reacts to her blogs.

Even if she welcomes comments, whether positive or negative, she could not forget when someone posted a pornographic video as comment to her blog.

As an educator, Villariba was used to writing formal articles. But when she became a blogger, she found a way to humanize her stories and go beyond the confines of theories.

“By blogging, I’m still able to organize what I think and feel and make myself clear,” said Villariba.

Who says a golden woman can’t blog?