What We Wait For

By Ruel S. De Vera, Associate Editor Sunday Inquirer Magazine ANTICIPATION truly is half of satisfaction. Surprises are powerful but also elusive. It's when we spend day after day looking out the window waiting for something, anything, in particular, that the little fragments of satisfaction are accumulated. Disappointment waits in the wings, of course, but that danger is part of the lure. Here then are the eight things I look forward to the most every year: 1) The Christmas season: It sounds cornball and can even be nerve-wracking as the activity and stress levels rise, but nothing comes close to the anticipation awaiting Christmas. From the shopping to the colors to the temperature, Christmas is the coolest occasion of all. 2) Last day of school: It is so primal for Filipinos to long for summer, but summer is most important because it heralds the end of the school year. Two semesters can stretch very long indeed, so when that final bell goes off, it is a cathartic sound. 3) The start of college basketball season: July was a ho-hum month when I was younger, but once college began, July was accompanied by the syncopated cheers, the synchronized drumming, the shrill whistles and the slide of sneakers against parquet. UAAP or NCAA: July is a month of welcome madness. 4) The Oscars telecast: Yes, the show's too long. Yes, the gazillion commercials can be irksome. But the potent mix of movies (hopefully good) and good hosts (hopefully Billy Crystal) makes this a cinematic guilty pleasure by itself. 5) Formula One starts: March is a month that goes by so fast, just like the machines that inhabit the grids of Formula 1. The engines are started, the drivers get set and everything is go, go, go! At least until October. Luckily that's when… 6) The NBA season kicks off: The best basketball in the world. Every day. The Celtics. The Pistons. The Warriors. The Cavs. The Suns. The Wizards… and whoever the Sonics are going to turn into. Hoop heaven. 7) The Manila International Bookfair: Wallets get lighter and book bags get heavier. For the Filipino bibliophile, the World Trade Center becomes the must-visit destination for the weeklong exhibition of book lust. 8 ) November 3: I don't know about you, but the intricate craziness that builds around cemeteries on Nov. 1 and 2 is truly not of this world. I want to remain solemn about the occasion and remember lost loved ones, but it's kind of hard when it takes two hours to get to the memorial park and people are trying to sell you cold pizza. November 3 sees the world go back to normal. See 11 new talents to watch out for in 2008 in the August 3 issue of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine.