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AREN'T THEY LOVELY? << back l page 2
Of course, all work and no play makes Pam a dull girl, so despite a busy schedule, Pam finds time to hang out with her friends, read books and watch movies. “Last Thursday, I watched ‘The Graduate’. Galing! Galing! It’s something else! It’s different,” she talks excitedly. “It’s a 1960’s film…It’s interesting…Dustin Hoffman…He had this affair with this married woman…galing!” “Last book I read was by Aileen Chai, Drinking Fire, Eating Water. Galing,” Pam shares. “It’s about the history of the Philippines.” She pauses. “I sounds cheesy, but it’s actually intertwined with a lot of…soap-opera-like stories.” And to relax, Pam listens to “Chill-out stuff. Anything from Café del Mar, Chickane…ambiant sounds. Kasi, hectic schedule ko. Siyempre gusto ko, relaxing.” She also tries to find time to write on a journal her sister gave her last Christmas, the thing she considers as her most treasured item. “It’s been …a record of, like everything that happened to me past year…Most of my thought are there…”
Aside from her passion for the arts and for performing, Pam is also very passionate about eating. “I love to eat…I eat with a passion. Sobrang takaw ko,” she says, giggling. Her refrigerator contains junk food and breakfast food, “Kasi yun yung pinakamadaling lutuin, diba?” Well, I guess if you have her figure, you could afford to do that.
Single and unattached, Pam has, since becoming one of Manila’s Five Loveliest, been asked out with the (funniest? lamest?) pick up line. “Manila’s Five loveliest, ha? So when will I take you out to dinner?” Well, if you’re “Someone who’s really malambing…and someone who has manners and can carry himself well” you might have a chance with Pam. But guys who are unhygienic? Forget it. After all, it’s clean-looking guys that will make her head turn.
Individualistic and open-minded, it’s easy to like Pam for who she is. I mean, who could resist a girl with beauty, brains, talent and a heart?
Marie Camille Therese “Tracy” A. Abad
If you her a loud alto voice starting or ending almost every sentence with the word “Dude!” chances are, Tracy’s not too far away. It’s hard not to notice Tracy. Standing at 5’7½”, it is not only her height, nor her delicate features coupled with her confident demeanor that would make Tracy stand out from any crowd. This 19-year-old’s energy, which can’t be compared to anything else, is truly arresting and contagious. And it’s a good thing that she has an incredible amount of positive energy to give out, as she sees her being one of Manila’s Five Loveliest as “an opportunity for us to be more responsible citizens…to be able to help people who are less fortunate, like in charity, and also at the same time, inspire others to do the same.”
Though only in her sophomore year in Assumption College, Tracy already has a couple of long-term goals for the future. One is that she has her eyes set on taking up masters classes after she graduates from Communications Management, her present course. Looking far ahead into the future, she wants to take up fashion design in, where else, but the very capital of fashion itself. “I wanna go to the Fashion Institute in Paris. I heard it’s nice,” she gushes excitedly, her eyes twinkling. “I’ve been searching, e-mailing, surfing the net for info. There’s one in L.A. which is good. If ever I don’t get in Paris, L.A. nalang.” And just to further prove that she’s truly passionate about it, she shares her sentiments about fashion. “Fashion is art. It’s everything! Fashion is from what you wear, how you act and things, how you see things…it’s what you are. I mean, it’s part of being human,” she says with a dreamy look in her eyes. But Tracy’s inclination towards education doesn’t stop there just yet. True to the mission of Love 14 Foundation’s Manila’s Five Loveliest to provide education and inspire others to pursue it, aside from learning for herself, another one of Tracy’s long-term goals is to put up her own school. “I wanna have a school…like a personality-development school…to build confidence.”
Despite her busy schedule, Tracy still manages to find time for herself and includes reading among those that help her unwind. The last book she read, The Notebook is a book that Tracy obviously feels passionate about. “It’s so nice,” she shares. “My friend gave it to me when I was gonna go to the States. In the plane, I was reading it, and I couldn’t put the book down! Literally! It’s so nice! You have to read it, I swear!” She stops for a moment then goes on. “It’s just so nice, it’s just so kilig…You have to read it!” Tracy is also into sports and in fact, used to be a member of her school’s varsity volleyball team. She also listens to alternative and rock music and includes Goo Goo Dolls, John Mayer, Duncan Shiek, Vertical Horizons, Incubus and Matchbox 20 among her list of favorite artists.
Outgoing and approachable, Tracy attests that she’s easy to get along with. “I’m outgoing and I’m approachable.” When asked what people would be surprised to know about her, she replies, “That I’m not mataray. I admit there are times when I look mataray, but I’m not, totally…I just look mataray.” And if you think that’s surprising, get this: when asked what’s in her fridge, Tracy pauses dramatically and says, “Okay. In my fridge? You won’t believe it, but McDonald’s Ketchup. I mean, yeah! I can’t live without McDonald’s Ketchup!” Dude, I’m serious! Because…I don’t like the taste of other ketchup!”
Definitely far from being superficial, Tracy attests that when it comes to guys, it’s what’s inside that counts. “I’m not really picky…well, I am picky, but more of the inside. If he’s conceited, forget it. If he’s masungit all the time, forget it. You know, I want him to get me. You know, like, we have the same vibe, we have laugh a lot, we get along. That’s it. Nothing with looks.” Then after about two seconds, she adds, “Except if he’s taller than me. He has to be taller than me.” And just the same, Tracy wants to be loved for “…being who I am. Being kalog, though I look mataray,” she says, her nose twitching. Continuing on what she wants people to like about her, she goes on. “…Having corny jokes…kasi, dude, it’s so hard to find guys who like your corny jokes…eh corny ako, sometimes. So I think they have to accept that…that I’m corny. And…yeah, that’s it. They just have to accept who I am. I’m okay with myself,” she says. “What you see in me, that’s who I am.”
Maria Isabel Dominique “Izzy” F. Lagdameo, 17
Maria Isabelle Dominique Lagdameo, at 17, is considered as the “baby” of the group. Appearing to be soft-spoken at first glance, she says that some people misinterpret her being timid as that of snobbishness. But a snob is one thing she’s not, for she wouldn’t be one of Manila’s Five Loveliest if she is one. A girl with a big heart, for Izzy, being part of the foundation has “…helped give me a view on how we can help, just by simple things in life.” She continues, “I see it as an opportunity to be able to…make a difference.” But don’t let those looks get to you too much for aside from having a pretty face, Izzy also attests to having a creative side. A senior at Poveda Learning Center, Izzy is a budding artist, who intends to major in English or artistry in college and plans to study abroad. She has her heart set on going to Vassar College, the school where Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis graduated. Bouncy, bubbly and hyperactive, Izzy includes playing tennis, soccer and going to the gym in her long list of hobbies. And to match her personality, she listens to hip-hop and R & B music, with Jamiroquai and Kylie Minogue as some of her favorite artists. But of course, we can’t all be hyperactive all the time, so to recahrge, Izzy makes it a point to spend one hour on her own. “I have an hour to myself just to lie down and relax because school is stressful,” she explains. “So, I just have that one hour of quiet time alone…basically every night.”
A very sentimental person, Izzy treasures photographs the most. “I love photographs. I have like, how many scrapbooks because I love keeping memories and everything. I take pictures a lot.” Among those that she loves are also those lychee jellies which could easily be found in her fridge, since she’s trying not to be too health-food conscious.
When asked what inspires her to do what she does, Izzy took some time to think then answered carefully. “Well, there’s this question before that someone asked me in this interview, ‘who’s your hero?’ and my hero’s my mom,” she said with a smile. “Because I’m amazed at how my mom has managed to keep a healthy lifestyle. She has seven children, I mean, she’s running her own business, she just started a new one and that is inspiring to me. And I hope one day to become like her so she’s sort of like my driving force because I wanna be just like my mom.”
Happily single for 17 years and still unattached, Izzy likes guys who are intelligent. “But he still has (to have) this wit and intelligence. They go together for me. You can’t have wit and not have intelligence, because if it’s all just intelligence, what a boring conversation that would be,” she explains. “And my ideal guy has to be a gentleman. That’s a big thing for me. And he has to be like, a family man. Because, like, I think my family, the moment I have a boyfriend they’ll be like, ‘Okay. Make sure you introduce him to us and stuff’ I’m like, okay. He has to cope with that.” Whew! But to guys out there, while that may seem like a lot, Izzy’s all worth it, because aside from what meets the eye, she has an amazing personality and an incredibly happy disposition that anyone would fall in love with. And this is precisely what she wants people to love her for. “That’s the main thing for me. Because when we’re all old and gray, we’re not gonna look the same as we were when we were teenagers. So, yeah, that’s a big thing (personality) for me.”
© Valerie V. Mayuga, 2005
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all the time,” she
explains. “Parang, minsan you have a job, and everything’s just so
hassle, pero once it’s done with, you just want to repeat it all over
again.”