The Home Straight

It's been a long time since I've posted an entry in this blog. Longer still is the time since I left the Seminary, returning home for my eagerly awaited gap-year...fifteen months to be exact! Still, as I type these words, the clock ticks onwards, every minute that passes bringing me closer to the end of today and the beginning of tomorrow, and it is from the notion of what lies ahead of me from tomorrow onwards that I'm getting my fair share of angst.

Tomorrow I leave home once again to join the other seminarians at the Seminary for another batch of three years, at the end of which time (totalling seven years) I will (God-willing) be deemed worthy of the ordination to the priesthood. Hence, from tomo onwards I restart my journey of studies and community-living-and-prayer which had been put on hold such that I could go through the "Formation with a difference" my fourth year (the afore-mentioned gap-year) provided me with. You may wonder why I'm making such fuss on the fact that I'm going back, given that I've already spent the three years prior to the break at the Seminary....it's not that I've never been therer before...how big a deal can resuming what's been put on hold be?

Don't get me wrong...I'm really expectant as to what life at the Seminary, particularly as regards following wholeheartedly whatever Jesus will be putting on my heart, has to offer me this time around:) The thing is I go back a changed person, maturer and wiser if you will. The old Rene' which the Seminary walls have seen storming in rage after some disappointment or quarrel, or making unexpected bursts of enthusiastic laughter following some achievement and cause of satisfaction has to a certain degree moved on to become a deeper young man. This is not to say that I have lost my "cool" or traded my "fun-factor" for a more somber demeanour...nothing of the sort (I hope :p). However, the months I've spent helping out in Ethiopia, tending to the wounded, singing lengthy songs in a language I do not understand to kids and distributing food to the homeless along with the close association with the sisters of Mother Teresa (God bless them!) this entailed, as well as the hundreds of hours of guidance work to Malta's kids and youth on bullying, drug and substance abuse and physical abuse, not to mention my role within the parameters of my family...the family man hehe...have given me an all-too-new perspective of life. (pic>>>the home economics pupils preparing non-alcoholic cocktails for their peers at Guzeppi Despott, Verdala, Boys' JL, during a week of activities themed "Il-Hajja Bis-Sens" organised by a colleague of mine, myself and a PSD teacher at the school as part of the substance abuse prevention programme...faces blurred for data protection purposes. if only i could use that excuse to blur, what was then, my ever fatter stomach :p)

I don't like listening to rants, more so when it's I doing the diatribing, so I'll cut to the chase...what I have to do now is find an opening...an opportunity by way of which I'll be able to share all that I have been blessed with, learned and acquired in the past months. In so doing, the new me'll gradually return to the folds of the institution with greater ease.

Hehe...sounds easy, doesn't it? Think I'll succeed? Well...of course...(at least I hope so LOL)...I can't give up now I'm on the home straight...

(This piece is dedicated to my fellow friends who were part of my seminary year and somewhat like family to me, who, for some reason or another, shall not be resuming the seminary experience, but shall seek their life's path in other ventures. I love you guys...Thanks for everything. Godspeed!)

A Walk To Remember

I'm told that the similarly titled movie is one of the greats in the teen genre, although I have never really bothered to watch it as yet. However my mind does not go back to Mandy Moore's 2002 flick as I sit in front of my screen putting nouns and verbs together to form basic sentences. Rather it is to the insanely long walk that I literally had yesterday, from Qormi all the way to Mtarfa and back, this being the outcome of what started out as a short stroll between two friends...a clear example of how things tend to get out of hand (for better or worse) when I'm around.

I can't say that I didn't enjoy myself...walking has for a long time been one of my favourite pass-times. Moreover, once at our levelled destination, we met up with some other friends and their puppies, spending the best part of two hours cuddling them and fooling around. Even the return march was not so bad, hyped up as it was by the fact that my companion was way past his curfew, with a father on the other side of his mobile phone sending "Ejja d-dar issa" messages at intervals. Still the event would've become even sweeter had my scales tipped a lesser mark this morning than the 74Kg (which is an improvement in itself, given that until last July it used to mark 82Kg) to which I've got used to now. A case of a miss being as good as a mile?

Weekend Love (title borrowed from a SpiceGirls song LOL)

The weekend's just passed and as I warm up for the hustle and bustle that jam-packs my upcoming week (talk about something new...NOT :p), I look back at the past two days with much glee, these giving me a headstart to the upside of life that, for some time, had kind of taken a back burner. I've spent the best part of both Saturday and Sunday at home, with my family, this serving me well for relationship purposes...meaning that I got to rest without having the guiltfeeling of procrastinating some other important stuff, as, what's more important than family? Thankfully, they were quiet days, with barely any goings-on, so much so that I can only think of a single instance when I left the household on Saturday and just three, almost two, on Sunday.

In perfect "Family Man" fashion (hehehe) I took mum, my bro and my aunt (Sr Bernadette, whom some of you may know as the Headteacher of St Joseph Blata's Junior Section...yep, we're related...moreover she's my Godmother, many, including half my family, noting that I take a lot after her...no comment about that), who spends the weekends over at our place, out on Sat evening, driving off to "Saqajja", outskirts of Rabat/Imdina, where we strolled in the surrounding gardens until sundown. Initially my bro didn't feel like joining us and kept bickering about it practically all the way there, only to change his position re the outing once arrived. The magic opinion-changer? A scrumptious ice-cream (for which I could only yearn, being on strict sugar-carb.s free diet at the mo). Driving my family back home once we'd had enough of Rabat, I sped to Bugibba where I was scheduled to meet a friend for a "business meeting" (the subject of which is my business :D), getting there more than three-quarters of an hour late. The guy was very understanding, as I knew he would be, having first hand experience of what having just the right amount of things on your plate as to allow you to handle them without spilling himself. That over, I was expected at Rabat again for a thoughts-sharing session, only this time it was I who was listened to by my warmhearted mentor, something for which I was well overdue...heqq, listeners (heqqhimm, moi ;p) need to be listened to too. I returned home way past midnight but feeling more energised than ever.

I woke up on Sunday in time for 8am mass, this being followed by chats with several young people on the parvis. My favourite Sunday morning activity came next...going through the paper over and over again (I ritually read the titles on all the pages, including mags and classifieds, first then return to the articles that interest me. Finally I revise the whole publication again in case I would've missed something. I know it sounds awfully pathetic, to say the least, but I cannot think of a better way to spend a snail-paced Sunday morning :p) until I've exhausted my amusement with it completely. Unlike my usual habits, yesterday I found myself indulging in a siesta...quite an extended one in fact that saw me rising from it at 6:30pm or so, just in time to get a long warm bath and dress up...the evening held an event that I didn't want to miss: a newly-ordained priests' celebrations. I was accompanied there by my bro and mum again-they don't usually tail along to such parties, but, when my mum decided such, I was only too happy, knowing that, as she did, she would enjoy herself. This particular repo was more pleasant than some others as the list of invitees included people from Birzebbuga, a parish where I've served in during my first year as Seminarian back in 2005, giving me the opportunity to have a good laugh with them and rekindle "old" friendships.

yeah...I've had a good time indeed...just my kind of weekend :p