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by Philipina A. Marcelo
I've been rearranging and redecorating my bedroom... just to give some semblance of "newness" to it in keeping with my "a new life of celebration" agenda. While sorting old photos, I found this from more than 50 years ago...
It's a photo of my late mother's (second from right) from her college days. I think this was from her induction to her College's Honors Society. She was, I gathered, a very good student... and she dreamt about Fulbright scholarship then. But, of course, that dream never came to fruition because she had us - her six kids - instead, at a young age. And then she passed away at 48 years.
It was her dream - a beautiful dream... and I lived it. It hardly seemed fair. While I've always worked very hard and with real passion, and enjoyed my work tremendously as well, I never planned for Fulbright nor did I ever delude myself into believing that I'd ever deserve it - it arrived like an unexpected gift, and a truly incredible and exhilarating one at that. Had she lived to see my Fulbright stint, I'm sure my mother would have been very happy for me... as if her own dream had been fulfilled. :)
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