VOICES— they make up what we hear when words are being said. It varies on pitches, tones, and even raspyness or not so. Each person is gifted with a unique voice that people around them will grow to know that it’s theirs and theirs alone.
It was Homecoming like any other. With the sun pouring down my face, I recorded bits of my school’s pep rally to show my friends at the other side of the world. And that I did. I could not make out much of what they were saying because their voices were new to me and they were not around me that I had not adjusted my brain to the words and lingo they usually say. I was to stay longer in school to raise school spirit but I did not. I went home and I started making a video, for someone’s birthday. and that I did.
I noticed how my voice is different when I speak in english, and when I speak in Spanish, and when I speak Tagalog. But it’s just the way it is. Fast forward to the night I was to virtually attend her birthday party, I fell asleep. As it was 3 am in Los Angeles, it was 6 pm in Manila. With that big of a time difference, I dozed off because I waited for the call until 2 am. I was awake for almost 22 hours which I haven’t done before and it was just giving me a massive headache.
At 3:45, my alarm rang, and I haven’t gotten the call that will be my cue to stand up and look pretty because we’re going to start a video call
At 3:49, they called but was unnoticed. I hadn’t woke up.
At 6:45, I finally woke up. I missed about six calls and I started to call them.
Nothing would work because of the low signal, but I tried. I did not want to disappoint people I promised I would be there for. And I did not disappoint them.
We finally found something that actually works in our case. A normal phone call. without faces, just the old school voice call. I am used to seeing their faces whenever I talk to them. It has been that way for over a year now. But today was the exception.
The phone was being passed around to people, and they would ask me if I know who they are based on their voices. It has been a year and a few months since I actually saw their faces and actually spoken to them. But I would just close my eyes, listen to them talk..and a face would pop up reminding me who is talking.
I do not think I had gotten one person wrong. not that I know of anyway. And it just sticks with you; their voices. It’s a part of who they are and you have to live with it. So whenever you may be, the sense of audition or sense of hearing is one of the best senses (next to seeing) you could depend on. You could know how they are just by hearing them speak.
And they asked me to speak infront of an audience I have never seen before. I have not been to the place where they were but I spoke in my imaginary stage with my imaginary audience. I saw the imaginary audience but most of all, I heard them laugh. It was the laugh that I grew to love whenever I am in class and someone said a joke that makes everyone crack up.
They do not know how much I miss them. They do not know how much I have cried over the months when I would feel lonely. But today, it went away. Gone for good I hope. Because today, is the day where I got to hear the voices that are embedded in my head.
ITS THE VOICES I YEARN TO HEAR EVERY SINGLE DAY OF THE YEAR AND FINALLY, I HEARD IT ONCE AGAIN.
