Around four this morning, I received an email from an editor of PhilStar, the internet site of the Philippine Star, one of the leading national newspapers in the Philippines. Here's Mr. Dino Maragay's message:
Congratulations! Your story has been chosen for publication in our website. Here is the link to your story:
http://www.philstar.com/community/Article201005.aspx?articleId=642058&publicationSubCategoryId=503
Meantime, please wait for our staff's email on how to claim your contributor's fee. Thanks a lot for joining and please continue visiting philstar.com.
Cheers,
Dino
Dino was referring to PhilStar's writing contest that I didn't know about till just the other night. Then, the contest, which opened on December 1, 2009, was going to end in nine days. I thought I would still give it a try.
I wrote When the Devil Talked Back that same night. The following day, I submitted it online, along with the required signed entry form and photocopies of my passport and Texas I.D. Just about twelve hours later, I received the message above.
When the Devil Talked Back is about a traumatic teaching experience of mine in the spring of 1996. I was then an 8th grade mathematics teacher in another school district. Read it here. Don't skip the readers' comments at the end of the article. They're quite interesting.
Nice: in America, we should fight corruption. Thanks, Rey, for being a true American.
ReplyDeleteIt's very nice of you to say that. Thanks, George. So when are you coming down here in the Valley? Let's go get some pork barbecue at Sinugba in McAllen.
ReplyDeleteMr Jope, that's excellent work. I can relate to that. It was around March 2007. A group of students who failed their first defense was supposed to show up to defend their revised work. To my surprise, only 3 of the 4 showed up. When I asked why there's only 3 of them, one of them said that this other group member (a rich, powerful freeloader) had to attend a job interview. Needless to say, I gave her a failing mark. Glad to see her priorities.
ReplyDeleteSo you did the right thing!
Hi, Wils! Thank you for your kind words. You also did the right thing! More power to you and God bless you.
ReplyDeleteHi Mr Rey. I am inspired by your article. I had almost the same experience. I know I did the right thing. However, I later learned that the "school registrar" changed that failing grade to a passing grade. That experience left me totally frustrated as, during my highschool days, my 98 score was correction-fluid with 78! Thank you for people like you!
ReplyDeleteHi, Rhoen! Thanks for the compliments and for sharing your story. We will always do the right thing and nothing is going to stop us from doing so. God bless you and your family.
ReplyDelete