emo-ing in intramuros

so thanks to two of my officemates, emo has become my word of the year
before, i just used it to describe the music of dashboard confessional, but now, every dramatic photo, every emotional song, every sentimental statement seems to have the word attached to it

but that's not the point, im just rambling here

so there we were in intramuros on a sunday afternoon, and all we could think about was taking as many emo pictures as we could, without neglecting the fact that we came there to take pictures of intramuros, the place, for an actual project

i've been a regular intramuros goer for the past four or so years since our church and fullcup is there. and whenever i feel sad or tense, one of the ways i unwind is to walk the walls alone. i may get sunburnt and my feet have calluses,but it's worth it just to walk it out. but what i've never had is a proper "photo shoot" in a place that is one of the most photograph-able places in manila. so i took advantage of this time to take as many artistic and dramatic photos as i can

but somwhere along the way, i began to experience something deeper. i began to rediscover the rich spirit of history that permeates the place. there wasnt any tour guide talking about what happened here in 1861 or that Rizal took his final steps in this place, etc etc. but you can feel it everytime you touched a piece of the wall. it transcended the heat, the thirst and the excitement that i felt as we went around the walls. these walls were built with the sweat and blood of our forefathers. in these streets, voices silently cried out for freedom. this place was witness to the birth of a new breed of Filipino and the slow agonizing death of the old one

so yes, the afternoon turned out to be emo, but in a far different way than i expected it to be

and so with my Intramuros project about to start soon, it's very apt that i am now inclined to dig deeper into this new-found interest that i have, and maybe along the way, regain the pride in who i really am, which got lost somwhere between here and disillusionment city