Finding Hope

Dear Journal, I am new here in Silliman and I am still adjusting to the environment. This school has such a long history and it shares its fair share of memories with the acacia trees that populate the entire campus. It’s still June and not long before August starts, I have already heard about this two-week long celebration where you get to climb on a wall, touch a snake, pet a goat or even get married. I took the opportunity to research this talked about Silliman event as I was interviewing some of my upper-class men in my college. They say Hibalag is where you meet a love that is temporary and doesn’t transcend. It is an old friend that you only get to meet occasionally but you cherish deeply. Our teachers would narrate how they built their own booths in the early days of the booth fest and how it has been a yearly tradition. Some of my relatives who also studied here recalled so much memories during Founders Week. They described Hibalag as if it was something they hold dearly. M...

  “Closing time... you don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here... Closing time, time for you to go back to the places you will be from... This room won't be open 'til your brothers or you sisters come. So gather up your jackets, and move it to the exits. I hope you have found a friend. Closing time... Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.” I may be a few months late by now but that doesn’t matter anyway. There’s something special about this group that I have handled together with Kirsten, Thea and Nikka. Their commitment, enthusiasm, and passion gave us the spark we needed throughout our preparation for the Hibalag Booth Festival. These are the bright minds behind the curtains of the festivity and they deserve to be acknowledged not for fame nor prominence but because of the sweat that came after the hard work, the tears that dropped down after a breakdown, and the endless anxieties and sleepless nights that we have experienced throughout the ...