Happy Valentine's Day

The following are not my words. They were written by a long-time friend who originally posted it on Facebook. I'm reposting it here with permission. To protect my friend's privacy, I have also intentionally omitted the credit.

The original text was written in Taglish and I've taken the liberty to translate it— hoping I gave it justice.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. I rarely post here. But with everything that's been happening in the world, in the Philippines, in my surroundings, I've deceided to write to keep my sanity.

I was triggered by what Robin Padilla said (oh, sorry, SENATOR Robin Padilla) about the younger generation. He said (translated), "Kids today, sad to say... please excuse me, you are weak... in our day, the word 'depression' was not a thing."

Robin is right. The only kind of depression we knew was Tropical Depression. But fuck that. No kind of tropical depression comes close to the darkness that a person who can't even get out of bed feels. In our day, the only "trigger" were those on Robin's guns when he was jalied for Illegal Possession of Firearms in 1992.

When we were young, the only "mental health check" we got was called "maboteng usapan" — a drinking session, as the Eheads put it in Pare Ko. There were no formal mental health checks. But that doesn't mean that we were never wounded.

It's only now that young people are being very vocal. And the truth is, they are braver than us in accepting that they can no longer take it.

They can no longer take it because, aside from their 8-5 job, they have to have a side hustle— only to see how their taxes are being funnelled into flood control projects. They can no longer take it because they're being forced to stay with their parents as they cannot afford to get their own property due to soaring prices. They can no longer take it because they can't even find work— competing with workers from abroad, from India, whose asking salary is but half of what they really need. They can no longer take it because they know they will have to sacrifice a lot to get a college degree, only to apply for jobs that AI is already replacing.

They can no longer take it because as their numbers increase, they get fewer and fewer opportunities.

But in spite of that heavy burden, these young people still try to get out of bed in the morning.

And we, the older generation? It's never our job to judge them. We are not here to say, "when we were your age, we handled it."

What we're really here to say is, "getting tired isn't wrong."

You don't have to be strong every friggin' minute of every figgin' the day.

So, to my child who has been diagnosed with clinical depression, to my nieces and nephews who have neurodivergence: don't mind Robin Padilla. He's not a real action star. We, your parents, are the real action stars.

We will even take a bullet for you!