TO THOSE who are really interested, the new decade starts January 1 next year.
Don’t argue with me.
I study these things.
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I wanted some real bragging rights for all sorts of things this year 2020.
So, I did the polar bear plunge in Canada on New Year’s Day.
(See my video on Facebook and Instagram.)
It was the 100thanniversary of the Vancouver Polar Bear Swim.
I couldn’t help myself.
How often does something get a centenary?
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Remember when I won the Philippine Centennial Literary Prize for screenplay in 1998?
West Visayan writers went crazy.
Because I won, and they didn’t.
And in my youthful arrogance, I dismissed all that tried to taint my winning reputation by saying—
“Well, I guess the losers can wait another hundred years to match my bragging rights as a ‘Centennial Writer of the Philippines’.”
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I have been gossiped.
I have been shunned.
I have been ganged upon by envious West Visayan writers.
I have been politically betrayed, and effectively excluded in the 2018 CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art for being the Ilonggo biggest winner at the Philippine Centennial Literary Prize.
But I like bragging rights like that.
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So, here it goes again with bragging rights.
I can’t swim, so competitive swimming was out of the question.
The challenge for me was simply to plunge into the icy cold water of the English Bay in Vancouver.
And I did it!
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I harassed someone to take a video because pictures just wouldn’t do it anymore.
The video was also posted on social media because if it’s not on Facebook or Instagram, how do you know that it really happened?
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Anyway, it got tons of ‘likes’ and ‘wows’ because I looked like a shivering dick.
I wanted to say a ‘drenched chick’, but I want to start this year right.
Anyway, this is what I posted:
First 2020 challenge. The historic 100thanniversary of the Vancouver Polar Bear Challenge. Dare everything. Try everything at least once. Live the life. Say Yes to everything. Regret nothing.
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In case you missed the audio, here’s what I said in the video:
“Hi, this is Peter Solis Nery. It’s New Year’s Day, January 1, 2020, and this is the 100thyear of the Vancouver Polar Bear Swim. Of course, I’m not swimming. I’m going to jump in that icy cold water. So, this is for all Filipinos who did not do it this year.”
(Followed by the plunge to the howling and cheering of the crowd!)
“I did it! So, that’s my first 2020 challenge. And of course, the challenge is to dare, and do things, discover the world in 2020. I love you! Thank you!”
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The second video for the year from me was my crazy dancing at some Vancouver Filipino community function.
Everybody was doing a line dance, the steps of which I was ignorant.
So my Facebook post said:
“Something I will always bring to the new decade:
Dancing to my own rhythm!
I’m not born to line dance, or do popular choreography.
I have no problem going against the rest of the crowd.
And I have so much fun every time.” (500tinaga@gmail.com/PN)
