Living Life

It's honest and real. Think of it as our own local Carrie Bradshaw. Carissa Villacorta gives us a look into living in the city that never sleeps.

Surreality by Carissa Villacorta is a collection of columns Villacorta has written for newspapers like the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Philippine News based in the United States of America where she works and chases after her dreams in New York City.

It is a take on city life from the perspective of a 20-something yuppie trying to work around the hustle and bustle of the city. She tackles important issues that happen around the city yet its generality helps readers to overlook the setting which makes it applicable to any person in any place around the world.

This is not for the intellectuals looking for something that needs to provoke one's thoughts to fully understand its contents. This book is for one's heart.

It is a little look into the soul we seem to forget due to the distractions and banalities in our daily lives. It tries to look past race and gender as it tries to reach out to the beings inside all of us. But this is not told from a serious, preachy nor chastising manner.

The humor rises from thought-provoking and witty words like:

"I'm boring - it's expensive to be exciting."

and

"How has it become easier to tell our friends 'I have a business meeting,' than to tell our co-workers 'I have a Broadway date at eight?' Which pang of guilt the morning after tinges harder?" that gives the perspective of the youth and the kind of thinking of the moment. It brings the age-old issues like human relations, priorities, and following one's dreams into the modern consciousness.

What is more important is that this was told from the perspective of a Filipino living in a foreign country. This is an account of the life of a lot of Filipinos who leave the country in search of greener pastures for themselves and their families.

But Villacorta went abroad not out of necessity. It was out of the desire to go after what she wanted. She wanted to live her life and she tried to share the experience with us through her words.

This meant that she was able to bring herself and the culture she grew up in without being stifled by the demands to be like the Americans and fit in. She remained Filipino and it showed in the way she wrote this book. The importance of her family was among the main topics in the book which we all know is central in the life of Filipinos.

Villacorta purposely stayed away from any political talk. Instead, she focused on the matters mentioned above. She wanted to give her input on the timeless truths and passions that have and should never leave our sights. She ponders on these life mysteries which include its joys, conflicts, and compromises that everyone has been experienced.

She tries to remind us of these important topics in this modern and complicated world in an easy and uncomplicated manner. The no frills kind of writing made it an easy to read in one seating but it also has the ability to make a person reassess their priorities and preoccupations in life. - JOANNA NICOLE BATAC

Photograph Source:
http://oovrag.com