I haven't had the mind to write anything since I've arrived in Butuan. It's the unusual affliction I contract whenever I am home - the desire to do and think about nothing. At least, for the time being. I needed the rest. However, it is Sunday, I have stopped by this poorly-ventilated internet café from church in the hopes of stirring my somewhat sluggish mind into writing something because - well, I've had enough television for four days. I'm not stressed nor worried about anything. It's as if all my diffculties have vanished, life had suddenly calmed down after a tempestous period of wearisome review classes, of distressing Board examinations, of desolate boarding house life, and of incessant thoughts about going home. That is all over with now, and I have come home, and I am happy, and I seem to have lost the will to write because simply - there is nothing to write about at the present.

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I have not the desire to retrospect on what transpired during the days of the examinations (June 11th and 12th), except that it was extremely tedious, considering the fact that my assigned room was in the 8th floor of a damnable building without a lift. But it was, I admit, a good way to shake off the drowsiness one feels after each set of a hundred questions. That proceeded on for two days. On the second and final day, after having done with the last set, the trip from the examination center back to the boarding house was most vexing. It took the jeepney at least an hour and a half, in sweltering afternoon sun and through thick of the worst traffic in Cebu, to reach our destination. It was a tiresome day, as I've said, and I was exhausted from physical and mental exertion when I staggered into my room and unto my bed. But the thought of finally going home gave me an unusual surge of energy that kept the desire to sleep at bay and pushed me to finish packing up my things. After dinner, I collapsed on my bed and didn't wake up until ten in the morning the next day.

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I wasn't concerned about travelling alone, but it was rather comforting that my friend, who was reviewing for the CGFNS exams, decided to accompany me after realizing the futility of attending review classes without a single instructor. Sitting on top of a bunk bed, I hid my excitement in trying to read a book that I had purchased with the last of my money which was then reduced to mere twenty clinking coins. As the boat convulsed to life and began the voyage, I looked back at Cebu's lights disappearing into the darkness of the night with a sense of, more than anything else, relief. I hid my book away and marveled at the bright yellow sphere low in the evening horizon, partially hidden by sinister dark clouds, casting its reflection on the waves. My mind lingered on the past, about how all this started, and how I struggled through it and, staring at the glorious full moon, what a perfect sight to end it all with.