when i grow up..

remember when you were still little (when you still peed in bed and cried whenever you don’t like the food on the table), whenever there’s a visitor or a huge gathering in your place, there someone bound to ask you this mythical question: “what would you like to be when you grow up?”. then the world stops spinning and everyone holds their breath to hear your answer, to see if you’re someone they can be proud of or someone with so little ambition they’d brainwash you to change your mind. they’d expect grand answers like “i wanna be a lawyer!” or “i want to be the President!’ or better yet, something like “i wanna be like dad when i grow up!”.

  Vader: a Sith Lord is a good profession Luke. they offer health benefits, plus you get to wear cool uniforms. now give me your application, My Son!

Luke: Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!!

i don’t know what your answers were, but ever since i was little i wanted to be 2 things when i grow up. be a teacher and a rockstar. the former kinda made my parents proud, because teaching is a noble job, but i never actually answered the latter, out of fear that it would be met with scorn and prejudice. for some reason, the Filipino culture never equated being-able-to-do-the-things-you-like with success. majority of us, see an accomplished man as one wtih his pockets full of cash. especially with the fact that early generations thought rockstars are degenerate-drug-addicts-who-worshipped-satan. so i never got to tell them i’d love to be a rock god, lest suffer crucifixion in the hands of my catholic relatives.

point is, no one equated being a rockstar with achieving anything academically. well, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to the magnificent people who begged to disagree:

  Rivers Cuomo [singer, guitarist: Weezer] - this guy earned his English Degree from no less than, Harvard University. i guess his nerdy glasses wasn’t all for show.

Dexter Holland [singer, guitarist: The Offspring] - that guy on the left has more brains than your boss (or professor, or you), seriously. this guy graduated valedictorian in High School and scored a Bachelor’s in Biology, and a Master’s in Molecular Biology from USC (Univ. of Souther California). he was on his way to getting his Ph.D. but had to suspend it so he can rock the living daylights out of all of us with The Offspring.

Tom Morello [lead guitarist: Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave] - Tom Morello is one of my guitar heroes. not to mention listening to RATM and Audioslave blows my mind like crazy. on top of the insane God-given guitar skills, he was also blessed with intellect which earned him a Political Science degree, also from Harvard. Soul Power!

Brian May [lead guitarist: Queen] - who says you can’t study physics while rocking the shit out of the entire world? then you obviously, you don’t know this guy. Brian May has degrees in Mathematics and Physics, and has a Ph.D. in Astrophysics with his thesis entitled “A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud.” ya got that?! that’s fucking Astrophyisics baby! (well.. that explains the Isaac Newton-hairstyle then)

so what have we learned today?

that God is a an unfair, unpredictable, and a kick-ass giver of talents, and He gave us rock and roll..